A Senate report on the Fort Hood shooting is sharply critical of the FBI and its failure to adequately share information with the military about the alleged shooter's extremist views, AP reported. And it says the Pentagon has failed to make necessary changes to identify violent Islamic extremism as a danger so that commanders will more readily watch for it and discharge service members who express those views. According to portions of the report obtained by The Associated Press, military supervisors had the authority to discipline or discharge Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 in the shootings at the Texas military post in November 2009. But the report, which was being released Thursday, said the Defense Department did not inform or train commanders about how to recognize someone radicalized to Islamic extremism or how to distinguish that from the peaceful practice of Islam. The report was requested by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and its ranking Republican, Sen. Susan Collins. The enemy _ Islamist extremists _ must be labeled correctly and explicitly, the report said, in order for the military to counter the extremism. Lieberman made a similar argument last year in a letter to the White House about the need to accurately identify Islamic extremists as the enemy. President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism official, John Brennan, responded that while it is important to accurately define the enemy, using «Islamic extremist» and other similar phrases can lump a diverse set of organizations into a single group in a way that may be counterproductive. Asked for comment on the Senate report's criticism, an Army spokesman said the Army will continue to make adjustments. «We will closely examine the report's findings and recommendations,» said Col. Tom Collins. «The Army has already implemented numerous concrete actions that have made our soldiers, families and civilian employees safer. There is still more work to do, but the Army is committed to doing all we can to learn from this tragic event.» -- SPA
