All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said red flags in the Fort Hood shooting suspect's past were ignored out of officials' fear of being labeled as bias against Muslims.

Maj. Nadil Malik Hasan is accused of killing 13 people and wounding 29 others in an attack at an on-base medical facility earlier this month. In the wake of the shooting, a host of potential warning signs that were never acted upon were uncovered.

Among them:

A joint terrorism task force was aware of e-mail exchanges between Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical imam who espoused hostility against U.S. soldiers overseas. Investigators didn't follow up because they said the communications contained no references to terrorism.

Supervisors at Walter Reed Medical Center expressed concerns that Hasan could be belligerent about religious issues. And according to a 2007 evaluation letter published by NPR Wednesday, Hasan exhibited a "pattern of poor judgment and lack of professionalism."

Hasan also delivered a lecture at Walter Reed on the dangers of forcing Muslim soldiers to fight against other Muslims. He advised the military to grant conscientious objector status in such cases.

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Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, announced today an investigation by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee into the Fort Hood shooting on Nov. 5, where Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan allegedly murdered 13 and wounded 43.

“We appreciate that the Army and the Justice Department are conducting a criminal investigation of this shooting," said Lieberman. "But that does not mean that the rest of us, including the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, can just sit back and watch."

Without interfering in the existing investigations by the Obama administration, Lieberman cited Congress' duty as a watchdog in launching the probe on whether the shooting could have been prevented.

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Updated 5:17 p.m. ET, with additional information

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates attended one of the Fort Hood funerals today in Mountain City, Tenn., for Fort Hood victim Specialist Frederick Greene (seen at left).

He'd been invited by Specialist Greene's father. Gates met the family at the Fort Hood memorial last week.

This was Gates' first time attending a military funeral outside the Washington area.

His spokesman Geoff Morrell says he's wanted to do this before -- "to be part of a sendoff for one of our fallen heroes, where the whole town turns out to honor him." But he hadn't wanted to be a distraction. This funeral -- where he had been personally invited, and the geography meant he could attend without alerting large numbers of press, made it possible.

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A slim majority of Americans believe the U.S. military had information that could have prevented the shootings at Fort Hood Army post, a new CBS News poll finds.

Fifty-one percent of Americans say the military had sufficient information to prevent the shootings, while 29 percent say it did not. Another 20 percent are not sure.

Republicans and independents were slightly more likely than Democrats to say the military had sufficient information, though the percentages were relatively stable across the political spectrum.

Forty-eight percent of Americans – including 65 percent of Republicans – deem the shootings an act of terrorism, while 38 percent say it was not terrorism. Fourteen percent say they don't know if the attack, allegedly carried out by Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was terrorism.

Read the Complete Poll

President Obama spoke at a memorial service for those killed in the attack, and he gets relatively high marks for his performance in the wake of the incident. Fifty-seven percent say they approve of how Mr. Obama dealt with the shootings, while just 18 percent disapprove. One in four aren't sure how they feel.

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Former Alaska Governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin will visit Fort Hood Army post next month as a part of her book tour, her publisher told the Wall Street Journal.

Palin is going on the road to promote her memoir "Going Rogue," which goes on sale next week. She had reportedly been planning to visit Fort Hood on her tour before the shootings at the military outpost, which left 13 dead.

Special Section: Tragedy at Fort Hood

According to the Journal, an official at Fort Hood contacted Palin's publisher at some point after the attack to indicate that she should go ahead with the planned appearance, scheduled for December 4th.

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It's one of those terms that might seem to belong to an earlier era: political correctness. But in the wake of the Fort Hood shootings, critics are seeing exactly that in both the treatment of alleged gunman Nidal Malik Hasan by the military before the shootings and in the comments of politicians and members of the media afterward.

"Who’d think the U.S. Army could be seized with a sudden case of political correctness?" columnist Margaret Carlson wrote Thursday, dubbing the army "oversensitive."

"If they hadn’t been so cautious, authorities could have pieced together the links between Hasan and radical Islam and possibly prevented Fort Hood," she argued. Authorities, Carlson notes, knew Hassan had visited radical jihadist Web sites; some officials at Walter Reed, where he had worked, thought he might have been psychotic. "It wouldn’t have been an act of bigotry, just an act of sanity."

"Jihadist rhetoric espoused by Hasan was categorically dismissed out of submissiveness to the concepts of tolerance and diversity," complained Major Shawn Keller. "The Army as an institution has been neutered by decades of political correctness and the leaders in Hasan's chain-of-command failed to act accordingly out of fear of being labeled anti-Muslim and receiving a negative evaluation report."

