AOL News has a new home! The Huffington Post.

Click here to visit the new home of Politics Daily!

Hot on HuffPost:

See More Stories
Politics Daily

Defense Secretary Robert Gates Pledges Full Disclosure of Fort Hood Shooting Probes

2 years ago
  0 Comments Say Something  »
Text Size
David Wood
David Wood
Chief Military Correspondent
Author Bio »
Contact Author »
Subscribe :
Two weeks after an Army psychiatrist allegedly went on a shooting rampage that killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates launched a series of sweeping internal investigations aimed at making certain that such a horror never takes place again.
Gates said former Army Secretary Togo West and retired Adm. Verne Clark, former chief of naval operations, will head a major, 45-day Defense Department investigation that will be flanked by parallel investigations within each of the four military services.
Gates promised "full and open disclosure'' of what he learns about how the accused shooter, Army Maj. Nadal M. Hasan, went undetected as he apparently absorbed and espoused radical Islamic beliefs.
The investigations will also assess how the military identifies service members who might pose credible threats to others, and whether the military's mass-casualty response capability is adequate, Gates told reporters at the Pentagon Thursday. The investigations will also focus on how the military services handle individuals who exhibit troubling beliefs or behavior.
"My expectation is for any commander to be aware of those kinds of things and to take appropriate action, certainly not to sit idly by,'' Adm. Mike Mullin, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the news conference.
But the two Pentagon leaders declined to characterize the Fort Hood shootings as a terrorist attack, and each emphasized that no conclusions should be drawn "until all the facts are in,'' Gates said. In response to a question, Gates acknowledged that he found it "disturbing'' that Hasan had communicated by e-mail with Anwar al Aulaki, a radical Islamic cleric now based in Yemen.
"But before I draw any conclusions from it, I want to find out all the facts,'' Gates told reporters. "In a nation as diverse as the United States, the last thing we need to do is start pointing fingers at each other.''
Mullin, the senior-most U.S. military officer, stressed that no adverse conclusions should be drawn about Muslims in military service.
"My message to all those in uniforms, including Muslims in uniform, is how much we appreciate their service,'' Mullin said. "The diversity of our force is one of its greatest strengths.''
The Defense Department investigations will parallel an initial civilian-led investigation ordered by President Obama that is due Nov. 30. The Pentagon investigations will be followed by more in-depth assessments by the services, which Gates said will take four to six months to complete.
The criminal investigations of the shootings will proceed as well, Gates said, and should not be affected by the Pentagon reviews.
Congress has also launched several inquiries, including hearings by the House Intelligence Committee and the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Members of both panels have criticized the Pentagon for not sharing more information about the shootings.
Since the Nov. 5 rampage at Fort Hood, a sprawling Army base in south-central Texas, most of what is publicly known about Hasan has been uncovered by journalists, including poor performance reviews by his superiors during his time at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, where he worked as a mental health counselor.
The Pentagon has been unwilling to explain how warning signs of Hasan's instability, including the e-mails to the cleric, were missed by most military and civilian officials, and why those who did observe them apparently failed to pass the information up the chain of command.
Some outside observers, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, have charged that it was "fear of being politically incorrect'' that led military officers to ignore what she said were "massive warning signs that were missed all over the place.''
Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said Thursday he fears the Fort Hood shootings are only the first sign of home-grown terrorist attacks "by people who have been radicalized through the Internet.''
In a CNN interview, Hoekstra said he is "not only worried about these types of people potentially being in the military, I'm concerned about these folks being everyday Americans around America, living among us, who may have become or are in the process of becoming radicalized. ''
Hoekstra warned that such ordinary Americans "some time in the future may carry out similar types of attacks.''
Filed Under: Investigations, Crime
Tagged: fort hood, fort hood shootings, FortHood, FortHoodShootings, nadal malik hasan, NadalMalikHasan
More articles from David Wood »

Our New Approach to Comments

In an effort to encourage the same level of civil dialogue among Politics Daily’s readers that we expect of our writers – a “civilogue,” to use the term coined by PD’s Jeffrey Weiss – we are requiring commenters to use their AOL or AIM screen names to submit a comment, and we are reading all comments before publishing them. Personal attacks (on writers, other readers, Nancy Pelosi, George W. Bush, or anyone at all) and comments that are not productive additions to the conversation will not be published, period, to make room for a discussion among those with ideas to kick around. Please read our Help and Feedback section for more info.

Add a Comment

Sign in »
*0 / 3000 Character Maximum Comment Moderation Enabled. Your comment will appear after it is cleared by an editor.

Follow Politics Daily

  • Comics
%PostTitle%
robert-and-donna-trussell
CHAOS THEORY
Featuring political comics by Robert and Donna TrussellMore>>
  • Woman UP Video
politics daily videos
Weekly Videos
Woman Up, Politics Daily's Online Sunday ShowMore»
politics daily videos
TV Appearances
Showcasing appearances by Politics Daily staff and contributors.More>>

News From Our Partners