Whitehall, That is a bit cavalier regarding the lives of our troops and I hope you did not mean it to be. Even if they wanted to “keep him in play as an asset” they should, and likely would, have had tighter control on his movements and could have averted the massacre when he came out of his house armed for jihad. I predict he bought the weapons not too far from his attack and would have been a red flag for anyone watching. Nope, too far of a stretch for me on your line of reasoning. I am willing to concede the possibility coupled with monumental stupidity.