Hasan's research

Much was made of the presentation Nidal Malik Hasan gave at Walter Reed in 2007, with reports on NPR indicating -- without citing any examples -- that it was over the top and promoted Islam to an uncomfortable audience.

Dana Priest got a copy of the presentation. Seems pretty reasonable, although the unsurprising conclusion may have made army officials uncomfortable, specifically, that waging war on Muslim countries was bad for the morale of Muslims in the U.S. Army.

Does that provide a rationale or motive for the mass murder in Fort Hood last week? Hell if I know, but it does explain why U.S. investigators noted Hasan's calls to the Yemeni cleric, but ultimately felt it was connected with the ongoing research he was doing.

Major Hasan’s 10 to 20 messages to Anwar al-Awlaki, once a spiritual leader at a mosque in suburban Virginia where Major Hasan worshiped, indicate that the troubled military psychiatrist came to the attention of the authorities long before last Thursday’s shooting rampage at Fort Hood, but that the authorities left him in his post.

Counterterrorism and military officials said Monday night that the communications, first intercepted last December as part of an unrelated investigation, were consistent with a research project the psychiatrist was then conducting at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington on post-traumatic stress disorder.

That won't stop hyperventilating Congressman from demanding an investigation and blaming the Obama administration for "dragging its feet." And it won't stop Rush Limbaugh for comparing Hasan and his mosque's imam to...you guessed it...Barack Hussein Obama and Rev. Wright.

UPDATE: Just to be clear, I'm not saying that officials couldn't be covering their collective asses on this, but the overheated reaction that, surely, this was a sure sign that 13 people were about to die is typically ridiculous.