CNN:
Those who knew Nidal Malik Hasan before he was a major in the Army — and the suspect in last week’s mass killing at Fort Hood — say he was long known for militant Islamist views. Doctors who crossed paths with Hasan in medical programs paint a picture of a subpar student who wore his religious views on his sleeve.
……Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who faces 13 counts of premeditated murder, “was clearly espousing Islamist ideology” during his time as a medical student at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, one of his former classmates told CNN……His presentations for school were often laced with extremist Muslim views, one source said.
“Is your allegiance to Sharia law or the United States?” students once challenged Hasan, the source said. “Sharia law,” Hasan responded, according to the source. The incident was corroborated by another doctor who was present.
The source recalled another instance in which Hasan was asked if the U.S. Constitution was a brilliant document. Hasan replied, “No, not particularly,” according to the source. The former classmate told CNN that he voiced concerns about Hasan to supervisors at the school.
…….The second classmate said he witnessed at least two of Hasan’s PowerPoint discussions that included what he described as extremist views. In these presentations, which were supposed to be about health, Hasan justified suicide bombings and spoke about the persecution of Muslims in the Middle East, in the United States and in the U.S. military, the source said. Some in the crowd rolled their eyes or muttered under their breath, he said, and others were clearly uncomfortable.
Those in the audience, which included program supervisors, did not loudly object to Hasan’s presentations, but did complain to their higher-ups afterward. The supervisors expressed “appreciation, understanding and agreement” that the complaints would be discussed, but it was unclear what action, if any, came, the source said…….
A Syrian man, Khaled Nawaya, 34, detained as a potential national security threat after he tried to enter Canada with nearly $1 million and a ring emblazoned with a Hezbollah logo has been freed from custody…..Lawyer Phil Rankin says Nawaya, who tried to cross into B.C. from the United States on Oct. 6, lied about the coins and cash because he didn’t want to be taxed. Rankin says the ring and other suspicious items, including 9-11 conspiracy DVDs, were nothing more than a sign that Nawaya is sympathetic toward the situation in the Middle East. Nawaya, who’d lived in the U.S. for 16 years and had been approved to immigrate to Canada, says he got most of the money he was carrying as the result of a lawsuit in the U.S.
President Barack Obama ordered a government-wide investigation into whether federal agencies, including the Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence community, properly handled information on alleged Fort Hood gunman Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan before last week’s shooting that left 13 dead.
Mr. Obama originally asked the heads of the Defense Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. intelligence agencies to conduct the inquiry during a White House meeting the day after the shooting, according to a White House official. But Mr. Obama formalized the review in a presidential memorandum Thursday.
The White House official wouldn’t say whether Maj. Hasan’s links to a radical imam in Yemen prompted the review, but Mr. Obama was shown copies of some of the emails the alleged shooter sent to the imam, Anwar al-Alakwi, the day of the shooting and ordered the review the following morning. . . . .
Presidential Memorandum on Inventory of Files Related to Fort Hood Shooting (White House)
The Obama administration is increasingly exasperated by leaks of national-security-related information and is planning a major effort to root out and punish those responsible, top officials said Thursday.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he is “appalled” by a series of leaks surrounding the president’s deliberations about the way forward in Afghanistan and the investigation into last week’s massacre at Fort Hood, Texas.
“It does not serve the country, and it does not serve the military,” Gates told reporters as he traveled to Wisconsin to visit a factory that makes military vehicles. “If I found out with high confidence anybody who was leaking in the department, … it would probably be a career-ender.”
Gates’s comments came as top administration lawyers disclosed that the National Counterintelligence Executive, Robert Bear Bryant, has been instructed to come up with a new strategy for stemming the leaks.
……..The general counsel to Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, Robert Litt, told the same legal conference that leaks are “very much on the mind of the DNI himself.” “I have been in a number of where people have been able to point to leaks of classified information that have caused specific and identifiable losses of intelligence capabilities — not just theoretical, but this appeared in the press and this target changed its behavior,” Litt said. “This is something of great concern.”
Litt said the assignment of Bryant, a former FBI deputy director, to tackle the issue meant the Obama administration’s war on leaks was likely to succeed where others have failed. “If you know Bear you know there’s going to be something done about it. And you can expect to hear more about this in the coming months,” the DNI lawyer said.
“I’m not going to front run what’s going to be decided over the next couple of months but I do think there is a focus on what ways we have outside of criminal prosecution to try to deter and prevent leaks,” Litt said. . . . . .
United States Army Major Nidal Hasan proclaimed himself a “soldier of Allah” on private business cards he obtained over the Internet and kept in a box at his apartment near Fort Hood, Texas.
Hasan, the alleged perpetrator of last week’s fatal shootings in Fort Hood, TX, was charged Thursday with 13 counts of premeditated murder under Article 118 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which can carry a sentence up to death or life imprisonment.
The cards make no mention of his military affiliation, but underneath his name he listed himself as SoA (SWT). SoA is commonly used on jihadist Web sites as the acronym for Soldier of Allah, according to investigators and experts who have studied such sites. SWT is commonly used by Muslims as an acronym for Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala, Glory to God.
“He was making no secret of allegiances,” said former FBI agent Brad Garrett. “It’s one more piece of evidence that might have come out if investigators had taken a hard look at Hasan,” said Garrett. “It doesn’t say he’s about to go out and shoot a bunch of people, but there’s something not quite right for an Army major to self-identify that way.”
The green and white business cards include the title Behavior Heatlh (sic) Mental Health and Life Skills. Hasan listed a Maryland area mobile phone number and an aol.com e-mail address. U.S. officials and analysts told ABCNews.com today that Hasan used multiple e-mail addresses and screen names as he contacted several jihadist web sites around the world.
In addition to his contacts with suspected al Qaeda recruiter Anwar al Awlaki in Yemen, authorities said there is evidence he contacted other radical sites and individuals, including some in Europe.
On Hasan’s official Army personnel record, obtained by ABCNews.com., Hasan lists his e-mail address using the first name of Abduwall, instead of Nidal. Abduwalli, in Arabic, means “slave of” the great protector, or God. . . .
