12 dead in Fort Hood shooting spree

[barracuda]

Yeah, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, this reminded me and many commenters of the Hasan Akbar case in '03, though "fragging" usually refers specifically to wasting an unlikeable officer in your unit as opposed to mass murder in a crowded hall. I don't count it out. And the muslim harrassment/anti-war backstory of deployment refusal is off-message enough that it would require a bit of not-so-subtle spinning too, like everything. Gotta weave that narrative into a wearable garment, one way or another. We still haven't really heard a good witness account from the event, and until then it's pretty hard to say. That's one reason the propaganda story feels so shallow at the moment.

[JackRiddler]

No, I understand this isn't a fragging, but like fragging, a form of mutiny. I think that very plausible (also in terms of the timing) and it's roughly what the investigators are now letting on:

http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=9019904

ABC News
Officials: Major Hasan Sought 'War Crimes' Prosecution of U.S. Soldiers
Rebuffed, Accused Fort Hood Shooter Took Extra Target Practice, Closed Bank Safety Deposit Box in Final Days, Investigators Say

By JOSEPH RHEE, MARY-ROSE ABRAHAM, ANNA SCHECTER, and BRIAN ROSS

Nov. 16, 2009 —

Major Nidal Malik Hasan's military superiors repeatedly ignored or rebuffed his efforts to open criminal prosecutions of soldiers he claimed had confessed to "war crimes" during psychiatric counseling, according to investigative reports circulated among federal law enforcement officials.

On Nov. 4, the day after his last attempt to raise the issue, he took extra target practice at Stan's shooting range in nearby Florence, Texas and then closed a safe deposit box he had at a Bank of America branch in Killeen, according to the reports. A bank employee told investigators Hasan appeared nervous and said, "You'll never see me again."

Diane Wagner, Bank of America's senior vice president of media relations, said that her company does not "comment or discuss customer relationships" but is "cooperating fully with law enforcement officials."

Investigators believe Hasan's frustration over the failure of the Army to pursue what he regarded as criminal acts by U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan may have helped to trigger the shootings.

"The Army may not want to admit it, and you may not hear much about it, but it was very big for him," said one of the federal investigators on the task force collecting evidence of the crime.

His last effort to get the attention of military investigators came on Nov. 2, three days before his alleged shooting spree, according to the reports.

Colonel Anthony Febbo at Fort Hood reportedly told investigators he was twice contacted by Hasan, on Nov. 2 and a week earlier in October, about the question of whether he could legally provide information on "war crimes" he had learned in the course of psychiatric counseling he provided soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Col. Febbo told ABC News he could not comment because of the on-going investigation.

His supervisor in the Department of Psychiatry, Captain Naomi Surman, told investigators that Hasan raised similar issues with her in conversations in October, according to documents reviewed by ABC News.

Captain Surman told investigators that Hasan had formally contacted military prosecutors to report patients he was evaluating, according to people briefed on the exchange. She said Hasan signed his e-mails with "Praise Be to Allah." Legal analysts say psychiatrists are strictly bound by the rules of patient confidentiality except in cases where they might become aware of crimes about to be committed.

Alleged Ft. Hood Shooter Unhappy With Military, Co-workers Said

Captain Surman, who was scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan with Hasan on Nov. 2 told investigators that Hasan had both social and academic issues in his medical training. She said that on one occasion, Hasan told her she was an infidel who would be "ripped to shreds" and "burn in hell" because she was not Muslim.

An Army spokesperson contacted by ABC News declined to discuss Hasan's possible motives for the massacre.

"There is an ongoing criminal investigation into the incident at Fort Hood on November 5," said Col. Catherine Abbott. "We cannot speculate as to any potential motive by the alleged suspect."

"This information will come to light as part of the ongoing investigation."

