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From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.
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And I'm Robert Siegel.
The U.S. military does not have good systems to spot the next Nidal Hasan and stop him. That's one of the conclusions of the Pentagon's investigation into the Fort Hood shootings. That report was released today. NPR's Daniel Zwerdling was the first to reveal serious concerns of some of Hasan's Army supervisors. And he now reports that the Pentagon investigation leave some important questions unanswered.
DANIEL ZWERDLING: Nidal Hasan allegedly killed 13 people and wounded dozens of others back on that afternoon in November. And President Obama asked the Pentagon to find out: Should somebody have seen it coming? If so, who? And why didn't they? The secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, said here is one big reason why.
Secretary ROBERT GATES (Defense Department): 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.
ZWERDLING: But the report he released today doesn't go into any details about Nidal Hasan and the officers above him. Gates and the two men who headed the investigation said they can't talk about specifics because the Fort Hood shootings are a criminal case. They did say that some of Hasan's supervisors clearly missed some warning signs and ignored others. The former secretary of the Army, Togo West, wouldn't be more specific, but he said they've sent the details to the commanders running the Army now.
Mr. TOGO WEST (Former Secretary of Army): We said that we thought that several officers responsible for applying the Army's policies to him did not do so, and that we think that that should be referred to the secretary of the Army for considerations of accountability. I think that's as far as you want us to go.
ZWERDLING: Still the report seems to address some other problems that we reported last November. You might remember that the Army sent Hasan to treat soldiers at Fort Hood in the summer of last year. Yet, sources told NPR that more than a year and a half before that, some of his supervisors were so worried about his behavior that they discussed could Nidal Hasan be psychotic. In addition, they felt he was obsessed with Islam. They thought he had extremist Islamic views and he seemed especially obsessed with a Muslim-American soldier who killed two fellow solders in Kuwait after the U.S. invaded Iraq.
Yet, they didn't call Army security. They didn't order Hasan to get a psychiatric evaluation. Instead, they saw Hasan mainly as a teaching challenge: Could they help him do better in his graduate work? The Pentagon report says the military needs to establish clear policies that tell officers, here's the kind of behavior you should lookout for. Here's what to do if you're worried that the person could be a threat.
Mr. WEST: Sometimes, just counseling and a helping hand can help. But other times, there are warning signs that need to be paid attention to and passed along the chain of command, so that those in authority can decide what is the right approach.
ZWERDLING: In fact, that's the main focus of the Pentagon report: how can the military set up new systems, so people can spot a potentially violent colleague in their ranks. But the report basically ignores another question that the Hasan case brought up. How can officers get rid of doctors who don't do a good job taking care of wounded troops? As we've reported, Hasan's main supervisor at Walter Reed thought he was such a bad psychiatrist that he tried to kick him out of the program almost three years ago. He sent a scathing memo to a key medical committee. It denounced Hasan for having a pattern of poor judgment and a lack of professionalism.
Yet, higher-ups refused to take action. More than that, they gave Hasan a special fellowship, that's a plum they normally give only to their stars. And then they sent Hasan to Fort Hood to work with some of the most traumatized and vulnerable soldiers in the Army.
Daniel Zwerdling, NPR News.