FBI And Army Knew Of Hasan Terror Ties

Since November 5th, the day Major Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire on his comrades in arms, people with common sense have reasoned that this was a terrorist attack while the mainstream media and left try to explain that Hasan had some kind of psychological problem, as if PTSD is contagious like a cold. It would appear that common sense has won out and people like Dr. Phil have mud on their face. Yesterday, it came to light that Hasan had been in contact with a radical Yemeni Imam and attended his mosque. Then later it became apparent that the FBI knew of this contact and had been watching Hasan. And very possibly, the FBI had informed the Army of this contact. All of this appears to have been downplayed and put on a backburner as if it was not significant. And now it is too late.

Hot Air's Ed Morrissey has written a blog on this:

Would it normally be considered a national-security problem if a high-ranking military officer had tried to contact an enemy of the United States during wartime? ABC News reports that the FBI knew that Major Nidal Hasan had attempted to contact al-Qaeda and its associates months before Hasan went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, killing 13 people. Did the FBI tell the Army about it? That gets rather murky:

U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News.

It is not known whether the intelligence agencies informed the Army that one of its officers was seeking to connect with suspected al Qaeda figures, the officials said.

One senior lawmaker said the CIA had, so far, refused to brief the intelligence committees on what, if any, knowledge they had about Hasan’s efforts.

However, the Army certainly had enough information to know that Hasan was a problem:

A fellow Army doctor who studied with Hasan, Val Finell, told ABC News, “We would frequently say he was a Muslim first and an American second. And that came out in just about everything he did at the University.

Finell said he and other Army doctors complained to superiors about Hasan’s statements.

“And we questioned how somebody could take an oath of office…be an officer in the military and swear allegiance to the constitution and to defend America against all enemies, foreign and domestic and have that type of conflict,” Finell told ABC News.