UPDATES BELOW
Having covered the intel beat for 5 years this recent report from ABC about the Fort Hood shooter does not sit right with me at all. But even if I had not covered intel, this article is astounding in its speculation and violates basic journalistic principles. There is simply no "there" there.
At best it is a negligent news article which is based on speculation, not fact and in the process stirs anti-Muslim feelings during an already tense time. At worst, the article is a propaganda tool, using a tragedy to trump up more national security propaganda on Obama's watch. Read it and see for yourself. I will take you through it below.
The article alleges as follows:
U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Malik 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.
That is it. That is all of the news in that article. Which U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago? Apparently more than one, but that information is not included. Why? How was Hasan attempting to make contact with people associated with "al Qaeda?" Did he have secret meetings at the mosque he attended? What are the specifics? Surely there is something more to this "news" than the above, right? And who or what are these two American officials? That is a strange way of sourcing the information. One can protect sources and still indicate the general direction from which the information is emerging. For example, two officials close to the NSA.
Most importantly, how is a military shrink able to attempt contact with an alleged terrorist without anyone noticing?
Then the article gets into the most bizarre paragraph as proof of the above allegations. Read it and tell me where the facts are:
The Associated Press reported Sunday that Major Hasan attended the Falls Church mosque when Awlaki was there.
The Telegraph of London reported that Awlaki had made contact with two of the 9/11 hijackers when he was in San Diego.
Fact, Hasan attend a mosque when a person who was was never charged with any crime by US investigators (albeit he is a lunatic hater) also happened to be there. And this passes for support of these very troubling allegations?
Again, how does this indicate that Hasan was "attempting to make contact?"
[Awlaki] denied any knowledge of the hijacking plot and was never charged with any crime. After an intensive investigation by the FBI , Awlaki moved to Yemen.
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.
So a guy the Bush FBI cleared after an "intensive investigation" (albeit a lunatic hater) happened to attend the same mosque as Hasan. And? What is the point? What is the connection to the allegations?
Then we get this part, as always, Hoekstra doing his song and dance:
Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said that he requested the CIA and other intelligence agencies brief the committee on what was known, if anything, about Hasan by the U.S. intelligence community, only to be refused.
In response, Hoekstra issued a document preservation request to four intelligence agencies. The letter, dated November 7th, was sent to directors Dennis Blair (DNI), Robert Mueller (FBI), Lt. Gen Keith Alexander (NSA) and Leon Panetta (CIA).
Hoekstra said he is "absolutely furious" that the house intel committee has been refused an intelligence briefing by the DNI or CIA on Hasan's attempt to reach out to al Qaeda, as first reported by ABC News.
I have an idea, when the CIA, DNI, FBI, and every other agency with an interest in investigating this very badly sourced allegation take a look, I ask that they also investigate what Peter Hoekstra was doing in Paris with an Iranian arms dealer:
"The Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), has recently held meetings in Paris with a front man working for Iranian arms dealer and Iran-Contra figure Manucher Ghorbanifar, US and foreign intelligence sources tell RAW STORY.
In July 2005, it was reported that Congressmen Hoekstra had travelled to Paris along with Congressman Curt Weldon (R-PA), the No. 2 Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, to meet with Ghorbanifar front man Fereidoun Mahdavi.
Two former senior intelligence officers and current intelligence sources abroad have now described a more recent meeting between Hoekstra and Mahdavi that took place in Paris sometime between the spring and summer of this year. What is by far of greatest concern to the sources is that accompanying Hoekstra on the trip was Vaughn Forrest, a mysterious character who, like Ghorbanifar, has ties to the Iran-Contra scandal."
I should note that I am not saying the ABC allegations are total bullshit. I simply don't know. But based on what they have provided as "evidence" to support their allegations, I am astonished that any editor worth their salt would have let this go to press. They did not have the story, simple as that and should have waited until they actually did. In the meantime, the right-wing has been given more red meat to play with, because they read the allegations without even looking further into what supports those allegations.
UPDATE:
I forgot to note that it is becoming clear that religious extremism stoked the fires in Hasan. But we should also remember that he was a Muslim his entire life and he was nearly 40 years old. Clearly, something else was the trigger for the sudden extremism and I think my initial feeling that desperation and anger at being deployed to war were key is likely still very applicable.
UPDATE II:
The CIA is denying allegations that it refused to brief Congress. Via TPM:
The CIA is denying an ABC News report that the agency has refused to brief Congress on any knowledge it has about Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army major suspected in the shootings at Fort Hood last week.
"This is a law enforcement investigation, in which other agencies -- not the CIA -- have the lead. Any suggestion that the CIA refused to brief Congress is flat wrong," CIA spokesman George Little tells TPMmuckraker in a statement.
ABC's Richard Esposito, Matthew Cole, and Brian Ross quoted an anonymous senior lawmaker as saying "the CIA had, so far, refused to brief the intelligence committees on what, if any, knowledge they had about Hasan's efforts."
UPDATE III
Looks like Islamic glue-sniffer Anwar alAwlaki is just as eager for a war of civilizations as his Christian extremist counter-parts. This guy is clearly a lunatic and an extremist, but his song and dance does not in any way shed light on the story of Hasan and what he did. I say we keep our eyes on the ball of the investigation, not be distracted by this nut-job, whose only goal seems to be to inspire hate and violence, so that more lives will be lost.
