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Fort Hood Shooting: FBI Ignored Evidence Against Nidal Hasan For Political Correctness, Report Says

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Army Major Nidal Hasan is charged with killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in a November 2009 shooting rampage.


In some he was a believer intent on supporting terrorists and intrigued with the idea of U.S. soldiers killing comrades in the name of Islam. In others he was a man looking for help finding an appropriate wife.

In the end, they weren't enough for the FBI to identify Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan as a terrorist threat or, as it would turn out, as a man who now stands accused of the shooting spree at Fort Hood that killed 13 and wounded 23 others in November 2009.

The emails attracted the attention of FBI and anti-terrorism task force agents in December 2008, and eventually prompted them to dig up Hasan's personnel records and evaluation reports.

But gaps in the bureau's systems, poor training, antiquated technologies and an underlying fear that approaching Hasan would reveal the ongoing investigation into Awlaki prevented the FBI from pursuing the matter much further.

An independent review released Thursday by the FBI lays out a series of gaffes the bureau made as agents evaluated Hasan's correspondence with Awlaki, and ultimately decided the Army major was not a terror threat. The report, by former FBI Director William Webster, concludes that FBI personnel made mistakes in their handling of intelligence information, but that no one person was responsible.





The Washington office said no.





The emails began in December 2008 and the last one was sent in June 2009. His first one laid out a question. What would Awlaki think of Muslims who have joined the military and "have even killed or tried to kill" other U.S. soldiers.

Other emails laid out a defense of Hamas, while a series of others pressed Awlaki to make it easier for people to donate money to his website.

In one he mentions a survey about the U.S. trying to undermine Islam, and in another he talks about a speaker he heard that defended suicide bombers.






Webster noted that the case also underscores the challenges presented by the new information age. Advancing technologies, he said, demand changes in the way the FBI acquires, stores and acts on intelligence.

Mueller called the Webster review thorough, and said the FBI constantly strives to improve its procedures.

The FBI and Defense Department have said that they've made several policy changes since the 2009 attack to help stave off similar attacks in the future. One major change was that if al-Awlaki comes up as part of a terror investigation, FBI headquarters would be alerted, Mark Giuliano, assistant director for the FBI's National Security Branch, said last year.


Hasan is currently being tried in a military court.


Associated Press writer Pete Yost contributed to this report.



Read the report:


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