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Senate Homeland Security Committee Launches Ft. Hood Attack Investigation 82 days ago
(RTTNews) - The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Thursday launched an investigation into the recent massacre at Fort Hood.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., the chairman of the committee, said the committee would seek to determine whether there had been a breakdown in communications that could otherwise have prevented an Army psychiatrist from going on a shooting rampage that left 13 dead and nearly 30 wounded.
Lieberman acknowledged that the FBI and the Defense Department had launched their own investigations and prosecution of the alleged shooter, Maj. Nidal Hasan, but he said that those reviews would be focused on punishment looking back while the committee would look to the future to seek ways to ensure nothing similar occurs again.
"An American soldier, Nidal Hasan, has been charged with killing 12 of his fellow soldiers and one civilian on an American military base in Texas," Lieberman said. "I believe, based on available evidence, [it was] a terrorist attack."
He added, "The purpose of this committee's investigation is to determine whether that attack could have been prevented, whether the federal agents involved missed signals or failed to connect the dots in a way that enabled Nidal Hasan to carry out his deadly attack."
Lieberman emphasized that the committee would conduct its investigation in a manner that respects the many Muslims in the military and the country as a whole.
"But we do no favor to all the patriotic and law-abiding Muslim Americans by ignoring real evidence that a small number of Muslim Americans have become violent Islamist extremists and terrorists," he said. "We will look at the Fort Hood murders not as an isolated event, but as part of a larger pattern of homegrown terrorism that has emerged over the past several years."
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the ranking GOP member of the panel, said she too had questions in the investigation.
"I can think of no more important task for this committee to undertake," Collins said. "In the wake of the mass murder at Ft. Hood we once again must confront troubling questions: was this another failure to connect the dots?"
She added, "The shootings at Ft. Hood may indicate that communications failures and poor judgment calls can defeat the systems intended to ensure that vital information is shared to protect our country and its citizens."
Lieberman first turned to retired Gen. John Keane, a former vice chief of staff for the army who had commanded Ft. Bragg at a time when two of the soldiers there had been recruited by white supremacists and killed other black soldiers.
"It appears likely that Maj. Hasan's targets and his fanatical beliefs are directly related, as he chose to kill those who were destined to fight jihadist extremism," Keane said. "The Department of Defense has a long-standing policy of intolerance for organizations, practices or activities that are discriminatory or extremist in nature."
He added, "I suspect strongly that after we conduct these investigations we will find that our policies will need revision again for the specific behavior and attitudes as expressed by radical Islamists or jihadist extremists."
Mitchel Silber, the director of intelligence analysis for the New York Police Department, also warned the committee about the increasing trend of homegrown radicals.
"The internet has become an even more important venue and driver for radicalization," Silber said. "No longer is the threat just from abroad as was the case with the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."
"The threat is now increasingly from within, from homegrown terrorists who are inspired by violent Islamist ideology to plan and execute attacks where they live," he said.
For comments and feedback: contact editorial@rttnews.com
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