Senate report: Fort Hood massacre could have been prevented

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Washington • A Senate investigation into the Fort Hood shooting faults the Army and FBI for missing warning signs and failing to exchange information that could have prevented the massacre.

The report concludes that systemic and cultural problems caused military officials to fail to recognize signs that the alleged shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was becoming increasingly radical before the 2009 shooting.

It also concludes that the FBI failed to share information with the Army — notably, e-mails that Hasan exchanged with a "suspected terrorist," a likely reference to Anwar al-Aulaqi, an Islamic cleric well known for his extremist views. The report says the agency might have dismissed such clues to avoid causing "a bureaucratic confrontation."

At a news conference announcing the release of the report, Sen. JosephLieberman, I-Conn., said that the investigation's "painful conclusion is that the Fort Hood massacre could have, and should have, been prevented."

In particular, Lieberman said that the report, issued by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, indicated that the FBI had compelling evidence of extremism that should have led to Hasan's discharge from the military and made him the subject of a counterterrorism investigation.

Lieberman pointed to a "sanitized and misleading officer evaluation report from Walter Reed [Army Medical Center]," where Hasan worked, and said that Hasan's words had indicated he was "not just a ticking time bomb, but a traitor."

The FBI didn't immediately respond to the report.

An Army spokesman said in a statement that officials have already implemented numerous preventive steps since the Fort Hood shootings.

"We appreciate the committee's efforts to examine circumstances surrounding the Fort Hood shooting incident, and we will closely examine the report's findings and recommendations," said the spokesman, Col. Tom Collins.

The report was the latest in a series of investigations looking into the shootings, which left 13 people dead. Last year, a Pentagon review found that several officers failed to intervene in Hasan's career as an Army psychiatrist despite signs of his radicalization and shortcomings as a soldier.

As a result, the military began requiring soldiers to report behavior by fellow soldiers that might indicate extremism. That information will be included in a database maintained by the Army's head of counterintelligence.