Tel-Chai Nation

The AP/Washington Post reports that Malik Nidal Hasan's superior officers who did nothing about his extremist views could face penalties:

WASHINGTON -- As many as eight Army officers could face discipline for failing to do anything when the alleged shooter in the Fort Hood rampage displayed erratic behavior early in his military career, two officials familiar with the case said.

[...]

Several midlevel officers overlooked or failed to act on red flags in Hasan's lax work habits and fixation on religion, the officials said Thursday. Hasan was an odd duck and a loner who was passed along from office to office and job to job despite professional failings that included missed or failed exams and physical fitness requirements, the review found.

Findings about Hasan and those who supervised him are contained in a confidential addendum to a larger report about the Pentagon's handling of potential extremism in the ranks and readiness to handle the sort of mass casualties Hasan allegedly inflicted.

[...]

Earlier, another official familiar with the findings said the five- to eight officers who could face discipline were supervisors who knew about Hasan's shortcomings and looked the other way or who did not fully reflect concerns about Hasan in professional evaluations.

The officers supervised Hasan when he was a medical student and during his early work as an Army psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

[...]

Hasan got passing grades and a promotion in part because disturbing information about his behavior and performance was not recorded by superiors or properly passed to others who might have stepped in, the report found.

As Hasan's training progressed, his strident views on Islam became more pronounced as did worries about his competence as a medical professional. Yet his superiors continued to give him positive performance evaluations that kept him moving through the ranks and led to his eventual assignment at Fort Hood.

Those officers must be dealt with seriously, and can no longer serve in the military. They should in fact be sent to prison and forced to pay the families of the victims for damages.

At Jihad Watch, Robert Spencer argues that if the military continues to be pro-Islam and refuses to take the elements into consideration, it will not be possible to protect the army from violent predators on the inside. Therefore, this current news suggests it's all just face-saving and window-dressing.

Labels: anti-americanism, islam, jihad, military, United States