Base rampage warnings 'not heeded'

Parallels over the security forces' failure to act are being drawn between the case of Nidal Hasan and the Detroit airline bomber.

Hasan stalked the base in Texas with two handguns seemingly shooting at random before being shot and wounded by guards.

A Defence Department review has found the doctors overseeing Hasan's medical training repeatedly voiced concerns over his strident views on Islam and his inappropriate behaviour, yet continued to give him positive performance evaluations that kept him moving through the ranks.

The picture emerging from the review ordered by Defence Secretary

Robert Gates is one of supervisors who failed to heed their own warnings about an officer ill-suited to be an Army psychiatrist, according to information gathered during the internal Pentagon investigation.

Hasan, 39, is charged with murdering the 13 people last November in the worst killing spree on a US military base.

What remains unclear is why Hasan would be promoted in spite of all the worries over his competence. That is likely to be the subject of a more detailed investigation.

In telling episodes from the latter stages of Hasan's lengthy medical education he gave a class presentation questioning whether the war on terror was actually a war on Islam. And students said he suggested that Shariah, or Islamic law, trumped the Constitution and he attempted to justify suicide bombings.

Yet no one in Hasan's chain of command appears to have challenged his eligibility to hold a secret security clearance.

Had they done so, Hasan's fitness to serve as an Army officer may have been called into question long before he reported to Fort Hood.

Instead, in July 2009, Hasan arrived in central Texas, his secret clearance intact, his reputation as a weak performer well known, and Army authorities believing that posting him at such a large facility would mask his shortcomings.

Four months later he walked into a processing centre where troops undergo medical screening, jumped on a table with two handguns, shouted "Allahu Akbar!" – Arabic for "God is great!" – and opened fire.

Hasan has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. He remains in a military hospital.

After the Fort Hood shooting, Mr Gates appointed two former senior defence officials to examine the procedures and policies for identifying threats within the military services.

Hasan's superiors had a full picture of him, developed over his 12-year career as a military officer, medical student and psychiatrist.

In June 2003, he started a four-year psychiatry internship and was counselled frequently for deficiencies in his performance. Teachers and colleagues described him as a below average student.

Between 2003 and 2007, Hasan's supervisors expressed their concerns with him. But Hasan's officer evaluation reports were consistently

more positive, usually describing his performance as satisfactory and at least twice as outstanding.