According to fellow military doctors, Hasan made no secret over the last two and a half years about his growing disenchantment with the Army and the American military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Employees at the shooting range where Hasan practiced just two days before the massacre told investigators that Hasan purchased ten separate targets and fired more than 200 rounds with his newly purchased semi-automatic pistol.

After buying the gun in August from a Killeen store called Guns Galore, Hasan later returned to purchase 13 separate ammunition magazines capable of holding up to 30 bullets each.

Store employees told investigators that they became suspicious of Hasan's purchase of so many extra ammunition magazines. The employees said Hasan claimed he needed the extra magazines so he would not have to reload when he fired at the practice range.

Copyright © 2009 ABC News Internet Ventures

[elfismiles]

Fort Hood-Linked Iman Killed

In the wake of recent police ambush incidents and other shootings, which appear to have occurred as copycats of the Fort Hood killings, there is more breaking news today. A bulletin from Reuters reports that "radical Muslim preacher" Anwar al-Awlaki has died in a Yemen airstrike.

More details,

http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2009/ ... illed.html

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

Oh, 'more shooting range practice.'

Tied up with a ribbon.

Sounds like a repeat of the framing up of Lee Harvey Oswald.

[elfismiles]

Fort Hood troops ordered to Afghanistan (video)

By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer Anne Flaherty, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 12 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon has ordered 3,100 troops, mostly based in Fort Hood, Texas, to deploy to Afghanistan as part of President Barack Obama's plan to beef up U.S. forces there.

Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said Tuesday the 4th Combat Aviation Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division should arrive in summer. The 2,600 soldiers assigned to the brigade will be accompanied by about 500 support troops.

Obama is sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan with the expectation that U.S. troops would start leaving by July 2011. About 25,000 troops have been given deployment orders.

Fort Hood was the site of shootings last November that killed 13. An Army psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal Hasan, has been charged in the case.

(This version CORRECTS that Hasan's job was psychiatrist, not psychologist.)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100112/ap_ ... fghanistan

[Pele'sDaughter]

U.S. won't share Ft Hood evidence with Senate: Gates

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (Reuters) – The Obama administration, facing a subpoena threat from Congress, will not share information that could compromise its prosecution of the suspected gunman in last year's Fort Hood shooting, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday.

Two U.S. senators vowed on Thursday to subpoena the Obama administration next week unless it produces information sought in a congressional investigation of last year's rampage at the Texas military base in which 13 soldiers were killed.

They said the Justice and Defense departments had until Monday to provide the information or face legal action.

Gates, speaking to reporters after attending a Caribbean security conference in Barbados, said the U.S. government had no interest in hiding information from Congress but the legal case against Major Nidal Malik Hasan had to take priority.

"Anything that does not have any impact on that prosecution, we are more than willing to share," Gates said.

"But what's most important is this prosecution. And we will cooperate with the committee in every way -- with that single caveat, that whatever we provide doesn't compromise the prosecution."

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, an independent, and Susan Collins, the panel's top Republican, have been trying for months to obtain specific information about the rampage, which also left many wounded.

'NO BEARING'

Responding to Gates' statements, Lieberman and Collins said, "There are many examples for allowing Congress to interview FBI agents, even while a criminal prosecution was in progress for which they could be witnesses, so we view that argument as baseless."

The two senators also said they hoped the Pentagon "will now turn over information we requested that clearly has no bearing on the prosecution." That includes Hasan's personnel file, performance evaluations and summaries of statements from witnesses at the shooting, the senators said.

Earlier, Lieberman and Collins said their committee wanted access to documents and witnesses regarding what the FBI and Defense Department knew about Hasan before the shootings. They have rejected administration claims that the information could compromise the pending prosecution of Hasan.

Lieberman and Collins said the Pentagon and FBI had turned over some documents to their committee but they primarily involved background material.

Justice and Defense departments officials sent a joint letter on Monday to Lieberman and Collins telling them that turning over the information and its disclosure could compromise the case against Hasan, who was severely wounded in the incident.

