|
 |
 |
|
Sec. Gates: Fort Hood attack shows military must focus on internal threats
The Defense Department failed to anticipate the shootings at the Fort Hood military base last year because the agency is not sufficiently focused on internal threats, officials said Friday.
Current military policies underestimate the dangers of “workplace violence and self-radicalization," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said. He said this explains in part why Army officers failed to address the threat Maj. Nidal Hasan posed to his colleagues at Fort Hood last year.
Hasan has been charged with killing 13 people at the Texas military base last November. The massacre prompted the Pentagon to launch a sweeping, internal review of the armed forces' ability to handle internal threats.
Military leaders determined there exists "no means to disseminate information" about internal threats between members and branches of the armed forces. Similarly, there is no one official who collects that information and responds to it, Clark said.
"We need to be attentive to today's hazards," West added. "Yes, it is the role of our forces to protect the nation against external threats, but our emerging concern is to protect the force against internal threats."
The study also reveals those gaps in information sharing and threat detection allowed Hasan to continue serving as a doctor, despite concerns he was becoming more radicalized.
Hasan's performance reviews failed to take into account his "actual performance during his training, residency, and fellowship," according to the report. Consequently, the study concludes "some signs were missed; others ignored."
Additionally, Hasan was never fully screened — and neither he nor his co-workers were sufficiently interviewed — prior to being granted at least one form of security clearance, the report continued.
"We believe that if a more thorough investigation had been accomplished, his security clearance may have been revoked and his continued service and pending deployment would have been subject to increased scrutiny," officials concluded.
The Pentagon could not provide additional information about Hasan, however, citing an ongoing investigation.
Nevertheless, the Defense Department's report recommended "several" of Hasan's superiors face disciplinary action in the months to come, all for failing to respond to key warning signs prior to the Fort Hood massacre.
While media reports initially said up to eight officials might face sanctions, both West and Clark stressed in their briefing that their report does not include either a list of names or a number of officials under review.
Gates did not address those potential disciplinary actions directly in his press conference Friday morning either, saying only that the report included "accountability recommendations involving Army personnel responsible for supervising Maj. Hasan."
He did, however, promise to implement many of the report's recommendations between March and June of this year.
"One of the core functions of leadership is assessing the performance and fitness of people honestly and openly," 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."
This story was updated at 1:32 p.m.
Most Viewed RSS Feed »
