Obama sought to limit independent probes of Fort Hood shooting

Obama last week urged Congress not to conduct independent investigations into the Islamist terror shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. Such investigations would have focused on apparent security and counterintelligence failures.

Obama has played down the terrorist nature of the attacks and the suspected shooter, Nidal Malik Hasan, who was in communication with an American-born Islamist cleric tied to the Al Qaida terror group (the radical Imam Anwar al-Awaika is pictured adjacent) and made radical comments on a website and elsewhere including:

“Non-Muslims are infidels, condemned to Hell, who should be set on fire,” and “Non-believers should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats.” According to Senator Carl Levin (D), Chair of the Senate Armed Forces Committee at least 18 e-mails between Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical American- born cleric intercepted. They were passed along to two terrorism task forces led by the FBI, but defense officials have said no one at the Defense Department knew about the messages until after the shootings.

Hasan reportedly told Awlaki “I can’t wait to join you” in the afterlife in a series of e-mail messages over the last year.

Obama withdrew his block to probes under mounting pressure for the news media and Congress to admit that a terrorist was permitted to operate freely within the U.S. Army, Obama said during his Nov. 14 radio address that the ongoing investigation of the “tragedy” will examine “the motives of the alleged gunman, including his views and contacts.”

Obama also for the first time revealed that there were “potential warning signs” about Hasan that were evident before the shootings that killed 13 soldiers, an unborn child, and wounded 30 others. “We must uncover what steps — if any — could have been taken to avert this tragedy,” he said.

The U.S. intelligence community is conducting a full review of the events at Fort Hood. “The purpose of this review is clear: We must compile every piece of information that was known about the gunman, and we must learn what was done with that information,” Obama said. “Once we have those facts, we must act upon them. If there was a failure to take appropriate action before the shootings, there must be accountability.”

It’s rather bizarre that after opposing the investigation Obama said the government needs to be “act swiftly and surely” on threat information, and Congressional inquiries, should not be turned into “political theater.”

Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R.-Mich., and ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, confirmed this week that U.S. authorities were aware before the shootings of 10 to 20 e-mails between Hasan and the radical imam, Anwar Awlaki beginning in December 2008.

Several members of Congress have already announced plans for investigations into the Hasan, who was known to express anti-American and anti-Iraq war and anti-Afghanistan war sentiments to soldiers he counseled after their return from the battlefield.

Among those seeking investigations are Rep. Howard McKeon, R-Calif., for the House Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, whose Homeland Security Committee will conduct a probe. There is concern Obama will seek to limit the investigation, obscure facts of otherwise interfere.