There are various events commemorating Veterans Day today, with one of the biggest surely to be at Bay Pines Medical Center in St. Petersburg at 10 a.m. House Representative Bill Heller will be the keynote speaker. In Tampa, thee was a parade that was to conclude with ceremonies at James A. Haley VA Medical Center, also at 10 a.m. And there will also be an event in Largo's Central Park tonight at 7 p.m.
The federal holiday takes place less than a week after Major Nidal Malik Hasan went on his mad killing spree, where 13 people were shot dead at Fort Hood in Texas. And there are more media reports that indicate that officials had some inkling that things were not all right with the Major, and yet little was done about that.
From today's Washington Post:
Hasan, a psychiatrist who had worked at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, came to the attention of two Joint Terrorism Task Forces in December, as he corresponded by e-mail as many as 20 times with radical imam Anwar al-Aulaqi, who has exhorted followers in the United States, Britain and elsewhere to pursue violent jihad, or holy war. The task of vetting Hasan fell to a Defense Department analyst on the D.C.-area task force, who searched the doctor's background, employment records and other paperwork. The analyst concluded that the chatter was innocent, in keeping with Hasan's research interests, and that he did not have links to terrorism, two government officials said Tuesday.
Authorities closed the matter this spring, opting against a full-blown investigation.
And then there is this from the Wall Street Journal:
In this case, the Pentagon worker, an employee from the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, helped make the assessment that Maj. Hasan wasn't a threat, and the FBI's "procedures for sharing the information were never used," said the person familiar with the matter.
A person familiar with the matter said a Pentagon worker on a terrorism task force overseen by the Federal Bureau of Investigation was told about the intercepted emails several months ago. But members of terror task forces aren't allowed to share such information with their agencies, unless they get permission from the FBI, which leads the task forces.
These events are eerily reminiscent of what happened after the 9/11 attacks, which led to the creation of the Homeland Security Department (to better coordinate between intelligence agencies) and a full blown investigation.
On Capitol Hill, there are Congressional committees ready to jump in as well , with some Committee leaders a little less gung ho than others.
This article appears in Nov 11-17, 2009.