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ABC: FBI knew Hasan tried to contact Al-Qaeda

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

UPDATES

Feds dropped inquiry into Hasan’s contacts with jihadis because … he didn’t seem violent

Intelligence agencies intercepted communications last year and earlier this year between Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who is accused of shooting to death 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex., and a radical cleric in Yemen known for his incendiary anti-American teachings. But federal authorities dropped an inquiry into the matter after deciding the messages warranted no further action, government officials said on Monday.

Maj. Hasan’s exchanges with Anwar al-Awlaki, once a spiritual leader at a mosque in suburban Virginia where Maj. Hasan worshipped, indicate that the troubled military psychiatrist came to the attention of the authorities long before long before last Thursday’s shooting rampage at Fort Hood, but left him in his post. It is not clear what was said in the exchanges, believed to be e-mail messages, and whether they would have offered a hint at the major’s outspoken views or his declining emotional state…

But federal officials briefed on the case said their decision to break off the investigation was reasonable based on the information about Maj. Hasan that was compiled at the time, which they said gave no indication he was likely to engage in violence.

The officials said the communications do not alter the prevailing theory that Maj. Hasan acted by himself, lashing out as a result of combination of factors, including his outspoken opposition to American policy in Iraq and Afghanistan and his deepening religious fervor as a Muslim.

George W. Bush just emailed me, asking where the apologies from the media are for blaming him for eight years for failing to have “connected the dots.”

David Horowitz diagnoses Gen. Casey’s p.c. debilitation.

You have to view this segment of the Meet the Press interview with Army chief of staff General George Casey to believe it — to believe that our army could be led by someone as incompetent in national security matters as this man showed he was, first by claiming that the army hadn’t “missed anything” in regard to the in-your-face warning signs exhibited by Major Hasan that he was a fanatical Muslim jihadist and an imminent threat to massacre our troops, by admitting that the army’s diversity policies had trumped its security policies, and worst of all by making this statement: ‘As horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse.’”

Matthews on Ft. Hood Suspect Warning Signal: ‘That’s Not a Crime to Call al Qaeda, Is It?’

My thoughts and prayers to the fallen in this brutal massacre.  The reports have been contradictory at best, so I waited to post info…Here is a roundup..

CNN Video of Hasan This Yesterday Morning

13 dead, 30 others in stable condition. Heard this morning two of the dead were civilians. Also this from the AP (and commenters in the thread), “Soldiers who witnessed the shooting rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead reported that the gunman shouted “Allahu Akbar!” before opening fire, the base commander said Friday”

Nidal Hasan: Ft. Hood Shooter Participated in Homeland Security Disaster Preparation

The gunman who killed 12 people today at Ft. Hood appears, based on current media reports, to be Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan who was listed as a participant in a Homeland Security Policy Institute’s presidential transition task force last year.

The task force was not officially affiliated with the White House. It was a project of the Homeland Security Policy Institute, an independent thinktank housed at George Washington University, aimed at drafting policy recommendations for the incoming Obama administration.

'ALLAHU AKBAR'
WHY DID HE DO IT?
Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan...
Was about to be deployed to Iraq, was 'upset about it'...
Gunman Made 'Outlandish' Comments Condemning Foreign Policy...
Strange behavior that morning...
'Emotional carnage'...
Dramatic photos from the scene...
Obama's Frightening Insensitivity Following Shooting...

Obama considering Biden’s Magic Ninja Plan.

We have been laughing on our back channel at BLACKFIVE about the Biden plan to have our secret squirrels locate al Qaeda and then let our magic ninjas swoop in and take them out. The idea is ludicrous for many reasons, but mostly because we don’t have the will to do the dirty trickery necessary to pull it off.

Ever since we eviscerated the CIA in the Carter era and destroyed any ability to do human intelligence we have relied on electronic intercepts and satellite imagery for our weak and generally wrong “intelligence”. While those tools can be useful, absent a humint capability, they are woefully inadequate. So the idea that we could rely on them is a joke I ‘m surprised they have the stones to make. Targeted strikes by UAVs in Pakistan have been successful, but expanding that into a theater-wide, pipehitter free fire zone is not gonna happen.

