Faced with a mountain of dots, the Army and FBI couldn’t connect any. Steven Hayes does it for them–although after the fact.
Connecting the Dots

On Maj. Hasan’s spiritual adviser Anwar al Awlaki:

But the FBI had a good reason for investigating Awlaki: He played a role in the biggest intelligence failure in American history.

The FBI first took notice of Awlaki in June 1999 when his contacts with al Qaeda terrorists, including one who had procured a satellite phone for Osama bin Laden, raised red flags. But after a brief investigation, lasting until March 2000, the FBI determined that the facts did not warrant further inquiry.

Prior to joining Dar al Hijrah, Awlaki was an imam in San Diego. In January 2000, he welcomed two al Qaeda operatives, Khalid al Mihdhar and Nawaf al Hazmi, into his community. They had been identified by U.S. intelligence not just as al Qaeda operatives but as attendees of a key terrorist summit in Kuala Lumpur. (U.S. authorities would later learn that both the USS Cole bombing and the September 11 attacks were discussed at the meeting.) Although the U.S. government knew al Mihdhar and al Hazmi were al Qaeda operatives, the intelligence and law enforcement community lost track of them when they entered the United States.

They were with Awlaki. And, when he moved from California to Northern Virginia in January 2001, they–as well as a third September 11 hijacker named Hani Hanjour–went with him. By the time a serious search for them got underway it was too late. Al Hazmi, al Mihdhar, and Hanjour all took part in September 11 attacks.

Missing the dots between Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan and Anwar al Awlaki, which were many, vibrant and screaming to be connected was hard to take. But the resulting reaction by the executive branch is inexcusable.

Isn’t the FBI and the many federal counter-terrorism task forces supposed to be scrutinizing suspicious contacts?

How much more suspicious does a contact have to get? Did there have to be photographs of Awlaki handing Hasan a Uhaul full of rocket launchers?

Is it too much to ask of a nation that requires searches grandmothers at airports to spend a bit of time on a US Army Major that carried on an email conversation with a man like Awlaki? Or is that too much like the PC-feared “profiling”? Are we at war with adherents of a radical ideology or just engaged in Potemkin battle to quiet the rubes?

IS the FBI in danger of going the way of the Post Office and Amtrak? Congress should not let this be.

Don’t let “counter-terrorism” become just another job the government can’t do.

MORE: Aulaqi on Hasan: We were pals

ALSO posted at DBKP with minor changes: Ft Hood: Counter-Terrorism, FBI to Join Amtrak?