Internal Documents Reveal How the FBI Blew Fort Hood

[Valin]

Mother Jones:

Nearly a year before the massacre, the bureau intercepted emails between Nidal Hasan and radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki that officials called "fairly benign." They are anything but.

Mariah Blake

Aug. 27, 2013

 

Last Thursday, as the jury in the trial of Nidal Hasan was deliberating, outgoing FBI Director Robert Mueller appeared on CBS News and discussed a string of emails between the Fort Hood shooter and Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Islamic cleric with ties to the 9/11 hijackers. The FBI had intercepted the messages starting almost a year before Hasan's 2009 shooting rampage, and Mueller was asked whether "the bureau dropped the ball" by failing to act on this information. He didn't flinch: "No, I think, given the context of the discussions and the situation that the agents and the analysts were looking at, they took appropriate steps."

 

In the wake of the Fort Hood attacks, the exchanges between Awlaki and Hasanwho was convicted of murder on Fridaywere the subject of intense speculation. But the public was given little information about these messages. While officials claimed that they were "fairly benign," the FBI blocked then-Sen. Joseph Lieberman's efforts to make them public as part of a two-year congressional investigation into Fort Hood. The military judge in the Hasan case also barred the prosecutor from presenting them, saying they would cause "unfair prejudice" and "undue delay."

 

As it turns out, the FBI quietly released the emails in an unclassified report on the shooting, which was produced by an investigative commission headed by former FBI director William H. Webster last year. And, far from being "benign," they offer a chilling glimpse into the psyche of an Islamic radical. The report also shows how badly the FBI bungled its Hasan investigation and suggests that the Army psychiatrist's deadly rampage could have been prevented.

 

(Snip)

[NCTexan]

Even the best agencies know where their toast is buttered and who is calling the big plays. This is a case of the FBI putting a finger into the wind which Obama was blowing at the time and acting (or not aaction) accordingly.

[Valin]

Even the best agencies know where their toast is buttered and who is calling the big shots. This is a case of the FBI putting a finger into the wind which Obama was blowing at the time and acting (or not aaction) accordingly.

I suspect you may very well be correct.

[SrWoodchuck]

Two comments:

 

Mother Jones? Didn't expect it coming from them.

 

Liberal use of the "black-out", but it seems the FB-EYE just wasn't interested in him & looked for a way to justify dropping him as a threat. ".......he's a US Army psychiatrist that has legitimate reasons for contacting these terrorists......." Really?

[Valin]

Two comments:

 

Mother Jones? Didn't expect it coming from them.

 

Liberal use of the "black-out", but it seems the FB-EYE just wasn't interested in him & looked for a way to justify dropping him as a threat. ".......he's a US Army psychiatrist that has legitimate reasons for contacting these terrorists......." Really?

The Blind Squirrel Syndrome