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Justice. Only Justice Shall Thou Pursue
Showing posts with label Malik Nadal Hasan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Malik Nadal Hasan. Show all posts
If this was indeed one of the questions that Fort Hood shooter Major Malik Hasan asked of radical Islamist Anwar al Awlaki, then someone seriously dropped the ball.
In an interview Wednesday with the Arabic-language news network Al-Jazeera, Anwar al-Awlaki, considered a key recruiter for al-Qaida, said Hasan asked him in a December 2008 e-mail "whether killing American soldiers and officers is lawful or not" under Islamic law.
However, a Yemeni air raid on Thursday may have killed the preacher along with the top two leaders of al-Qaida's regional branch, a Yemeni security official said.
"Anwar al-Awlaki is suspected to be dead," the official said of the cleric who was on the run in Yemen, where he was on the government's most-wanted list of terrorist suspects.
In the interview, Al-Awlaki then appears to taunt U.S. intelligence and security, saying, "I wonder where were the American security forces that one day claimed they can read the numbers of any license plate, anywhere in the world, from space."
Does this email exist, and if it does, was it among those that were intercepted by the FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force that was looking into Hasan's communications with Awlaki? Thus far, the earlier reports have the FBI claiming that there was nothing in Hasan's emails that would have raised red flags.
Asking about the legality under Islamic law to murder US soldiers would raise serious red flags.
Meanwhile, the Yemeni authorities think that the latest airstrikes may have taken out Awlaki and some of his fellow Islamists. US authorities are trying to confirm the Yemeni reports. Awlaki is known to be a senior recruiter for al Qaeda.
This is what attorneys are supposed to do for their clients. They're supposed to come up with strategy and tactics to help their clients. Major Malik Hasan is accused of murdering 13 soldiers at Fort Hood and is likely to face dozens more charges in coming weeks based on his shooting spree at Fort Hood.
When faced with serious evidence putting Hasan at the scene of the crime and being the murderous bastard who shot soldiers in cold blood while they were preparing to deploy overseas, his lawyer, John Galligan, is contemplating that an insanity plea is how he can keep his client out of prison or the death penalty?
This isn't a mental health issue, it's an issue of Hasan's religious extremism and pursuit to carry on jihad by the means at his disposal. His ties to extremist Islamists, such as Anwar al-Awlaki, continues to be explored and that is far more informative as to his behavior and intent than claiming that he was somehow insane.
Galligan is in a tough position; a hated client and an attempt to defend the indefensible. It's just not going to sway the court martial.
Sen. Carl Levin notes that there appear to be still more troubling emails written by Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who massacred 13 soldiers at Fort Hood.
The U.S. government intercepted at least 18 e-mails between Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical American-born cleric. They were passed along to two Joint Terrorism Task Force cells led by the FBI, but a senior defense official said no one at the Defense Department knew about the messages until after the shootings. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss intelligence procedures.
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said after a briefing from Pentagon and Army officials that his committee will investigate how those and other e-mails involving the alleged shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, were handled and why the U.S. military was not made aware of them before the Nov. 5 shooting.
Levin said his committee is focused on determining whether the Defense Department's representative on the terrorism task force acted appropriately and effectively.
Levin also said he considers Hasan's shooting spree, which killed 13 and wounded more than 30, an act of terrorism.
"There are some who are reluctant to call it terrorism but there is significant evidence that is. I'm not at all uneasy saying it sure looks like that," he said.
It isn't just emails, but that the contact between Hasan and extremist imam Anwar al-Awlaki intensified. Hasan began inquiring about engaging in financial transfers to further his extremist ideology:
Hasan's contacts with extremist imam Anwar al-Aulaqi began as religious queries but took on a more specific and concrete tone before he moved to Texas, where he allegedly unleashed the Nov. 5 attack that killed 13 people and wounded nearly three dozen, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case is sensitive and unfolding. One source said the two discussed in "cryptic and coded exchanges" the transfer of money overseas in ways that would not attract law enforcement attention.
