FINALLY,  SOME ACTION – AT 9:10 A.M. ET:  Apparently, the Army is taking very seriously the negligence that led up to the Fort Hood massacre - at 9:12 A.M. ET:  From Fox News: 

As many as eight Army officers may be punished for failing to heed warning signs and take action against suspected Fort Hood gunman Maj. Nidal Hasan, a U.S. official said Thursday.

First reported in the Los Angeles Times, an official familiar with a Pentagon review of the case, which will be discussed at a briefing Friday, said the officers who face discipline hold ranks of colonel and below.

Not good enough.  What about general officers who set the tone that made this possible?  What about Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of staff, who said after the terror attack that his greatest concern was that it would hurt diversity in the Army?  What about the civilian leadership, with its obsessive political correctness?

The review reportedly found that superiors allowed Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, to advance within the ranks despite his failings to meet physical and professional standards. Hasan avoided physical training, was overweight and frequently late, but was seen by superiors as a rare medical officer and thus avoided corrective action.

"Had those failings been properly adjudicated, he wouldn't have progressed," the official told the Times.

Additionally, the Pentagon review into the deadly rampage that killed 13 found that the Defense Department does not do an adequate job of sharing information about internal personnel, and it focuses more on hunting spies than ferreting out extremists.

COMMENT:  We'll follow this.  There are pervasive problems throughout the United States Government that are hampering the war on terror.  These problems have not been solved, and extend beyond the military into the CIA and the FBI, especially the latter.

January 15, 2010