Sex, Drugs, FBI Failures and a Grandmother in a Headlock

Oops. All the papers report that the FBI failed to act when the Fort Hood shooter emailed a radical cleric 10 or 20 times. Also: swine flu blood shortages! Living on severance! Drug wars! Madoff memorabilia! J-Lo sex tape!

It's big front page news for everyone, except the Wall Street Journal, that the feds didn't catch Nidal Hasan despite clear indications he was becoming more radical. This coverage will doubtless guarantee an incredibly dull, toothless committee in Washington to issue a 1,000 page report on the intelligence failures that reveals nothing. The papers also update the story by stealth, as part of the FBI piece: Hasan is awake but refuses to talk, and will probably face military, not civilian, court. The Washington Post has an exclusive addition to the tale, which it runs above the fold: Hasan warned senior officers, in a presentation the Post obtained, that Muslim soldiers should be allowed to step down as conscientious objectors. The New York Times has a feature on the death and trauma that surround Fort Hood, even when psychiatrists are not going on killing sprees. Alongside the developments in Texas, every broadsheet also runs a picture from the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and a couple of sexier stories for balance.

Disclosure: I freelance write and report for newspapers that are included in this roundup. Where there is a direct conflict of interest I will make it clear.