"He [Hasan] clearly became more radicalized toward the end, and was having discussions related to the transfer of money and finances . . .," the source said in describing the 18 or 19 intercepted e-mails. "It became very clear toward the end of those e-mails he was interested in taking action."
Yet, despite these emails, no action was taken by the Army against Hasan. The recriminations between the Army and FBI are only going to intensify because the FBI apparently didn't pass along these messages to the Army all while the Army knew that they had someone in Hasan whose job performance was deficient and whose colleagues were concerned about his work product. Yet, the Army gave him a promotion.
Hasan remains hospitalized, and a pre-trial hearing is scheduled to occur at his bedside. His lawyer complains that the hearing is taking place without regard for his client's physical condition.
Curiously, the CNN article reporting on the pre-trial hearing notes the following:
Hasan, a U.S. Army psychiatrist, is accused of killing 13 people and injuring several others in the November 5 shooting at the Fort Hood Army Post near Killeen. He has not pleaded to the charges.
Hasan didn't merely injure several others. He wounded more than 30 other people during his shooting rampage. Some consider that Hasan actually killed 14 people, as one of the women murdered by Hasan was pregnant and the fetus died as well. Why is CNN downplaying the severity of the attack?
If the name Anwar al-Awlaki sounds familiar, it's because the extremist imam's name came up in the course of the investigation into the actions of Major Malik Hasan, who massacred 13 soldiers at Fort Hood.
In 2006, for example, a group of Canadian Muslims listened to Mr. Awlaki’s sermons on a laptop a few months before they were charged with plotting attacks in Ontario to have included bombings, shootings, storming the Parliament Building and beheading the Canadian prime minister.
In 2007, one of six men later convicted of plotting to attack Fort Dix in New Jersey was picked up on a surveillance tape raving about Mr. Awlaki’s audio clips. “You gotta hear this lecture,” said the plotter, Shain Duka. Mr. Duka called the cleric’s interpretation of Muslim duties “the truth, no holds barred, straight how it is!”
Last year, Mr. Awlaki exchanged public letters on the Web with Al Shabaab, a Somali Islamist group that has attracted recruits among young Somali-Americans living in Minnesota. The message from Al Shabaab praised the cleric as “one of the very few scholars” who “defend the honor of the mujahideen.”
“Allah knows how many of the brothers and sisters have been affected by your work,” it said.
Evan Kohlmann, a counterterrorism researcher who has testified in terrorism trials in the United States and United Kingdom, said Mr. Awlaki’s work had also turned up in cases in Chicago and Atlanta and in at least seven in the United Kingdom.
“Al-Awlaki condenses the Al Qaeda philosophy into digestible, well-written treatises,” Mr. Kohlmann said. “They may not tell people how to build a bomb or shoot a gun. But he tells them who to kill, and why, and stresses the urgency of the mission.”
For at least a decade, counterterrorism officials have had a wary eye on Mr. Awlaki, an American citizen now living in Yemen. His contacts with three of the Sept. 11 hijackers, at mosques where he served in San Diego and Falls Church, Va., remain a perplexing mystery about the 2001 attacks, said Philip Zelikow, who was executive director of the national 9/11 commission.
Awlaki's Internet presence allows him to spread his message of jihad and hate to a wider audience than merely holding forth in a mosque somewhere in the world. His Internet presence allows counterterrorism experts to track and get a bead on those who might present threats, but now that his site is offline, that task gets much more difficult.
Now, just because Hasan is linked to Awlaki doesn't mean that Hasan was operating on behalf of any other group; he could have engaged in the massacre on his own. Awlaki's extremism informs as to motive and Hasan's own extremism.
Awlaki is believed to be somewhere in Yemen spreading his hate and preaching the jihad to all who wish to listen.
A new report indicates that some of Major Malik Hasan's superiors were concerned about Hasan's performance.
