[Vision2020] Review of Ft. Hood Slayings Faults Hasan’s Supervisors

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of the January 25, 2010 edition of the Army Times.

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Review of Ft. Hood slayings faults Hasan’s supervisors
By William H. McMichael, Army Times Reporter

Several officers “failed to com­ply” with “generally adequate” applicable
policies regarding the career progression of accused Fort Hood shooter
Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a Pentagon review con­cluded after looking into
the events leading up to the massacre that left 13 people dead.

What’s more, the review of the incident said “some medical officers failed
to apply appropriate judg­ment and standards of officership.” The
seven-week review, chaired by former Army Secretary Togo West and retired
Adm. Vern Clark, was ordered by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. It
concluded that “a gap exists” in terms of sharing information about such
threats —

not only within units but among installations and commands.

“One of the core functions of leadership is assessing the perfor­mance and
fitness of people hon­estly and openly,” Defense Secre­tary Robert Gates
said. “Failure to do so or kicking the problem to the next unit or the
next installation may lead to damaging, if not dev­astating,
consequences.” Gates said he has forwarded the review’s recommendations,
con­tained in a classified annex, to Army Secretary John McHugh “and
directed him to take appro­priate action.” Citing an ongoing
investigation, West declined to elaborate on the number of officers who
“failed to comply” with personnel policies regarding Hasan.

The Associated Press reported that, according to two officials familiar
with the case, as many as eight Army officers could be disci­plined for
failing to do anything when Hasan displayed erratic behavior early in his
career. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because that
informa­tion has not been publicly released. `The Nov. 5 shootings at Fort
Hood that left 13 dead and dozens injured allegedly were committed by an
Islamic Army major who had reportedly raised colleagues’ concerns over a
two-year period that he was becoming increasingly radicalized.

“There is no DoD-wide protocol to notify commanders of potential internal
threats that may exist in their command,” the review said.

That responsibility, however, lies at the individual and unit level, and
in the type of information that follows personnel from assign­ment to
assignment, the Penta­gon’s top leaders said at one of two Jan. 15 news
conferences that addressed the review.

Yet the review also found that current policies on prohibited activ­ities
fail to give commanders and supervisors the authority and tools to
intervene when military person­nel “at risk of potential violence make
contact or establish relation­ships with persons or entities that promote
self-radicalization,” Gates said.

One such tool, Gates said, would identify and be based upon research into
behaviors that could indicate the potential for self-radicalization and
violence in the workplace, “and having those in the hands of commanders.”
“We need to refine our understanding of what these behavioral signals are
and how they progress. At the same time, there is no well-integrated means
to gather, evaluate and dissemi­nate the wide range of behavioral
indicators that could help our commanders better anticipate an internal
threat,” Gates said.

Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said military leaders need to place
an “active focus” on transferring information on poten­tially problematic
individuals.

“The issue of self-radicalization is one that we have really got to focus
on because ... there is clearly more and more of that going on,” he said.
Mullen would not elaborate when asked if he would give com­manders a
greater ability to see what troops are privately commu­nicating to others,
such as in e­mails. But commanders, he said, have the responsibility,
authority “and accountability, quite frankly,” for their troops and “have
more than adequate room and authority right now to really understand what
their people are doing.” Gates also said the review “rais­es serious
questions about the degree to which the entire Depart­ment of Defense is
prepared for similar incidents in the future. It is clear that as a
department, we have not done enough to adapt to the evolving domestic
internal security threat to American troops and military facilities that
has emerged over the past decade.” Gates has directed the assistant
secretary of defense for homeland defense to conduct an assessment of the
reviews. The assessment is to be done by March. Gates said other actions
“will require more fundamental institutional changes over a longer
period,” adding that he wants these changes completed or underway by June.

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The red flags were there.  They were simply ignored.  Result:  13 dead.

To think that the result could have been far worse . . .

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown