Walter Reed Supervisors Concerned Over Hasan's Behavior, But Did Nothing

It's a question that officials from Walter Reed Army Hospital and Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences began asking in the spring of 2008. NPR reviewed documents and spoke to medical officials at both Walter Reed and USUHS, and found serious concerns that officials raised about Hasan during his time at both institutions.

However, there's a problem with the finding. Although concerns were raised about Hasan, no one asked for him to be mentally evaluated.

You will recall that for six years before his transfer to Fort Hood, Nidal Malik Hasan served as a psychiatrist at Walter Reed, beginning in 2003. He also had a fellowship at USUHS until shortly before he went to Fort Hood in the summer of 2009. A committee of officials from both sites meets once a month to discuss topics. One such topic, in the spring of 2008, was: what to do about Hasan?

While Hasan had poor evaluations, far worse was the fact that both fellow students and faculty were troubled by Hasan's behavior, yet did nothing about it. According to NPR, they called his behavior disconnected, aloof, paranoid, belligerent, and yes, even asked if he were psychotic. One would think all these were signs that should have brought about an examination, but none was given.

One official was quoted as saying: "Put it this way. Everybody felt that if you were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, you would not want Nidal Hasan in your fox hole."

Why did they do nothing? Some of it was apparently political correctness. They wereconcerned they could be accused of discriminating against him because of his Islamic identity or views. Some was over the complexity of booting someone out who was a medical professional. Additionally, officials felt they lacked solid evidence that Hasan was unstable.

According to the radio version of the report, officials at Walter Reed were glad to see him transferred to Fort Hood. They thought that he might disappear from sight there. Unfortunately, he became visible, very visible, and questions about what should or should not have been done will be asked for some time.