A group of doctors overseeing Nidal Malik Hasan's medical training discussed concerns about his overly zealous religious views and strange behavior months before the Army major was accused of opening fire on soldiers and civilians at Fort Hood, Texas.
Doctors and staff overseeing Hasan's training viewed him at times as belligerent, defensive and argumentative in his frequent discussions of his Muslim faith, a military official familiar with several group discussions about Hasan said. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the meetings and spoke on condition of anonymity.
As a psychiatrist in training, Hasan was characterized in meetings as a mediocre student and lazy worker, a matter of concern among the doctors and staff at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences military medical school, the official said.
The concerns about Hasan's performance and religious views were shared with other military officials considering his assignment after he finished his medical training, and the consensus was to send him to Fort Hood, the official said. Fort Hood was considered the best assignment for Hasan because other doctors could handle the workload if he continued to perform poorly and his superiors could document any continued behavior problems, the official said.
The group saw no evidence that Hasan, 39, was violent or a threat. It was more that he repeatedly referred to his strong religious views in discussions with classmates, his superiors and even in his research work, the official said. His behavior, while at times perceived as intense and combative, was not unlike the zeal of others with strong religious views, and some doctors and staff were concerned that their unfamiliarity with the Muslim faith would lead them to unfairly single out Hasan's behavior, the official said.
Fort Hood was the choice to shuffle him off that wouldn't affect unit cohesion and preparedness because others would be able to cover for his deficiencies.
Yet, the Army still promoted him from Captain to Major in May. The Pentagon says that it has found no evidence that Hasan ever indicated that he sought separation from the Army. While he may have complained privately to colleagues that he was harassed, no official indication was proffered to his superiors.
Profilers say that Hasan was a loner and that he fits the profile of a mass murderer than a terrorist. That's playing with semantics; Hasan's ideology appears to have played a significant role in his attack on soldiers at Fort Hood. Hasan engaged in mass murder, but he also sought to fulfill what he believed was a religious obligation (the shout of Allahu Akbar immediately prior to opening fire, his statements on Muslim obligations to oppose the US efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq, correspondence with the extremist imam Awlaki, etc., all inform as to motive).
At the same time, the NYT is trying to downplay the communications between Hasan and Awlaki, reporting that "[t]he dozen or so messages to the cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, were largely questions about Islam, not expressions of militancy or hints of a plot, government officials familiar with the messages said." The eyebrows should have been raised because of the very communications themselves. There are thousands of imams and spiritual leaders with which to communicate in the US, and yet Hasan chose to seek guidance from an extremist with known ties to three of the 9/11 hijackers? That's the question that investigators, the White House and members of Congress need to ask. The system put in place after 9/11 provided the groundwork for intercepting those communications, and yet the decisionmaking process to elevate those troubling communications to those in the Army chain of command to seek out Hasan and determine whether he should remain in the Army never occurred.
But a striking fact is that the system set up after Sept. 11, 2001, to make sure clues of a coming attack were not missed actually worked as intended — and still failed to stop the deadly episode. The question for investigators is whether the very fact that Major Hasan sent the e-mail messages to an imam with mysterious connections to the Sept. 11 hijackers and a Web site encouraging extremist violence should have set off greater alarms.
“The fact that they got these e-mails and acted on them shows that at least to a point, the system worked,” said Matthew M. Aid, an intelligence historian and author of “The Secret Sentry,” a new history of the National Security Agency. “Quite possibly someone dropped the ball down the line.”
Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University, said any contact with Mr. Awlaki should have raised red flags. “There’s no doubt that Awlaki is a vessel for the message of Al Qaeda whose goal is radicalizing others,” he said. “Any contact should generate serious concern.”
Mr. Hoffman, too, said the intelligence network, in catching the messages and passing them on, worked far better than would have been likely before the 2001 attacks. “But 13 people are dead,” he added. “What are we going to do differently next time?”