Gates suggested that the Obama administration was unwilling to reconsider its position ahead of the threatened deadline.

The subpoena could be an unwanted distraction for a White House already under pressure to cut unemployment, nominate a new Supreme Court justice, pass climate change legislation and regulate the financial industry.

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, has been charged by the military with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder. Hasan had been in contact with an anti-American Muslim figure sympathetic to al Qaeda. His trial is expected later this year.

Lieberman has said his committee wants to know why the suspect was not stopped before shooting spree.

Gates said internal reviews ordered after the shooting had already led to changes with the Defense Department and the U.S. armed forces. The reviews exposed shortcomings in both intelligence and oversight.

(Additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro and Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington; Editing by Bill Trott and Will Dunham)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100416/pl_ ... y_forthood

[The Consul]

So this is only an attempt to control the news cycle?

[barracuda]

"But what's most important is this prosecution. And we will cooperate with the committee in every way -- with that single caveat, that whatever we provide doesn't compromise the prosecution."

How do you even begin to compromise the prosecution of a case in which the defendant is accused of shooting thirty people in front of an army base full of witnesses? That's about the fishiest thing I ever heard, and that's saying something coming from me.

[elfismiles]

Fort Hood shooting victims sue government, accused shooter

By Jim Forsyth

SAN ANTONIO | Mon Nov 5, 2012 6:00pm EST

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Families and victims of a mass shooting in 2009 at the Fort Hood military base in Texas filed a wrongful death suit on Monday against the U.S. government, the accused gunman and the estate of an alleged al Qaeda leader.

The 148 plaintiffs are seeking damages and a ruling that the rampage was a terrorist attack. The finding would clear the way for them to receive benefits.

Major Nidal Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, faces 13 charges of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder for the November 5, 2009, attack on soldiers preparing to deploy to Iraq.

Survivors have expressed frustration about repeated delays over the past three years in bringing Hasan to trial. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces indefinitely postponed Hasan's court-martial last month pending further review.

The suit filed in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia alleges that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other officials disregarded the safety of soldiers and civilians at Fort Hood. It also alleges that they allowed Hasan to be in a position to open fire on the troops despite knowing he was a "radical extremist."

"The government seems to have gone out of its way to give the stiff arm to these victims. They have made their lives miserable," said attorney Neal Shur, who is the lead counsel in the case.

The lead plaintiff is Shawn Manning, who was an Army staff sergeant three years ago and was shot six times.

"The Army has refused to acknowledge this was a terrorist attack, and I have exhausted all other options," he said.

The other defendants include Hasan, who was shot by police during the attack and paralyzed from the chest down, and the estate of Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric linked to al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing. He was killed in a U.S. drone strike last year.

An independent review headed by former FBI Director William Webster found that Hasan had exchanged emails with Awlaki.

The lawsuit includes allegations of civil conspiracy, gross negligence, assault and battery, due process violations and intentional misrepresentations.

Shur said one reason the suit was filed was that federal authorities had "ignored" $750 million in administrative claims he sought in 2011.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; editing by Christopher Wilson)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/ ... KH20121105

[elfismiles]

I think this is the first time video has been released showing the immediate aftermath of the shooting...

Fort Hood Hero Says President Obama 'Betrayed' Her, Other Victims (Videos)
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/fort-hood ... d=18465024
http://www.infowars.com/fort-hood-hero- ... r-victims/

Fort Hood Hero Says President Obama 'Betrayed' Her, Other Victims (Videos)

By NED BERKOWITZ and BRIAN ROSS (@brianross)
Feb. 12, 2013
Three years after the White House arranged a hero's welcome at the State of the Union address for the Fort Hood police sergeant and her partner who stopped the deadly shooting there, Kimberly Munley says President Obama broke the promise he made to her that the victims would be well taken care of.

"Betrayed is a good word," former Sgt. Munley told ABC News in a tearful interview to be broadcast tonight on "World News with Diane Sawyer" and "Nightline."