If I thought for a minute that they were serious about actually resourcing this and providing the networks of spies, warlords, assassins, and shady characters with satchels of cash it would take to make it work, I might could get behind it. But does anyone see the Obama administration, which right now is thinking about prosecuting the CIA for being mean to terrorists, doing any of that? All right, get up off the floor.

Biden’s plan is a way to cut and run, while maintaining that you are doing neither. That is why it is becoming increasingly likely. I think the more we say Biden plan though, the more damage we do to it’s viability. Seriously, just say it out loud…Biden plan. It makes my brain cry out in pain.

According to CNN, Joe Biden says that a missile-defense system in Europe isn’t really necessary, because Iran isn’t much of a threat.

Bret Stephens: Obama Is Pushing Israel Toward War – WSJ.com.

Let me know your thoughts on this.  My first reaction to this was:

It is not just Iran that we are ignoring, but every credible threat as well as potential threat.  It is as if the policy is to ignore it in the hopes that it will just go away, kind of like bin laden, al qaeda, etc.,  in the 90′s.  We all know how well that worked out!

BAGRAM, Afghanistan

The assessments about troop needs came as the top American commander in the region, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has been working to complete a major war strategy review, and as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, described a worsening situation in Afghanistan despite the recent addition of 17,000 U.S. troops ordered by the Obama administration and the extra security efforts surrounding the presidential election.

A credible election result is important for the country and for U.S. President Barack Obama, who has made stabilizing Afghanistan a top foreign policy priority.

Obama already plans to increase the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to about 68,000 by year’s end, more than double the 32,000 the United States had there at the end of 2008.

Mullen declined to comment on U.S. media reports that McChyrstal might recommend additional increases of 15,000, 25,000 or 45,000 troops.

He said the United States faced a multi-year effort to establish security and enable Afghan forces to maintain it.

“I don’t see this as a mission of endless drift. I think we know what to do, we’ve learned a lot of lessons from Iraq, focusing on the Afghan people,” Mullen said.

Asked about an exit strategy, Mullen said: “I’ve said from a military perspective I believe we’ve got to start to turn this thing around from a security standpoint in the next 12 to 18 months.”

“And I think after that we’d have a better view of how long it’s going to take and what we need to do.”

God Speed:

Dubbed Operation Khanjar, or “Strike of the Sword,” the military push was described by officials as the largest and fastest-moving of the war’s new phase. British forces last week led similar missions to fight and clear out insurgents in Helmand and neighboring Kandahar provinces.

“Where we go we will stay, and where we stay, we will hold, build and work toward transition of all security responsibilities to Afghan forces,” Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson said in a statement.

Southern Afghanistan is a Taliban stronghold but also a region where Afghan President Hamid Karzai is seeking votes from fellow Pashtun tribesmen.

The Pentagon is deploying 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in time for the elections and expects the total number of U.S. forces there to reach 68,000 by year’s end. That is double the number of troops in Afghanistan in 2008, but still half of much as are now in Iraq.

What Obama didn’t mention

A couple of surprising words were missing from President Barack Obama’s 55-minute news conference on Wednesday: “Iraq” — and “Afghanistan.”

Also MIA: “Korea,” “Pakistan,” “soldiers,” “surge” and “war” — as well as the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.

The omissions were partly a result of the short attention span of the press, which did not ask about those topics after the president did not mention them in his opening statement.

But the silence on those subjects also provides a striking illustration of one of the singular differences between Obama and his predecessor.

Maybe it is the protests or maybe it is the fact that Tuesday morning 16 senior members of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps were arrested, apparently for sympathizing with the protests, but whatever the case, the Mullahs want to put on a show for us and hold an ‘election recount‘:

Iran’s powerful Guardian Council says it is ready to recount disputed votes from Friday’s presidential poll.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election is being contested by rival Mir Hossein Mousavi and other moderate candidates, who are seeking a rerun.

The BBC’s Jon Leyne in Tehran says they may not accept the recount offer.

Several people died in a protest on Monday and Mr Mousavi urged followers not to take part in a rally planned for Tuesday, amid fears of new violence.

“This headquarters calls on people to avoid the trap of planned clashes,” a Mousavi spokesman told AFP news agency.