Feed: Senate report: Fort Hood shooter’s radicalism ignored by superiors - AggScore: 12.8

Senate report: Fort Hood shooter’s radicalism ignored by superiors

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caption id alignalignleft width210 captionMajor Hasan gave many indications he was radicalized well before his deadly shooting spree. Photo DoD img srchttpcdn2b.examiner.comsitesdefaultfilesstyleslargehash167amajor20hasan.jpg alt width210 height168 captionThe U.S. Army major who killed 13 people 12 soldiers, one civilian and wounded 32 others was known to be a radical Islamist by his superiors but no action against his display of radicalism was taken, according to a U.S. Senatereport.In the longanticipated Senate report released onThursday, Senate Homeland Security Committee chairman Joe Lieberman ICT and ranking GOP memberSen. Susan Collins RME saidthat militarycommandershadclear evidence that theshooterin what became known as the Fort Hood Massacre, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, held views that were so extreme that he should have been disciplined or discharged from the Army altogether.The senate report described Maj. Hasan as a time bomb waiting to go off which was known by his associates and superiors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center where he served as a psychiatrist. In fact, according to the senate report, Hasan actually praised Osama bin Laden during his 2007 lecture which was supposed to address health care. He reportedly went off on a tangent about the war on terror being a war against Islam.Despite his obvious radical behavior and uncontrollable temper, Hasanwas promoted to major in 2009 and later that year orderedto report for deployment to Afghanistan, thesenate committee reportsaid.Superiors wrote in the majors officer evaluation reports that his views have extraordinary potential to inform national policy and military strategy.Many service members have deeply held religious views whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist, but such views are not a cause for concern, according to the senate report.The issue that must be countered is the adoption of radical ideology that is a corruption of religion and leads to intolerance or violence.Systemic flaws and internal disagreements between the Defense Department and the FBI allowed an Army psychiatrist to gun down fellow soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009, the Senate Homeland Security Committee concluded in its investigation of the shooting.The senate committees recommendations include crafting of a policy for privately owned weapons in the absence of such rules within the Defense Department, and providing Army security personnel access to the National Crime Information Center database.Hasan has been charged with 13 counts of first degree murder and 32 counts of attempted murder. A pretrial investigation on the charges against him ended last November and could result in a general court martial, the most serious level of military trials that may end in the death penalty.