"Not to the least little bit have the victims been taken care of," she said. "In fact they've been neglected."

There was no immediate comment from the White House about Munley's allegations.

Thirteen people were killed, including a pregnant soldier, and 32 others shot in the November 2009 rampage by the accused shooter, Major Nidal Hasan, who now awaits a military trial on charges of premeditated murder and attempted murder.

Tonight's broadcast report also includes dramatic new video, obtained by ABC News, taken in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, capturing the chaos and terror of the day.

WATCH Exclusive Video of Fort Hood's Aftermath

Munley, since laid off from her job with the base's civilian police force, was shot three times as she and her partner, Sgt. Mark Todd, confronted Hasan, who witnesses said had shouted "Allahu Akbar" as he opened fire on soldiers being processed for deployment to Afghanistan.

As Munley lay wounded, Todd fired the five bullets credited with bringing Hasan down.

Despite extensive evidence that Hasan was in communication with al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki prior to the attack, the military has denied the victims a Purple Heart and is treating the incident as "workplace violence" instead of "combat related" or terrorism.

READ a Federal Report on the FBI's Probe of Hasan's Ties to al-Awlaki

Al-Awlaki has since been killed in a U.S. drone attack in Yemen, in what was termed a major victory in the U.S. efforts against al Qaeda.

Munley and dozens of other victims have now filed a lawsuit against the military alleging the "workplace violence" designation means the Fort Hood victims are receiving lower priority access to medical care as veterans, and a loss of financial benefits available to those who injuries are classified as "combat related."

READ the Fort Hood Victims' Lawsuit

Some of the victims "had to find civilian doctors to get proper medical treatment" and the military has not assigned liaison officers to help them coordinate their recovery, said the group's lawyer, Reed Rubinstein.

"There's a substantial number of very serious, crippling cases of post-traumatic stress disorder exacerbated, frankly, by what the Army and the Defense Department did in this case," said Rubinstein. "We have a couple of cases in which the soldiers' command accused the soldiers of malingering, and would say things to them that Fort Hood really wasn't so bad, it wasn't combat."

Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said the Department of Defense is "committed to the highest care of those in our military family."

"Survivors of the incident at Fort Hood are eligible for the same medical benefits as all servicemembers," said Little. "The Department of Defense is also committed to the integrity of the ongoing court martial proceedings of Major Nidal Hasan and for that reason will not at this time further characterize the incident."

Secretary of the Army John McHugh told ABC News he was unaware of any specific complaints from the Fort Hood victims, even though he is a named defendant in the lawsuit filed last November which specifically details the plight of many of them.

"If a soldier feels ignored, then we need to know about it on a case by case basis," McHugh told ABC News. "It is not our intent to have two levels of care for people who are wounded by whatever means in uniform."

Some of the victims in the lawsuit believe the Army Secretary and others are purposely ignoring their cases out of political correctness.

"These guys play stupid every time they're asked a question about it, they pretend like they have no clue," said Shawn Manning, who was shot six times that day at Fort Hood. Two of the bullets remain in his leg and spine, he said.

"It was no different than an insurgent in Iraq or Afghanistan trying to kill us," said Manning, who was twice deployed to Iraq and had to retire from the military because of his injuries.

An Army review board initially classified Manning's injuries as "combat related," but that finding was later overruled by higher-ups in the Army.

Manning says the "workplace violence" designation has cost him almost $70,000 in benefits that would have been available if his injuries were classified as "combat related."

"Basically, they're treating us like I was downtown and I got hit by a car," he told ABC News.

For Alonzo Lunsford, who was shot seven times at Fort Hood and blinded in one eye, the military's treatment is deeply hurtful.

"It's a slap in the face, not only for me but for all of the 32 that wore the uniform that day," he told ABC News.

