FBI dropped inquiry into threat from base gunman
Wednesday November 11 2009
AS US President Barack Obama arrived in Fort Hood yesterday for a two-hour memorial service for the victims of last week's shooting rampage inside the base, more questions were being asked about how much was already known about the suspected shooter, Nidal Malik Hasan, before the attack.
The head of the FBI, Robert Mueller, has already ordered an internal review into whether information that the agency had received about Hasan -- including details of emails sent by him to a radical Muslim cleric in Yemen -- had been mishandled.
A subsequent inquiry into Hasan had been dropped after agents decided that Hasan did not represent a threat.
But a presentation given by Hasan while he was still doing a residency in psychiatry at Walter Reed hospital in Washington DC a year and a half ago also seems to offer hints of the turmoil he was experiencing.
The talk focused on the dilemma Muslims in the US forces would face if asked to fight against fellow Muslims.
"It's getting harder for Muslims in the service to morally justify being in a military that seems constantly engaged against fellow Muslims," he said.
One slide that was titled 'Comments' offered: "If Muslim groups can convince Muslims that they are fighting for God against injustices of the 'infidels', ie: enemies of Islam, then Muslims can become a potent adversary, ie: suicide bombing, etc."
Chaos
The focus at yesterday's memorial were the 13 who died at a troop processing facility at Fort Hood, Texas, the largest army base in the world, and the roughly 30 people who were injured in the chaos.
Mr Obama had the difficult task as Commander-in-Chief of attempting to salve the shock and the hurt felt not only by the military community in and around Fort Hood but everyone connected to the armed forces, including those stationed abroad in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"This is a time of war," Mr Obama said. "And yet these Americans did not die on a foreign field of battle. They were killed here, on American soil, in the heart of this great American community."
Last Thursday's shootings have become the most serious national tragedy to confront the president since he took office.
Hasan was said to be conscious and talking yesterday in a hospital in San Antonio. On Monday, he met with retired Col John Galligan, who will represent him in a military rather than a civilian trial.
- David Usborne in Washington
Irish Independent
