US military doctors had worried that the suspected gunman in the Fort Hood shootings was "psychotic" and unstable but did not seek to sack him, National Public Radio reported today, citing unnamed officials.Psychiatrists and medical officials who oversaw Major Nidal Hasan, accused of opening fire on fellow soldiers at the Fort Hood base in Texas last week, held a series of meetings between the northern spring of 2008 and the spring of this year to discuss serious concerns about his work and his behaviour, NPR reported. "Put it this way. Everybody felt that if you were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, you would not want Nidal Hasan in your foxhole," one official was quoted as saying.
In that case, why the hell was he on orders and not in Chapter 13?
One official who participated in the conversations had reportedly told colleagues that he was concerned Hasan might leak secret military information to Islamic extremists if he was assigned to Iraq or Afghanistan, NPR said.
Another official "wondered aloud" to colleagues whether Hasan might be capable of killing fellow soldiers in the same way a Muslim sergeant in 2003 had set off grenades at a base in Kuwait and claimed the lives to two comrades, the radio reported.
The officials who discussed Hasan's status were not aware - as some top Walter Reed hospital officials were - that intelligence agencies had been tracking Hasan's emails to a radical Islamic cleric since December 2008, NPR said.
The NPR report cited interviews with several officials from Walter Reed Medical Centre in Washington and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Maryland.
Officials considered kicking Hasan out of the program but chose not to partly because sacking a doctor was a "cumbersome and lengthy" process that involves hearings and potential legal conflict, sources told NPR.
Officials also believed they lacked solid evidence that Hasan was unstable and were concerned they could be accused of discriminating against him because of his Islamic identity or views.
With Hasan due to leave Walter Reed after six years and transfer to Fort Hood in Texas, officials thought the larger psychiatric staff at that army base would be better placed to provide support to Hasan and to monitor him, according to NPR.