Lunsford's medical records show his injuries were determined to be "in the line of duty" but neither he nor any of the other soldiers shot or killed at Fort Hood is eligible for the Purple Heart under the Department of Defense's current policy for decorations and awards.

Army Secretary McHugh says awarding Purple Hearts could adversely affect the trial of Major Hasan.

"To award a Purple Heart, it has to be done by a foreign terrorist element," said McHugh. "So to declare that soldier a foreign terrorist, we are told, I'm not an attorney and I don't run the Justice Department, but we're told would have a profound effect on the ability to conduct the trial."

Members of Congress, including the chairman of the House Homeland Security committee, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, say they will introduce legislation to force the military and the Obama administration to give the wounded and dead the recognition and honors they deserve.

"It was clearly an act of terrorism that occurred that day, there's no question in my mind," McCaul told ABC News. "I think the victims should be treated as such."

Former Sgt. Munley says she now believes the White House used her for political advantage in arranging for her to sit next to Michelle Obama during the President's State of the Union address in 2010.

Munley says she has no hesitation now speaking out against the President or taking part in the lawsuit, because she wants to help the others who were shot that day and continue to suffer.

"We got tired of being neglected. So this was our last resort and I'm not ashamed of it a bit," said Munley. She is also raising money for a movie about Fort Hood, and says some of the proceeds will go to the victims.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/fort-hood ... d=18465024


http://www.infowars.com/fort-hood-hero- ... r-victims/

[8bitagent]

Of course the victims were betrayed. The US government doesnt give two shits about it's own military personnel. Yet some reason 'Muricans are dumb enough to sign up and get all ra-ra-ra.
14 people are killed, blame it all on protected globalist asset Awlaki, create a wedge issue over if it was "another postal workplace incident/al Qaeda terrorism".
Black op to the bone imho...at the very least allowed to happen.

[elfismiles]

Fort Hood shooting trial on schedule for Tuesday (Video)
No objections raised during final pretrial hearing
Updated: Monday, 05 Aug 2013, 10:37 PM CDT
Published : Monday, 05 Aug 2013, 10:37 PM CDT

NOMAAN MERCHANT,Associated Press
FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — The military trial of the man accused of the 2009 shootings at Fort Hood will start Tuesday after no objections were raised during a final pretrial hearing.

Maj. Nidal Hasan and prosecutors watched Monday morning as the judge, Col. Tara Osborn, reviewed all of the 13 officers on the jury. Osborn asked the officers if they had seen any media coverage of the long-awaited trial or if there were any issues preventing them from serving or judging the case on its merits.

After all of the jurors answered, neither Hasan nor prosecutors raised any objections.

Hasan is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. He faces the death penalty if convicted.

Osborn said Monday that the trial could last several months.

http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/texas/fort ... or-tuesday

First witnesses linked to Guns Galore (Video)
Government: Hasan Web-searched "terrorist killing"
Updated: Tuesday, 06 Aug 2013, 1:16 PM CDT
Published : Tuesday, 06 Aug 2013, 10:21 AM CDT

Jackie Vega
Chris Sadeghi
FORT HOOD, Texas (KXAN) - The first three witnesses in the military trial for the man accused of the 2009 shootings at Fort Hood were employees or customers of Guns Galore -- the store which legally sold one of the guns used in the shooting rampage.

•Photos: Day 1: Fort Hood shooting trial
The store manager said Maj. Nidal Hasan was a frequent customer and came in wanting the most technologically advanced handgun on the market. On almost every visit to the store, he would purchase ammunition.

Hasan also made the rare request to take cell phone video of the manager showing him how to assemble and dissemble the laser sight to the weapon.

When a customer talked to him about the "FN Five-Seven" handgun, Hasan never would answer the question as to how he intended to use the gun.

"His only real specification was magazine capacity," said William Gilbert, another frequent customer at Guns Galore.

When the weapon was introduced as evidence, Hasan spoke up.

"Your honor, I'd like to state for the record that this is my weapon," he said.

