Military to Discipline at Least 6 Officers in Ft. Hood Case

[justin0495]

Start getting ready for brutally honest NCOERs and OERs:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,585449,00.html?test=latestnews

The military will formally discipline at least six officers, mostly from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, for failing to take action against the officer accused of carrying out last year's deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood, according to people familiar with the matter.

Senior Army officials said the decision to punish so many officers reflects the military's belief that the November assault, which killed 13 people at the Army base in central Texas, could have been prevented if Maj. Nidal Hasan's superiors had alerted authorities to his increasing Islamist radicalization.

The officials said that as many as eight officers could ultimately be censured over Hasan, mostly with letters of reprimand that effectively end their military careers. The punishments will be detailed in an "accountability review" that Army Gen. Carter Ham, who has been investigating the shootings for several months, will deliver to top Army officials as early as Friday.

An Army spokesman said that Ham's accountability review would be submitted within days, but declined to comment further on the inquiry.

People familiar with the matter said the Army had earlier notified eight officers that they were under investigation, including Col. John Bradley, who until recently ran Walter Reed's psychiatry department, and Col. Charles Engel, a psychiatrist who supervised Hasan when he was doing a fellowship at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

[MCGYVER]

Sooooo, the fact that the FBI had investigated this clown 6 months prior and deemed him "harmless" isn't a factor at all, right? What a cover up. Nobody can shift the blame and wag the dog like the U.S. Government.

[ChiefB]

Sooooo, the fact that the FBI had investigated this clown 6 months prior and deemed him "harmless" isn't a factor at all, right? What a cover up. Nobody can shift the blame and wag the dog like the U.S. Government.

Seems his lawyer agrees with you, Mac:

FM WSJ:
Col. Bradley didn't reply to emails seeking comment. Gary Myers, the attorney representing Col. Engel, said the military was blaming a handful of officers for a broader institutional failing.

"The history of the Department of Defense, when dealing with broad-based problems within the department, is to isolate and vilify a few individuals," said Mr. Myers, who served as an Army lawyer during the Vietnam War. "The idea that anyone could predict future violence by a person who has never engaged in violence before is absurd."

A senior Army official said the investigation found evidence that military doctors at Walter Reed were so focused on their teaching and clinical work that they failed to adequately supervise Maj. Hasan or alert authorities when he began to express extremist religious views and harshly criticize the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"What you generally see is that some officers who were aware of his shortcomings didn't take appropriate actions in response," the senior Army official said.

"Sometimes, when you have specialists who are also officers, they can be more specialist than officer."

I don't know that his supervisors shoulda/coulda picked up on his murderous intentions, but he never should have got clean OERs and promotions.

He should have been identified FIRST as a DB performer, poor officer and no candidate for promotion.

There was enough of a record of his malingering and arrogance and goofiness to have put him on the road to the civilian side.

He was not adequately supervised or rated. Most officers with his performance record and reputation would have been passed over and thrown out long ago.

As to his supers picking up on his terrorist tendencies, I guess, ironically, only a herd of psychiatrists could tell you!

MHO

ChiefB

[MADAMESINCERE]

Sooooo, the fact that the FBI had investigated this clown 6 months prior and deemed him "harmless" isn't a factor at all, right? What a cover up. Nobody can shift the blame and wag the dog like the U.S. Government.

There were still some things that Hasan did, said, or was involved in before the FBI began their investigation that Army leaders should have been concerned with. I had to brief my CG about this case a few weeks ago.

[MCGYVER]

I don't doubt that but to discard the FBI portion and focus solely on the piece of shit's prior leadership is laughable, irresponsible and sends the wrong message. The leadership in question could quite easily say "hey, even the FBI said this guy was no threat so where do I, just one average person, get off making a claim counter to that?" and they'd be fully justified in doing so now.