Defense Secretary Robert Gates has tapped a former senior defense official to lead a broad Pentagon review of the circumstances surrounding the Fort Hood shootings, The Associated Press has learned. Gates will announce today that it will be a single, coordinated review, and will call for a quick, short-term report, followed by a longer, more extensive study, according to an administration official.

Components of the wide-ranging probe could include self-examinations by the Army and the military’s medical community, and likely look at personnel policies and the availability of mental health services for troubled troops.
It would go well beyond the specific case of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 in the shootings at the Texas military post Nov. 5. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because announcements have not yet been made. The identity of the former official leading the review was not revealed.

Details were still being worked out Wednesday night, but the review would mirror other department inquiries during Gates’ tenure, including a probe of the Air Force’s handling of nuclear materials.

President Barack Obama already has ordered a review of all intelligence related to Hasan, including his contacts with a radical Islamic cleric overseas and concerns about the major voiced by some medical colleagues, and whether the information was properly shared and acted upon within government agencies.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder said he was disturbed to learn that the Hasan had communicated the radical Islamic cleric.

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