Hasan has yet to cross-examine anyone. And while the panel is allowed to submit questions that must first be approved, none have been submitted.

Opening arguments in the long-awaited military trial for the man accused of the 2009 shootings at Fort Hood lasted only about one minute early Tuesday morning.

Hasan is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder and faces the death penalty if convicted.

"I apologize for any mistakes I made in this endeavor," said Hasan. "Thirteen U.S. soldiers were killed and many injured. The evidence will clearly show I am the shooter.”

During Hasan's opening statements, he said the evidence will show one side -- showing that the United States is the wrong side.

"There is death, destruction and devastation on both sides -- that is for both friend and foe,” said Hasan. “The evidence will also show that I was on the wrong side.”

He added that he is an imperfect Muslim: "We, the Mujahideen, are imperfect Muslims trying to create the perfect religion.”

A contrast to Hasan's opening statements, the government opened for 45 minutes, retracing Hasan's every move through the Soldier Readiness Processing building where the massacre happened and up until he was shot down by an officer.

The prosecution hit three main points:

1.What the evidence will show about nature and circumstances.
2.Some of the evidence that shows motive.
3.Planning and preparation to show he tried to kill as many as he could.
The government said Hasan talked about his unwillingness to be deployed.

Government attorney Steve Henricks said Hasan even did Internet searches on his laptop for "terrorist killing innocent Quran" and "killing of woman and children Quran."

They said civilians at a graduation saw him and asked him why he had a gun -- to which he allegedly responded saying that it was a paintball gun for training.

Government officials contend Hasan showed up on Nov. 5, 2009, armed with a rifle, pistol and 420 rounds of ammunition -- targeting only uniformed soldiers.

The prosecution said he spared civilians and nurses, with the exception of one civilian who tried to stop him. That person was killed.

Some 147 casings were found in the building where 13 people died in the rampage.

During the final pretrial hearing on Monday Hasan and prosecutors watched as Judge Col. Tara Osborn reviewed all of the 13 officers on the jury, where she asked whether they'd seen any media coverage of the long-awaited trial or if there were any issues preventing them from serving or judging the case on its merits.

After all of the jurors answered, neither Hasan nor prosecutors raised any objections during the final pretrial hearing.

Meanwhile, Osborn said Monday that the trial could last several months.


http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/texas/fort ... y-mistakes

[justdrew]

WHY should it take several months of trial to get a conviction in this case?

There is ZERO doubt that he did what he did.

If we can't arrest and convict a killer like this, without spending YEARS and millions of dollars, what cause for anyone to expect 'justice' be brought against their killer?

I'm starting to think we've got a new trend going, where it's "just too hard" "lack of evidence" etc etc and so on unless the victim was "somebody"

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/06/father-suggests-illinois-police-coverup-no-doubt-my-daughter-was-murdered/

[8bitagent]

This is the first time since 1993 America has had an Islamic terror linked attack using a gun. So where's the gun nut faithful with this one? The gun nut crowd is often the first to talk about the "threat of Islamic terrorism" and here is
an apparent jihadist using their favorite thing in the world: a gun.

Of course, apparently he was under some sort of hypno spell from protected intel asset and real life Forest Gump Anwar Al Awlaki. Funny, that when he said he was going to carry out violence against the military
they didnt seem to care. I thought the NSA read all OUR emails...certainly they read freaking internal emails to well known al Qaeda leaders? Was this attack really out of the blue? The whole issue
of mental health of course almost seems more central than the jihadist aspect.

