Ft Hood shooter failings to be held to account: Obama

By Alister Bull

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Saturday he would hold to account those who missed warning signs that could have prevented a shooting rampage on a Texas army base earlier this month that killed 13 people.

"If there was a failure to take appropriate action before the shootings, there must be accountability," Obama said in his weekly address.

U.S. government officials say Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the army psychiatrist charged with 13 counts of murder in the Fort Hood rampage, had surfaced in communications with an anti-American cleric in Yemen who was sympathetic to al Qaeda.

The agencies monitored between 10 and 20 contacts between the cleric and Hasan, a U.S.-born Muslim of Palestinian descent who was waiting to be sent to Afghanistan.

The officials said U.S. intelligence agencies learned of the communications late last year and passed this knowledge to federal authorities, who judged they were largely consistent with his academic work and did not warrant an investigation.

The information was shared with a joint terrorism task force led by the FBI, but the Pentagon said it had not been informed of the contacts until after the shooting spree.

Obama has ordered a review of how U.S. intelligence agencies handled information gathered about Hasan.

"Given the potential warning signs that may have been known prior these shootings, we must uncover what steps -- if any -- could have been taken to avert this tragedy," he said.