The FBI has named one of its former directors, William Webster, to conduct an independent review of the bureau's handling of information about the Army major charged with murder in the Fort Hood shootings, the New York Times reports. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is accused of killing 13 people Nov. 5.
Last year, an FBI counterterrorism team with members from several government agencies obtained about 20 e-mail messages exchanged between Major Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born radical cleric who now lives in Yemen. A Defense Department investigator on the team determined that the e-mail messages were consistent with Hasan's academic research, and no further action was taken.