ABC News reports:
U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News.
It is not known whether the intelligence agencies informed the Army that one of its officers was seeking to connect with suspected al Qaeda figures, the officials said.
One senior lawmaker said the CIA had, so far, refused to brief the intelligence committees on what, if any, knowledge they had about Hasan’s efforts.
CIA director Leon Panetta and the Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, have been asked by Congress “to preserve” all documents and intelligence files that relate to Hasan, according to the lawmaker.
On Sunday, Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) called for an investigation into whether the Army missed signs as to whether Hasan was an Islamic extremist.
This information is a bit hazy at the moment. We could be talking about another example of the intelligence community getting burned because they refuse to share information, or because they collect information without warrants, or because they misdiagnosed the threat this man posed and didn’t move from investigation to some kind of disciplinary or legal action.
The hardest thing in the world is to tell a victim’s family that you knew this guy was sympathizing with al-Qaeda and you let him continue in his job as an Army psychiatrist.
But even though ABC News is a reputable source most of the time, I want to see a statement from the administration before I believe this report is 100% accurate.
