Congress pushes for Ft. Hood probe

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Members of Congress continue to push for a Congressional investigation into the Ft. Hood shooting. 

However, security experts predict it will be delayed for weeks, until emotions are calmed and Americans turn their attention elsewhere.

The push for Congressional involvement, spearheaded by a Texas congressman, comes as some experts are calling it the biggest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.

"We have a responsibility in Congress to be providing that oversight so that the American people know the truth," said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-TX, ranking member of the Committee on Homeland Security's Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment. 

McCaul is trying to rally members of the House to vote for an investigation. In the Senate, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-CT, has already said members would begin a probe of what led up to the shootings as soon as possible. 

"This is where the real politics begins to play," said Stratfor counter-terrorism expert Fred Burton. "If you go back to 9/11, we're supposed to be better than that today. And, we're supposed to be able to predict these kinds of cases."

The Obama Adminstration is urging Congress to hold off on an investigation while the military and prosecutors put together a criminal case. However, McCaul, a former federal prosecutor, said one investigation will have no effect on the other.

"When we have someone who is a Major in the U.S. Army, communicating with an Al Qaeda operative in Yemen, I think that would have been good information to have," he said. "Clearly, the ball was dropped here, and I want to know why."

More information is slowly coming out about Maj. Nidal Hisan's possible links to jihadist groups. E-mails have surfaced, as well as visits to websites that are closely monitored by U.S. intelligence.

"An individual like him, Maj. Hasan, communicating with an Al Qaeda Imam would be the kind of information we would of captured," said Burton. "Now, making sense of what we captured is a whole different story."

Burton said with thousands of chat rooms and various people communicating, connecting the dots is often an arduous process.

"We all have unrealistic expectations to think that the FBI is going to be able to thwart every one of these plots," he said.

By Stratfor's count, the FBI has stopped 10 potential terrorist attacks in the U.S. in 2009 alone.

However, when it comes to an attack that fell off the radar, Burton said, there is a good chance some politicians will want to delay the Congressional investigations as long as possible.

"Time buys you other disasters in the world that will take front and center stage," said Burton. "By the time Washington gets around to answering questions regarding the Ft. Hood shooting, all of us...have moved on."