Army asks: Is Ft. Hood Jihadi insane?

This just in: Additional charges for Ft. Hood jihadi.

The Army has charged the suspect in the Fort Hood shooting spree with 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.

The charges are in addition to the 13 premeditated murder charges filed against Maj. Nidal (Nee-DAHL) Hasan (Huh-SAHN') [Ed. Note: don't you just love the Washington Post with their little Muslim pronunciation keys?) in the Nov. 5 massacre at Fort Hood.

From ABC News:

The Army wants a formal inquiry into the sanity of accused Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan, Hasan's lawyer John Galligan told ABC News, and the request could be approved as early as Wednesday afternoon. [...] he received notice via e-mail at 7:45 p.m Tuesday that the Army would ask to convene a "sanity board" to evaluate Hasan's mental state.

According to Galligan, the e-mail said, "Given the magnitude and seriousness of the crimes alleged in the specifications, such alleged conduct makes me believe the accused lacks mental responsibility and capacity."

Okay, Hasan's lawyer is clearly playing all the angles, but doesn't it also sound like the Army is giving Hasan the bum's rush? To my way of thinking, the Sanity Board removes minimizes the Muslim angle and gives Hasan an easy out. It also takes some of the heat off Hasan's superiors. I don't know maybe I'm just getting cynical in my old age.

Galligan said he would like to "put the brakes on" until "we can be in receipt of all the evidence that a sanity board should properly consider before making its ultimate findings on this important issue."

"I'm concerned that the prosecution, by doing this at this juncture, is just trying to rush the procedure," said Galligan. "Normally these requests come from the defense, and I have never had one where the defendant is still in the ICU."

Galligan said he is also concerned about the composition of the "Sanity Board," since it would be likely to include Army psychiatrists. Major Hasan is himself a psychiatrist, and his alleged actions have raised questions about his training and about whether warning signs were missed by the Army's medical personnel.

Stay tuned. According to Mr. Galligan a determination on the Sanity Board could be made as early as this afternoon.