What are we going to do differently? It would appear prudent that when someone is sending email communications to a known extremist, that law enforcement take the time to ascertain whether a threat is present, as well as provide those in the military (should the person be in the Armed Forces) with the information they need to make an informed decision. It is on the latter part that the system failed.
Authorities have been examining whether Fort Hood massacre suspect Nidal Malik Hasan wired money to Pakistan in recent months, an action that one senior lawmaker said would raise serious questions about Hasan’s possible connections to militant Islamic groups.
Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., said sources “outside of the [intelligence] community” learned about Hasan’s possible connections to the Asian country, which faces a massive Islamist insurgency and is widely believed to be Osama bin Laden’s hiding place.
One avenue of investigation is what Hasan was doing with his money. He was making $90k a year, and if he was living in quarters for $300 a month, that's quite a sizable amount he was accumulating unless the money was going somewhere else.
That somewhere else might be Pakistan.
This needs further confirmation, and investigation, but it once again raises red flags.
Some reports suggest that the FBI dropped the ball in not informing the military about the threat posed by Major Malik Hasan, while others suggest that it was the US Army that dropped the ball. Focus is apparently on the Joint Terrorism Task Force, which comprises of individuals from multiple branches of government.
The heat turned up on the Pentagon Tuesday over revelations that the Fort Hood killer's contacts with an Al Qaeda associate were blown off by a military investigator.
The agent was part of an FBI-run Joint Terrorism Task Force. But the bureau didn't have a legal reason to investigate Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's communications with radical Imam Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen because there was no threat of violence.
The unnamed investigator for the Pentagon's Defense Criminal Investigative Service did review the contacts along with Hasan's personnel and academic records - and decided Hasan was no threat and took no action, officials said.
The NY Post and Wall Street Journal are reporting that while a Defense Department worker was informed of the suspicious e-mails while assigned to an FBI-led task force, the case was then closed -- without the Pentagon even being informed about the suspicious e-mails because the FBI didn't authorize the worker to tell his agency about it.
According to the WSJ, The Army only became aware of the emails after speaking with the extremist imam Awlaki after the attacks.
A top defense official said federal investigators didn't tell the Pentagon they were looking into months of contacts between Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki. The imam knew three of the Sept. 11 hijackers and hailed Maj. Hasan as a "hero" after the shooting last week at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead.
"Based on what we know now, neither the United States Army nor any other organization within the Department of Defense knew of Maj. Hasan's contacts with any Muslim extremists," the official said.
President Obama wants to know who knew what and when. That's the right question to ask, but also pertinent is why issues with Hasan's religious statements were overlooked or ignored. Contacts with an extremist should have raised red flags and opened an investigation into what precisely Hasan was up to. It's alleged that there were 10-20 emails sent and while the content of those emails is not yet known and are being characterized as "benign", that Hasan was seeking to converse with a known extremist who had been a spiritual mentor to 9/11 hijackers should have raised questions about why Hasan was seeking out Awlaki for correspondence.
Why did the FBI not give permission for the Army to proceed with their own investigation?
The sad thing is that all the relevant government agencies will engage in covering their own asses while trying to cast fault on others; the DC 2-step. Meanwhile, why the ball was dropped and how to prevent it from happening again gets short shrift despite the Obama Administration's demands that the government agencies get to the bottom of this.
Meanwhile, ABC News is reporting that there were more links between Hasan and extremists.
A senior government official tells ABC News that investigators have found that alleged Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan had "more unexplained connections to people being tracked by the FBI" than just radical cleric Anwar al Awlaki. The official declined to name the individuals but Congressional sources said their names and countries of origin were likely to emerge soon.
Questions already surround Major Hasan's contact with Awlaki, a radical cleric based in Yemen whom authorities consider a recruiter for al Qaeda. U.S. officials now confirm Hasan sent as many as 20 e-mails to Awlaki. Authorities intercepted the e-mails but later deemed them innocent or protected by the first amendment.
