Report highlights emails from Fort Hood shooter to al Qaeda cleric – The Long War Journal.

The final report from an investigation headed by former FBI and CIA director William H. Webster into the FBI’s handling of information concerning Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas on Nov. 5, 2009, has been released to the public.

FBI agents first became suspicious of Hasan months before the shooting, when it was discovered that he was emailing al Qaeda cleric Anwar al Awlaki, who was subsequently killed in a US drone strike in Yemen last year. Following the shooting, transcripts of Hasan’s emails to Awlaki, as well as two replies from Awlaki to Hasan, had been withheld from the public. But the text of the emails is included in the Webster Commission’s final report.

Hasan began emailing Awlaki on Dec. 17, 2008. At the time, the FBI already had Awlaki under investigation because of his multiple ties to terrorists around the globe. The Webster Commission found that Hasan’s emails “tripped the wire” around Awlaki, meaning that Awlaki’s emails were being monitored and Hasan drew suspicion when his first email popped up in Awlaki’s inbox.

Awlaki’s emails were being intercepted by US officials at the time, presumably by the National Security Agency (NSA).

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