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American presidents often face their greatest speaking challenges when called upon to serve as consoler-in-chief to a nation grieving a collective loss.

But national calamities also give U.S. leaders an unequaled chance to inspire and provide solace.

Remember President Reagan's evening address to the nation on the day America suffered through the Challenger disaster that claimed the lives of 7 astronauts:

"Today is a day for mourning and remembering. Nancy and I are pained to the core by the tragedy of the shuttle Challenger. We know we share this pain with all of the people of our country. This is truly a national loss."

That speech is remembered as one of Ronald Reagan's finest and most moving – especially its ending.

"The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of God.'"

In 1995, President Clinton found himself in a similar situation, trying to comfort the nation after the worst episode of terrorism to hit the U.S. to that time: the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City.

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President Obama spoke at a memorial service for the men and women killed at the shooting rampage at Fort Hood Army post, honoring the dead and predicting justice for the shooter responsible for their murder.

"It may be hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy," Mr. Obama said. "But this much we do know – no faith justifies these murderous and craven acts; no just and loving God looks upon them with favor. For what he has done, we know that the killer will be met with justice – in this world, and the next."

The president said the fact that the shooting took place on American soil "makes the tragedy even more painful and even more incomprehensible." He said those who were killed will endure "through the life of our nation."

"Every evening that the sun sets on a tranquil town; every dawn that a flag is unfurled; every moment that an American enjoys life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – that is their legacy," said the president.

Photos: Fort Hood Memorial Service

Mr. Obama spoke individually about those who were killed in the shootings, offering background information and details about their lives. When Staff Sergeant Amy Krueger's mother told Krueger she couldn't take Osama bin Laden on by herself, the president noted, "Amy replied: 'Watch me.'"

"Their lives speak to the strength, the dignity the decency of those who serve, and that's how they will be remembered," Mr. Obama said of the fallen.

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Updated 3:54 p.m. ET

President Obama spoke Tuesday afternoon at the memorial service for those killed at Fort Hood Army post last week. Below are his full remarks, as provided by the White House.

President Obama: To the Fort Hood community; to Admiral Mullen; General Casey; General Cone; Secretary McHugh; Secretary Gates; most importantly, to family, friends and members of our Armed Forces. We come together filled with sorrow for the 13 Americans that we have lost; with gratitude for the lives that they led; and with a determination to honor them through the work we carry on.

This is a time of war. Yet these Americans did not die on a foreign field of battle. They were killed here, on American soil, in the heart of this great state and the heart of this great American community. This is the fact that makes the tragedy even more painful, even more incomprehensible.

For those families who have lost a loved one, no words can fill the void that's been left. We knew these men and women as soldiers and caregivers. You knew them as mothers and fathers; sons and daughters; sisters and brothers.

But here is what you must also know: Your loved ones endure through the life of our nation. Their memory will be honored in the places they lived and by the people they touched. Their life's work is our security, and the freedom that we all too often take for granted. Every evening that the sun sets on a tranquil town; every dawn that a flag is unfurled; every moment that an American enjoys life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness -- that is their legacy.

Neither this country -- nor the values upon which we were founded -- could exist without men and women like these 13 Americans. And that is why we must pay tribute to their stories.

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The Senate Homeland Security Committee will conduct an investigation into last week's shootings at Fort Hood, beginning with a public hearing next week, the committee's leaders announced Monday.

While the investigation will not interfere with the Army or FBI's criminal investigations, "this murderous attack should be examined from every angle to make sure nothing like this occurs again," Committee Chairman Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said in a statement.

The committee will investigate the potential motives of Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the man accused of opening fire at the military base. It will also look into whether the government missed warning signs of the incident and what lessons can be gleaned from the tragedy to prevent such future attacks.

CBSNews.com Special Report: Tragedy at Fort Hood

"As this investigation continues, we would do no favor to the thousands of Muslim Americans who are serving our military with honor and the millions of patriotic and law-abiding Muslim Americans by ignoring real evidence that an individual Muslim American soldier may have become a violent Islamist extremist," Lieberman said.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the ranking Republican on the committee, said Congress owed the investigation to the military, their families and their communities.
"Our military must be prepared to detect the warning signs for potential violence and to intervene and prevent similar attacks in the future," she said. "This hearing is vital to assuring the men and women serving in our military and their families that their safety is a top priority for us."

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