[fruhmenschen]

see link for full story

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/201 ... -fort-hood

Internal Documents Reveal How the FBI Blew Fort Hood
Nearly a year before the massacre, the bureau intercepted emails between Nidal Hasan and radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki that officials called "fairly benign." They are anything but.
Tue Aug. 27, 2013

Last Thursday, as the jury in the trial of Nidal Hasan was deliberating, outgoing FBI Director Robert Mueller appeared on CBS News and discussed a string of emails between the Fort Hood shooter and Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Islamic cleric with ties to the 9/11 hijackers. The FBI had intercepted the messages starting almost a year before Hasan's 2009 shooting rampage, and Mueller was asked whether "the bureau dropped the ball" by failing to act on this information. He didn't flinch: "No, I think, given the context of the discussions and the situation that the agents and the analysts were looking at, they took appropriate steps."

In the wake of the Fort Hood attacks, the exchanges between Awlaki and Hasan—who was convicted of murder on Friday—were the subject of intense speculation. But the public was given little information about these messages. While officials claimed that they were "fairly benign," the FBI blocked then-Sen. Joseph Lieberman's efforts to make them public as part of a two-year congressional investigation into Fort Hood. The military judge in the Hasan case also barred the prosecutor from presenting them, saying they would cause "unfair prejudice" and "undue delay."

As it turns out, the FBI quietly released the emails in an unclassified report on the shooting, which was produced by an investigative commission headed by former FBI director William H. Webster last year. And, far from being "benign," they offer a chilling glimpse into the psyche of an Islamic radical. The report also shows how badly the FBI bungled its Hasan investigation and suggests that the Army psychiatrist's deadly rampage could have been prevented.

Advertise on MotherJones.com

Hasan first appeared on the bureau's radar in December of 2008—nearly a year before the Fort Hood massacre—when he emailed Awlaki to ask him whether serving in the US military was compatible with the Muslim faith. He also asked whether Awlaki considered those who died attacking their fellow soldiers "shaheeds," or martyrs.

At the time, Awlaki, who was killed by a US drone strike in 2011, was emerging as Al Qaeda's chief English-speaking propagandist. He was also known to have ties to several of the 9/11 hijackers, two of whom attended his mosque in San Diego.

The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force in San Diego, which was tracking Awlaki, intercepted Hasan's December email, along with another sent in January. A search of the Pentagon's personnel database turned up a man named Nidal Hasan who was on active military duty and was listed as a "Comm Officer" at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC.
Hasan first appeared on the FBI’s radar when he emailed Anwar al-Awlaki to ask if he considered US servicemen who died attacking fellow soldiers "shaheeds," or martyrs.

Normally, when the FBI unearths this kind of raw intelligence, it issues an Intelligence Information Report (IIR), which is shared with law enforcement agencies and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. (This system was designed to prevent the kind of information bottlenecks that allowed the 9/11 plot to go undetected.) But the San Diego agents misinterpreted the "Comm Officer" label in Hasan's file to mean "communications officer" (in fact, it meant "commissioned officer") and believed that a person in this role might have access to IIRs. To avoid tipping him off, they skipped the report and sent a detailed memo requesting an investigation directly to the Washington, DC, Joint Terrorism Task Force, a multiagency team overseen by the FBI that investigates terrorism cases in the capital. The message noted that Hasan's "contact with [Awlaki] would be of concern if the writer is actually the individual identified above."

The file languished for nearly two months before it was assigned to an agent for the Defense Criminal Investigative Services, who was on the task force. According to a 2011 report on the Fort Hood shootings by the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, DCIS—a law enforcement agency within the Pentagon, which normally deals with fraud and cybercrime among military personnel and contractors—was ill-equipped to tackle a counterterrorism investigation.

Meanwhile, Hasan kept writing Awlaki. Between January and May 2009, he sent the radical cleric more than a dozen emails, and received two relatively benign responses. In one message, ostensibly about Palestinians firing unguided rockets into Israel, Hasan asked Awlaki whether "indiscriminately killing civilians" was acceptable. Two days later, he sent another message answering his own question: "Hamas and the Muslims hate to hurt the innocent but they have no choice if their going to have a chance to survive, flourish, and deter the zionist enemy. The recompense for an evil is an evil." (Hasan's emails contained a number of typos.)