FBI asleep at the switch — again

On Tuesday, President Obama gave a very moving eulogy to the 13 Americans shot and killed last week at Fort Hood. But the more we learn about the killer, the more we have to wonder whether this was a mass murder that could have been avoided.

Maj. Nidal Hasan didn’t just crack suddenly and pick up a gun. He had methodically planned to kill — a lot of soldiers. He brought his own handguns onto the base in order to do so. And, almost as if he wanted to be stopped, he let drop several warnings ahead of time.

He openly and bitterly complained about being deployed to Afghanistan, and told friends he wanted out of the Army. To fellow soldiers, he praised the actions of suicide bombers, who kill innocent people in the name of God. He gave a PowerPoint presentation to fellow doctors at Walter Reed, describing the difficulties of a Muslim serving in the U.S. military. And he communicated by e-mail some 20 times with an Islamic extremist cleric who advocated the killing of Americans.

All of which should have sent off all kinds of red flags. But here’s what’s really shocking: Authorities, including the FBI, knew of Hasan’s strange behavior, yet did nothing. Decided it was not worth looking into. Did not question him, investigate him or remove him from duty.

Which is all too reminiscent of Sept. 11, 2001, when we learned that both the FBI and the CIA had evidence of Muslim extremists living openly in the U.S. and taking flight lessons, but took no action.

We still don’t know all the facts about the massacre at Fort Hood, but it sure looks like the FBI was asleep at the switch — again!

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