The FBI said it turned over the information to the Army, but Defense Department officials today denied that. One military investigator on a joint terror task force with the FBI was shown the e-mails, but they were never forwarded in a formal way to more senior officials at the Pentagon, and the Army did not learn of the contacts until after the shootings.
Awlaki, an imam who has used his personal Web site to encourage Muslims around the world to kill U.S. troops in Iraq, disappeared eight months ago, his father said yesterday. Yemeni security officials said they believed he was hiding in a region of the mountainous nation that is a refuge for Islamist extremists.
He was arrested in 2006 on suspicion of giving religious approval to extremists to conduct kidnappings, but investigators were unable to prove any links to al-Qaeda, and he was released in late 2007, according to two Yemeni counterterrorism officials and an Interior Ministry official.
That's despite evidence showing that three of the 9/11 hijackers prayed at two mosques where Awlaki was the spiritual leader.
Did the US Army and law enforcement drop the ball when it came to Nidal Hasan's background? ABC News seems to suggest that they did in a report indicating that Hasan was apparently trying to make contacts with al Qaeda.
U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News.
It is not known whether the intelligence agencies informed the Army that one of its officers was seeking to connect with suspected al Qaeda figures, the officials said.
One senior lawmaker said the CIA had, so far, refused to brief the intelligence committees on what, if any, knowledge they had about Hasan's efforts.
CIA director Leon Panetta and the Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, have been asked by Congress "to preserve" all documents and intelligence files that relate to Hasan, according to the lawmaker.
Moreover, it appears that he attended a mosque where two of the 9/11 hijackers prayed. And, like the 9/11 hijackers, Hasan also apparently went to a strip joint and imbibed prior to carrying out his attack that killed 13 soldiers and wounded 30 others.
The warning signs were there for those who could piece things together along with excuses for his behavior because of apparent taunting and religious epitaphs.
It was still dark on Thursday when Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan left his aging apartment complex to attend 6 a.m. prayers at the brick mosque near Fort Hood. Afterward, he said goodbye to his friends there and asked forgiveness from one man for any past offenses.
“I’m going traveling,” he told a fellow worshiper, giving him a hug. “I won’t be here tomorrow.”
Six hours later, Major Hasan walked into a processing center at Fort Hood where soldiers get medical attention before being sent overseas. At first, he sat quietly at an empty table, said two congressmen briefed on the investigation.
Then, witnesses say, he bowed his head for several seconds, as if praying, stood up and drew a high-powered pistol. “Allahu akbar,” he said — “God is great.” And he opened fire. Within minutes he had killed 13 people.
But relatives and acquaintances say tensions that led to the rampage had been building for a long time. Investigators say Major Hasan bought the gun used in the massacre last summer, days after arriving at Fort Hood.
In recent years, he had grown more and more vocal about his opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and tortured over reconciling his military duties with his religion. He tried to get out of the Army, relatives said, and apparently believed it to be impossible, though experts say he was probably given inadequate advice.
At times, he complained, too, about harassment, once describing how someone had put a diaper in his car, saying, “That’s your headdress.” In another case cited by relatives, someone had drawn a camel on his car and written under it, “Camel jockey, get out!”
At the same time, the media is speculating on how Hasan obtain the firearms used in the attack. Many are misidentifying the kind of gun used, and ascribing to it the label "cop killer" despite the fact that it has never actually been used to kill law enforcement officers prior to this very attack.
While the investigations continue, what is clear is that Hasan engaged in a premeditated act of violence in murdering his fellow soldiers. He appears to have harbored some deep seated anger and resentment against the US military, and some of his fellow soldiers may have alternately fed that anger or responded to the anger with the hateful statements being related in the Times report. That Hasan may have attempted contact with al Qaeda shows that whatever kind of issues he was having, he sought to join the enemy of the US and violate the very oaths he undertook when entering the service of the US Army - to protect and defend the US Constitution.
