According to Reuters, intelligence agencies learned that Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army psychiatrist who counseled wounded soldiers, had contact with an Islamist sympathetic to al Qaeda Officials said the information had been passed to law enforcement authorities.
This paragraph should be the headline in every newspaper as the admission of an unmitigated tragic lapse in our nation’s security – not just for the obvious potential covert espionage reasons, but for the damage that may have been inflicted during Hasan’s counseling of our troops.
It is largely unreported that Hasan, in spite of all the information known about his pro-Islamic stance, was actively treating others with psychological problems that were far less serious than his own. Something is dramatically wrong with the military’s vetting process for placing personnel in sensitive mental healthcare positions. I am sure that strict rules are followed for intelligence-critical areas, but apparently Hasan was actively counseling soldiers in need of psychiatric assistance.
What damage has he already inflicted with emotional espionage? Even more serious is that Hasan was slated to be transferred to Afghanistan with the mission to treat military personnel with mental health issues in battle zones.
With the revulsion Americans are feeling over the Ft. Hood massacre, imagine the physical and emotional damage that could have been inflicted if Hasan, a ticking time bomb, had been immersed in thousands of our troops in Afghanistan. Hasan was literally a psychological I.E.D. – capable of inflicting wounds to the mental health of his patients. Hasan was indeed, the proverbial “fox in the hen house.”
Reuters stated that the shooting in Ft. Hood has prompted President Barack Obama to order a review of how U.S. intelligence agencies handled information they may have gathered about Hasan amid questions about whether authorities may have missed warning signs. While authorities are searching for post Ft. Hood answers, someone must implement tighter security and readiness checks on the people in the military who are providing mental health care.
and start with Obama