FORT HOOD PROBE GROWING, AS IS ANGER - AT 9:51 P.M. ET:  We are fortunate to have some gutsy legislators, and some journalists who still seek the truth.  They will not let the forces of political correctness, including some in the Army and the FBI, to bury the Fort Hood incident with its victims.  There are truths coming out, and we hope they will wake up this nation.  From tomorrow's Washington Post: 

FORT HOOD, TEX. -- Maj. Nidal M. Hasan exchanged e-mails late last year and this year with a radical cleric in Yemen, but the contact did not lead to an investigation, federal law enforcement officials said Monday.

Can you imagine if, during World War II, an Army officer had contact with Nazi groups, and no one saw fit to investigate?

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist suspected of killing 12 soldiers and a civilian here last week, will be tried in military court, the officials said.

U.S. intelligence agencies intercepted 10 to 20 e-mails from Hasan to Anwar al-Aulaqi, a U.S. citizen who once was a spiritual leader at the suburban Virginia mosque where Hasan had worshiped, said Rep. Peter Hoekstra (Mich.), the top Republican on the House intelligence committee.

Aulaqi responded to Hasan at least twice, Hoekstra said, but he described the responses as "innocent," and a terrorism expert cautioned that the exchanges may have been part of Hasan's academic research.

Academic research?  Really?

The FBI determined that the e-mails did not warrant an investigation, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Obviously, a very bad decision, especially when you look at the rest of Hasan's troubling record, especially the poor evaluations he'd received.

"For me, the number of times that this guy tried to reach out to the imam was significant," Hoekstra said in an interview, adding: "Al-Qaeda and radical jihadists use the Internet to spread radical jihadism. . . . So how much of his lashing out is as a result of . . . his access to radical messages on the Internet and the ability to interact?

"I believe that the responses from Aulaqi were maybe pretty innocent," Hoekstra continued. "But the very fact that he's sent and communicated to this guy and got responses would be quite a concern to me."

Correct.  It's the contact, and its voluntary nature, that's troubling.

The revelations came as Hoekstra and other congressional leaders complained about a lack of information from the intelligence community in the days since Thursday's shootings and raised questions about whether government agencies had paid sufficient attention to warning signs about Hasan.

Does the term "cover-up" come to mind?

On Capitol Hill, several investigations of the shootings are taking shape, with the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee announcing the first public hearings on the matter. Federal authorities are continuing to review Hasan's computer and electronic correspondence.

COMMENT:  Ironic, but I have greater faith in Congress to conduct a good investigation than I have in the intelligence agencies.  Our intelligence agencies continue to have a worrisome record, and not much is being done about it.

November 9,  2009