UPDATE: As of the 6th, the US Army had not confirmed that Hasan uttered "Allahu Akbar" before opening fire. However, a radical imam who is connected to Hasan has expressed his support for Hasan's actions and condemns those Muslims who denounce Hasan:
The personal Web site for a radical American imam living in Yemen who had contact with two 9/11 hijackers is praising alleged Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan as a hero.
The posting Monday on the Web site for Anwar al Awlaki, who was a spiritual leader at two mosques where three 9/11 hijackers worshipped, said American Muslims who condemned the attacks on the Texas military base last week are hypocrites who have committed treason against their religion.
UPDATE: Meanwhile, the Washington Post thinks that the attacks against the US on US soil by various groups are simply anti-war in nature, and not part of a jihad; the headline reads:
Fort Hood attack is 3rd this year by antiwar radicals targeting military on U.S. soil
Sorry, but this attack isn't merely an antiwar radical acting out. Neither was the Fort Dix Six plot or any of the other jihadi plots that were disrupted. They're not anti-war, they're the other side, no matter how much the WaPo reporter tries to spin that this is not all that different than McVeigh and Nichols pursuing their vendetta against the US government.
Amid all the confusion and contradictory reports about yesterday's carnage and savage deaths of 13 US soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, some facts are finally coming to the forefront. Army psychiatrist Major Malik Nadal Hasan is believed to be the shooter. He is still alive after being shot four times.
The gunman, who was still alive after being shot four times, was identified by law enforcement authorities as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, who had been in the service since 1995. Major Hasan was about to be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, said Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas.
Clad in a military uniform and firing an automatic pistol and another weapon, Major Hasan, a balding, chubby-faced man with heavy eyebrows, sprayed bullets inside a crowded medical processing center for soldiers returning from or about to be sent overseas, military officials said.
The victims, nearly all military personnel but including two civilians, were cut down in clusters, the officials said. Witnesses told military investigators that medics working at the center tore open the clothing of the dead and wounded to get at the wounds and administer first aid.
As the shooting unfolded, military police and civilian officers of the Department of the Army responded and returned the gunman’s fire, officials said, adding that Major Hasan was shot by a first-responder, who was herself wounded in the exchange.
In the confusion of a day of wild and misleading reports, the major and the officer who shot him were both reported killed in the gun battle, but both reports were erroneous.
Eight hours after the shootings, Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone, a base spokesmen, said Major Hasan, whom he described as the sole gunman, had been shot four times, but was hospitalized off the base, under around-the-clock guard, in stable condition and was not in imminent danger of dying.
There were apparently no others involved in the shooting, although there were two people who were taken into custody and released several hours later.
MSNBC reports Hasan was "mortified" about a deployment overseas. He began having doubts about his military service beginning a few years ago. So he went and murdered 13 soldiers and wounded 31 others? If he was having doubts, why accept the promotion and not separate from service through an honorable discharge after completing the terms of his service?
Then, there are several online postings attributed to him that suggest that he was going down the path of a jihadi:
There was a grenade thrown amongs a group of American soldiers. One of the soldiers, feeling that it was to late for everyone to flee jumped on the grave with the intention of saving his comrades. Indeed he saved them. He inentionally took his life (suicide) for a noble cause i.e. saving the lives of his soldier. To say that this soldier committed suicide is inappropriate. Its more appropriate to say he is a brave hero that sacrificed his life for a more noble cause. Scholars have paralled this to suicide bombers whose intention, by sacrificing their lives, is to help save Muslims by killing enemy soldiers. If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off guard that would be considered a strategic victory. Their intention is not to die because of some despair. The same can be said for the Kamikazees in Japan. They died (via crashing their planes into ships) to kill the enemies for the homeland. You can call them crazy i you want but their act was not one of suicide that is despised by Islam. So the scholars main point is that "IT SEEMS AS THOUGH YOUR INTENTION IS THE MAIN ISSUE" and Allah (SWT) knows best. [emphasis added]
Video footage shows Hasan the morning of the attack at a convenience store wearing a Muslim cap and robe, which runs counter to Army records which say that he had no religious preference.
