Congress eyes FBI's intel on Hood suspect

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- The FBI's effort to improve terrorism investigation comes under congressional scrutiny this week in the wake of the Fort Hood, Texas, 13-death shooting spree.

Congressional members say the want to know whether authorities either missed or ignored warning signs about Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist charged with 13 counts of murder in the Nov. 5 incident, USA Today reported Monday.

Lawmakers are questioning the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force that investigated Hasan in December but didn't alert the Pentagon that he exchanged 10-30 e-mails with a radical Muslim cleric.

"A lot of the dots were not connected," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation."

Leahy's committee will question U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Wednesday, while the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee begins its query Thursday.

"There are limits on sharing information on U.S. persons," former Department of Homeland Security intelligence chief Charles Allen told USA Today. "There are issues of privacy, civil rights and civil liberties, and those are taken very seriously."