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Monday, correspondents disagreed on the import of the accused Fort Hood killer's e-mail correspondence with his onetime imam Anwar al-Awlaki. ABC's Brian Ross reported that Major Nidal Hasan was reaching out to an al-Qaeda recruiter. CBS' Bob Orr called it a benign request for spiritual guidance. NBC's Pete Williams characterized it as job-related. Now the same three correspondents follow up with details of a correspondence that may have included two dozen exchanges. Ross backtracks--without acknowledging his implicit retraction--calling them "innocent," dealing with "religious issues, cultural issues," according to his unidentified sources. NBC's Williams and CBS' Orr both repeated their reporting about their innocuous, although Orr now categorizes al-Awlaki as having "ties to al-Qaeda," a connection he never asserted on Monday.
ABC's Ross also vaguely told us that a "senior American official" had told him that, besides the imam al-Awlaki, investigators have found that Hasan had "more unexplained connections to people being tracked by the FBI." He did not elaborate.
A Washington Post scoop from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center was given a proper hat tip from all three reporters. The Post had uncovered a PowerPoint presentation made by Major Hasan in 2007 on the moral quandary facing soldiers who happen to profess Islam. Hasan's presentation stated that it is "harder and harder" for them to justify service in an army "that seems constantly engaged against fellow Moslems." He recommended offering the option of Conscientious Objector status in order to increase troop morale and decrease adverse events. NBC's Williams pointed out that such CO status would not have applied to Major Hasan, since his duties were in medicine not in combat. CBS' Orr took offense at the contents of the PowerPoint, calling its contents "shocking" and evidence of "growing radicalization."
By the way, does Major Hasan happen to be a skilled psychiatrist? NBC's Williams reported that his performance evaluation was "strongly positive…making important contributions to the army." CBS' Orr said he received "poor performance reviews at Walter Reed."
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