President Says to Lay Off Fort Hood

In a videotaped address released by the White House during Obama's flight to Singapore, the president exhorted lawmakers to put off any investigations of the Fort Hood shooting until law enforcement and the military had completed their own. "The stakes are far too high," said the president, who asked Congress to "resist the temptation to turn this tragic event into political theater." After it was revealed that the FBI knew that the shootings' only suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, had contacted a radical Imam in Yemen, Obama ordered a review of all intelligence gathered on Hasan, and how that intelligence was shared between agencies. Some congressmen, including Howard McKeon (R-CA), the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, and Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent who chairs the Homeland Security Committee, have said they will open their own investigations. Obama indicated that he was open to the possibility of hearings, but not while law enforcement and military authorities were in the middle of investigations.