Pentagon did not do enough to vet foreign military students, DoD intel official tells Congress
Meghann Myers
In the wake of a December shooting by a Saudi Arabian student pilot at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, the Defense Department found that the training and procedures it has in place for insider threats did not specifically take foreign military students into account, the Pentagon’s top intelligence official told lawmakers Wednesday.
Going forward, the Defense Department has been working on not only preventing foreign troops with anti-American sentiment from coming into the country, but also pushing Saudi Arabia to take more accountability for its officers, officials told the a Senate Armed Services subcommittee on Wednesday
“We also found that DoD programs meant to detect and mitigate events such as the Pensacola attack did not cover international military students — for instance, our insider threat programs,†director for defense intelligence Garry Reid told lawmakers, explaining how Saudi Air Force 2nd Lt. Mohammed Alshamrani, who shared Jihadi material online and was able to legally purchase a handgun in Florida, was able to carry out his attack.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2020/03/04/pentagon-did-not-do-enough-to-vet-foreign-military-students-dod-intel-official-tells-congress/
