Washington: The Pentagon said on Thursday it will scour its procedures for identifying volatile soldiers hidden in the ranks following the Fort Hood shooting rampage and lapses that might allow others to slip through bureaucratic cracks.
"It is prudent to determine immediately whether there are internal weaknesses or procedural shortcomings in the department that could make us vulnerable in the future," Defence Secretary Robert Gates said.
A 45-day emergency investigation will examine personnel, medical, mental health, discharge and other policies in all corners of the vast Defence Department. It will also look at ways to improve security and emergency response at Defence Department facilities.
"The shootings at Fort Hood raise a number of troubling questions that demand complete but prompt answers," Gates told a Pentagon news conference.
The quick review will be led by two former Pentagon officials, former Army secretary Togo West and former Navy chief Vernon Clark.
A longer, second review lasting about six months will look at what Gates called "systemic institutional shortcomings." Gates, who has fired several top officials in three years heading the Pentagon, did not address any possible consequences of the inquiries he announced on Thursday.
Gates broached little new information about the case of Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 in the shootings at the Texas military post on November 5.
Gates called it disturbing that Hasan has e-mail contact with a radical cleric in Yemen, but stressed that his review is separate from the criminal investigation into Hasan and should not be interpreted as a finger-pointing exercise against Muslims or anyone else.
Investigators have said e-mails between Hasan and the imam, Anwar al-Awlaki, did not advocate or threaten violence. After the shootings, al-Awlaki's Web site praised Hasan as a hero.
Both Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the chief goal of the Pentagon probe is preventing another such attack and improving future responses by disaster teams.
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, November 20, 2009, 13:31