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 Nov. 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 Nov. 13,2009, we requested all policies and regulations concerning how DOD handles extremist service members and information-sharing with other agencies.
• On Nov. 20,2009, we wrote to DOD to request Major Hasan's personnel file.
• On Dec. 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 Jan. 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
Source: U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
