U.S. Knew Fort Hood Suspect Hasan Contacted Islamist

Fort Hood shooting suspect, Major Nidal Malik Hasan,apparently contacted an Islamist sympathetic to al Qaeda and U.S. intelligence agencies were aware of this long before the shooting spree in Texas occurred last week.

U.S. intelligence agencies relayed the information late last year to federal authorities before the Hasan allegedly went on a shooting spree that killed 13 people in Texas last week, U.S. officials said on Monday.

When intelligence officials were monitoring contacts by Anwar al-Awlaki, an anti-American cleric in Yemen who sympathized with al Qaeda, they came across some communications late last year with the shooting suspect, Major Nidal Malik Hasan.

The information was given to federal authorities who later determined that Hasan's writings were consistent with his academic work, offering no hint that he was planning an attack. Nothing more was done.

FBI and military officials met with senior lawmakers late on Monday and it seems that different parts of the government are angling to avoid being blamed for having failed to prevent the shooting.

One intelligence official is quoted as saying, "There's no sign at this point that the CIA had collected information relevant to this case and then simply sat on it."

There were allegedly 10 to 20 communications between Hasan and the an anti-American cleric in Yemen well into 2009. Authorities looked into Hasan but they decided the matter did not warrant an investigation, according to federal officials.

The public is now speculating the someone dropped the ball and didn't follow through more thoroughly on Major Nidal Malik Hasan's communications with Anwar al-Awlaki.

Meanwhile, investigators tried with no success to interview Hasan. The Fort Hood shooting suspect had ventilator removed over the weekend, and he began talking afterward, but not to investigators. Recovering from gunshots, Halik invoked his right to speak to a lawyer.

Cheryl Phillips
HULIQ.com

Sources: Reuters, CNN

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