Thursday, November 12th, 2009
President Obama orders intelligence review on alleged Fort Hood shooter
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has ordered a review of all intelligence related to Fort Hood shooting suspect Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan and whether the information was properly shared and acted upon within government agencies.
The review will be overseen by John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism. The first results are due to the White House by Nov. 30.
Obama also announced Thursday that he has ordered the preservation of the intelligence. Members of Congress, particularly Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, have called for a full examination of what agencies knew about Hasan's contacts with a radical Muslim cleric and others of concern to the U.S. and what they did with the information.
Hoekstra confirmed this week that the government knew about 10 to 20 emails between Hasan and a radical imam, beginning in December 2008.
The White House said Obama's order was issued to Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen, Defence Secretary Robert Gates, FBI Director Robert Mueller, National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair and National Counter Terrorism Center Director Michael Leiter at a meeting Nov. 6, the day after the shooting.
In that meeting, the president instructed each agency to conduct a review of this incident to ensure that they knew what happened, and to ensure that it never happens again.
