Wednesday, January 20, 2010

More on the Fort Hood assassin

Leaders of an internal Pentagon inquiry into the deadly Fort Hood shootings were criticized Wednesday for refusing to discuss why the accused gunman moved through the military's ranks despite repeated concerns over his performance and behavior.

. . . Hasan's supervisors sanitized his performance appraisals in the years prior to the shootings, according to government documents obtained by The Associated Press that reveal concerns about him at almost every stage of his Army education.

Officers in charge of Hasan loaded praise into the alleged gunman's record despite knowing he was chronically late for work, saw few patients, disappeared when he was on call and confronted those around him with his Islamic views.

The materials also disclose concerns that the psychiatrist-in-training might have been developing a psychosis, according to the documents, yet no mental health evaluation was done.

. . . The material shows that the same supervisor who meticulously catalogued Hasan's problems suddenly swept them under the rug when graduation arrived.
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2010/01/20/general-us-fort-hood-coddling-hasan_7288145.html

Affirmative action. That's the reason why the Fort Hood assassin's problems were covered up, his records were sanitized, and praise for him was manufactured. No one in the chain of command wanted to take the heat for being the officer who drummed an Arab American Muslim physician out of the military, even for cause, and even when they suspected psychosis. Political correctness was a higher priority than public safety.

The sad truth? Had Hasan been kicked out, and his aggressive and fundamentalist "Islamic views" cited as a reason, Hasan would have likely won a religious discrimination suit against the government.

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