Malik Nadal Hasan

Sen. John McCain says he has no doubt that "political correctness" played a role in preventing concerns about the alleged Fort Hood gunman from reaching the right people. The Arizona senator says it remains to be determined how big a role it may have had in causing military authorities to ignore warning signals about the shooting suspect. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is accused of killing 13 and wounding more than 30 on Nov. 5 at the Army post in Texas. Colleagues reportedly viewed Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, as belligerent and argumentative in frequent discussions of his Muslim faith. Investigators are looking into whether ... Read Full Story

WASHINGTON — The government intercepted at least 18 e-mails between the alleged Fort Hood gunman and a radical Muslim cleric, and a key senator says there could be more communications that might have tipped off law enforcement or military officials. Federal investigators say they intercepted the messages between the suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, and Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical American-born cleric. They were passed along to two Joint Terrorism Task Force cells led by the FBI, but a senior defense official said no one at the Defense Department knew about the messages until after the shootings. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in ... Read Full Story

US Army Major Nidal Hasan, accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, intensified contacts with a radical Yemeni American cleric just months before the shootings and began discussing surreptitious financial transfers, The Washington Post reported Saturday. Citing two unnamed sources briefed on a collection of secret e-mails between the two, the newspaper said the e-mails were obtained by an FBI-led task force in San Diego between late last year and June but were not forwarded to the military. Some were sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Washington field office, triggering an assessment into whether they raised national security concerns, but those ... Read Full Story

There may be additional e-mails that could have tipped off law enforcement or military officials to the Fort Hood shooter before he went on his deadly rampage, the chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee said Friday. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said after a briefing from Pentagon and Army officials that his committee will investigate how those and other e-mails involving the alleged shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, were handled and why the U.S. military was not made aware of them before the Nov. 5 shooting. The U.S. government intercepted at least 18 e-mails between Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical American-born cleric. They ... Read Full Story

An attorney for the Army psychiatrist charged in the mass shooting at Fort Hood says his client will have his first court hearing in his hospital room on Saturday. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's civilian attorney, John Galligan, said Friday that military prosecutors notified him of their plans for the hearing at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. Hasan has been recovering there since the Nov. 5 rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 dead and more than 30 wounded. Hasan was shot by civilian members of Fort Hood's police force. The hearing is to determine whether Hasan will be placed in pre-trial ... Read Full Story