Alarms should have rung when emails from Major Hasan to Awlaki were intercepted by our intelligence agencies. He's linked to the London bombings, the attempted attack on Ft Dix, and is far more than just a provocative, hate monger.

Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Sebastian Rotella and Josh Meyer report:

The radical cleric contacted by accused Ft. Hood gunman Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan has such unmistakable connections to past terrorist plots that his e-mail exchanges with the American should have triggered an all-out investigation, a number of officials and experts now believe.

Anwar al Awlaki is an extremist whose sermons have helped radicalize terrorists from Atlanta to New Jersey to London, including cases in which the U.S. military was targeted. A well-spoken Yemeni American, Awlaki has emerged as the leading ideologue for a homegrown generation of young militants who conspire over the Internet.

The fact that Hasan -- the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people at Ft. Hood, Texas, a week ago -- exchanged e-mails with Awlaki in Yemen should have raised grave concern, U.S. officials said.