Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today that he has forwarded recommendations to the Army for disciplinary action against supervisors of the accused Ft. Hood shooter.
The LA Times reports.
The report recommends clarifying for unit commanders their responsibility in identifying people who could pose a threat. Unit commanders, according to the report, must become attuned to indicators of behavioral problems or the potential for violence or radicalization.
Reporting from Washington – Between five and eight Army officers are expected to face discipline for failing to take action against the accused Ft. Hood shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, over a series of behavioral and professional problems in the years leading up to the November rampage.
Reports the LA Times. No word on the status of the R.C.M. 706 proceedings, when an Article 32, UCMJ, hearing might be scheduled, or a court-martial held in the Fort Hood slayings.
The Killeen Daily Herald reports that LTG Cone recently gave a briefing about “behavioral health care.”
The Army is behind Fort Hood’s effort to address behavioral health care issues and plans to institute it across the board, the post’s commander said Friday.
In response to incidents like the Nov. 5 shooting and an Army-wide increase in suicides, Fort Hood officials implemented the Behavioral Health Care Plan, a two-year process which is set to undergo periodic reviews and leverage the "whole of community" to accomplish tasks in several phases, Cone said. The goal is to make sure everyone who needs behavioral health care is reached and that its capabilities and capacities are right for Fort Hood’s soldiers, families and the civilian workforce.
Cone also talked about a Recovery and Resiliency Task Force, part of which includes a comprehensive approach to identify, diagnose and holistically treat those impacted by events like the Nov. 5 shooting at the post’s Soldier Readiness Processing Center where 13 were killed and more than 30 were wounded when a gunman opened fire.
During the briefing apparently the following was said about Major Hasan and his pending court-martial issues.
Hasan is paralyzed from the chest down and bedridden in a military hospital in San Antonio, says Galligan. He says the U.S. Army command has imposed rules that allow for a closed-circuit television camera in Hasan’s room for Hasan’s and others’ safety; bar visits from anyone except Hasan’s family members and his lawyers and limit those visits to one hour (Galligan does not know if this time limit is per day or per visitor); require all visitors to provide picture identification; restrict all communications with Hasan to English; and require that an interpreter be present if another language is spoken.
Law.com reports.
I don’t have any legal quibble with restricting visitors to family members. That’s certainly the type of discretion and restriction you might see in pretrial confinement facilities, as well as post-trial situations. Visitation has to be a balance between allowing visits and concerns for security. As most regulations say:
Belton, Texas, solo John Galligan, who represents Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, says he has added a close relative of Hasan’s from out of state to the defense team as of Tuesday. Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who allegedly went on a shooting spree at Fort Hood on Nov. 5, is facing a possible court martial.
Galligan says he added the relative to make it possible for that relative to visit with Hasan for more than a few hours a week and to do so without being observed and possibly videotaped by Army investigators. Galligan declines to identify the relative.
Law.com reports.
An unarmed man tried to visit the army psychiatrist charged in a deadly shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas on Wednesday by posing as his lawyer, officials said.
When that ruse didn’t work, the man told hospital security that he was Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s doctor.
Reports Military.com.
Apparently the R.C.M. 706 Board has been appointed and is projecting an early February report.
Army Times reports.
Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the accused Fort Hood shooter and psychologist, has been moved out of Brooke Army Medical Center’s ICU and into its general care unit. Hasan was hospitalized the day of the Fort Hood shootings—November 5—with several serious gunshot wounds.
Reports tothecenter.com.
Attorney John Galligan says Maj. Nidal Hasan has excessive restrictions — including a rule barring any visitors when his attorneys are in his hospital room.
Air Force Times reports.
This same rule operates at the pretrial confinement facility. The Brigs are pretty good about letting counsel in to visit for “legal visits.” But there are restrictions on mingling of family visits and “professional” visits.
A counterterror airstrike in Yemen that may have targeted Anwar al-Awlaki, the extremist cleric linked to Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, could raise new questions about whether Hasan’s rampage in Killeen, Texas, on Nov. 5 was the act of a lone wolf or part of a conspiracy.
Reports the Christian Science Monitor.
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