WASHINGTON – Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., and Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Me., Monday served the Obama Administration with subpoenas for witnesses and documents critical to the Committee’s investigation into the circumstances leading up to the November 5, 2009, terrorist attack that killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas.
After five months of effort to obtain the information necessary to conduct their inquiry from the Departments of Defense (DOD) and Justice (DOJ), the Senators said they had no other option but to issue subpoenas to fulfill their Constitutional responsibility to oversee the Executive Branch regarding homeland security and governmental effectiveness, generally.
“The purpose of the Committee’s investigation of the Fort Hood attack is to answer questions that are critical to our government’s ability to counter homegrown terrorism,” the Senators wrote in a letter accompanying the subpoenas. “Given the warning signs of Major Nidal Malik Hasan’s extremist radicalization and growing hostility toward the U.S. military and the United States generally, why was he not stopped before he took thirteen American lives, and how can we prevent such a tragedy from happening again? In order to answer those questions, we must assess the information that the U.S. Government had prior to the attack and the actions it took in response to that information….
“Since November 13, 2009, we have sent four formal request letters for information to DOD and two to DOJ. Our staff has engaged in lengthy but ultimately unproductive discussions with your departments. We have personally contacted high level officials in the White House and DOD to seek the Administration’s cooperation in this important investigation. Our efforts have been met with delay, the production of little that was not already publicly available, and shifting reasons why the departments are withholding the documents and witnesses that we have requested….
“Unfortunately, it is impossible for us to avoid reaching the conclusion that the departments simply do not want to cooperate with our investigation. It is with great disappointment and reluctance that we have directed service of subpoenas to you which demand disclosure of the requested information by Monday, April 26, 2010, at 10 a.m. We fully expect that your departments will fulfill their legal obligation under these subpoenas and comply by the appointed time.”
The service letter to the DOD and DOJ is below.
For additional information please click here.
The letter follows below:
April 19, 2010
The Honorable Robert M. Gates
Secretary, U.S. Department of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon, Room 3E718
Washington, DC 2030
The Honorable Eric Holder
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania A venue, NW
Washington, DC 20530
Dear Secretary Gates and Attorney General Holder:
The failure by the Departments of Defense and Justice to produce voluntarily documents and witnesses the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs has sought over the past five months for its bipartisan investigation of the attack at Fort Hood, Texas, now force us to issue subpoenas. Since November 13, 2009, we have sent four formal request letters for information to DOD and two to DOJ. Our staff has engaged in lengthy but ultimately unproductive discussions with your departments. We have personally contacted high-level officials in the White House and DOD to seek the Administration’s cooperation in this important investigation. Our efforts have been met with delay, the production of little that was not already publicly available, and shifting reasons why the departments are withholding the documents and witnesses that we have requested.
On March 23, 20 I 0, we made one final effort at resolving our differences in a cooperative manner. We sent separate letters to you requesting that you provide the most critical information needed for our investigation by today, April 19, 2010, and telling you that if we did not receive that information, we would issue subpoenas. Your departments sent a response to us on April 12, 2010, again refusing to cooperate.
On April 15, 20 I 0, we publicly announced our intention to issue subpoenas if the departments did not produce the requested documents and witnesses by today at noon. You have neither produced them nor provided us with adequate reasons to withhold them. As a result, we are now issuing subpoenas.
I. These Subpoenas Are Necessary Because DOD and DOJ Have Frustrated Our Investigation for Five Months.
The purpose of the Committee’s investigation of the Fort Hood attack is to answer questions that are critical to our government’s ability to counter homegrown terrorism: Given the warning signs of Major Nidal Malik Hasan‘s extremist radicalization and growing hostility toward the U.S. military and the United States generally, why was he not stopped before he took thirteen American lives, and how can we prevent such a tragedy from happening again? In order to answer those questions, we must assess the information that the U.S. Government had prior to the attack and the actions it took in response to that information.
We have repeatedly sought your departments’ cooperation for more than five months.
During that period, we wrote four times to DOD and two times to DOJ seeking witnesses and documents related to the investigation of Major Hasan prior to the attack and Major Hasan’s conduct and performance in the military.
• On November 13,2009, we requested all policies and regulations concerning how DOD handles extremist service members and information-sharing with other agencies.
• On November 20,2009, we wrote to DOD to request Major Hasan’s personnel file.
• On December 3, 2009, we wrote to DOD and DOJ seeking witnesses and documents regarding Major Hasan’s reported communications with the violent Islamist extremist, Anwar al-Alakwi. We also submitted to DOD a list of requested witnesses and documents related to Major Hasan’s conduct at Walter Reed Anny Medical Center and Fort Hood.
• On January 22, 2010, we wrote to John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland
Security and Counterterrorism, who we understood was coordinating the Executive Branch’s response to our requests. We expressed our disappointment with the departments’ response and stated that we would begin the process of issuing subpoenas if the Executive Branch did not comply.
• Finally, we wrote to DOD and DO] on March 23, 2010, and warned that we would is