Friday, March 11, 2011

Nine Army officers are being reprimanded for failing to spot signs of Islamic radicalism in the Muslim gunman who went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood

Major Nidal Malik Hasan murdered 13 and injured 29 in the massacre at the Texas military base on November 5, 2009 and had a track record of mental instability as he moved along his medical career. A Pentagon review in 2010 found that the 40-year-old Hasan's supervisors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center where he worked expressed serious concerns about his questionable behavior and poor judgment but failed to heed their own warnings. It said the Army psychiatrist's supervisors continued to give him positive performance evaluations that kept him moving up through the ranks despite worries about his strident views on Islam and worries about his competence. In one episode, Hasan gave a class presentation questioning whether the U.S.-led war on terror was actually a war on Islam and fellow students said he suggested that Shariah, or Islamic law, trumped the Constitution, and that he also attempted to justify suicide bombings. The review, however, found that no one in Hasan's chain of command blocked his ability to hold a secret security clearance or stop his continued assignments, including his move to Fort Hood. Hasan was charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder. If he is found guilty and court-marshaled, he could face the death penalty.

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