A co-worker at Walter Reed said Hasan would not allow his photo to be taken with female co-workers, which became an issue during Christmas season when employees often took group photos. Co-workers would find a solo photo of Hasan and post it on the bulletin board without his permission.
Lee told Fox News that Hasan "was hoping that President Obama would pull troops out. . . . When things weren't going that way, he became more agitated, more frustrated with the conflicts over there. . . . He made his views well known about how he felt about the U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan."
And when he talked about fighting "the aggressor," he said that his fellow soldiers "should stand up and help the armed forces in Iraq and in Afghanistan," Lee said.
It appears that he did have a preference for being a devout Muslim but didn't want the Army to know, although his actions showed something quite different?
Moreover he had once been disciplined for proselytizing, and a report this morning says that he shouted Allahu Akbar as he began his shooting rampage. If that's confirmed, this was not some weird case of post traumatic stress disorder (which could be remotely possible based on his close contact with soldiers who were relating their war experiences to him in the course of their treatment and Hasan couldn't deal with it), but rather another instance of an individual Muslim engaging in jihad.
The NY Post reports that Hasan had hired an attorney to help him get out of a deployment.
In recent years, he expressed his opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and had become angry that President Obama hadn't withdrawn troops from the region.
"He would make comments to other individuals about how we should not be in the war in the first place," Lee told Fox.
He said Hasan would often make "outlandish" comments.
"He said maybe Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor," Lee said.
"At first, we thought he meant help the armed forces, but apparently, that wasn't the case."
Nader Hasan told Fox his cousin, a disaster and trauma specialist, had hired a military lawyer to help him get out of deployment.
There is something seriously amiss here as the various disjointed facts come together as to how Hasan was promoted in May despite concerns about his Internet postings, and the fact he was placed in close proximity to soldiers ready to embark to one of the theaters of operation - Iraq and Afghanistan, where Hasan thought they were going to kill Muslims. Did the Army fail to heed the warning signs here? Did he fall through the cracks.
UPDATE: What is going on with the Los Angeles Times? Patterico notes that the LAT is suppressing any mention of Hasan's religious views, actions, and statements alleged to have been made by him that would contradict the meme that Hasan was a PTSD victim despite never having been in combat. The LAT also is in the habit of simply overlaying reports on each other using the same URL, rather than providing separate reports to show updates. Earlier reports simply go down the memory hole.
UPDATE: Based on the video showing Hasan wearing traditional garb, and a report that Hasan sold off his possessions in the past few weeks, I wonder whether Hasan underwent wudu (ritual purification) ahead of the attack yesterday. It definitely seems that he had prepared himself for some action. There's also an update on the number injured and no confirmation as yet to whether Hasan had indeed said Allahu Akbar:
Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said officials had not yet confirmed that the suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, made the comment before the rampage Thursday. Hasan was among 30 people wounded in the shooting spree and remained hospitalized on a ventilator.
All but two of the injured were still hospitalized, and all were in stable condition.
UPDATE: The FBI has seized Hasan's computer and are continuing their investigation in to Hasan's motives.
UPDATE: According to this NPR report, Hasan was giving off all kinds of warning signs to his coworkers at Walter Reed, which is where he was based before heading to Fort Hood, which again makes me wonder why he was promoted in light of his behavior/attitude.
Instapundit has more on the NPR segment, and how the story is being edited and adjusted as the day goes on. However, the takeaway paragraphs are as follows:
He gave a Grand Rounds presentation. . . You take turns giving a lecture on, you know, the correct treatment of schizophrenia, the right drugs to prescribe for personality disorder, you know, that sort of thing. But instead of giving an academic paper, he gave a lecture on the Koran, and they said it didn’t seem to be just an informational lecture, but it seemed to be his own beliefs. That’s what a lot of people thought.
He talked about how if you’re a nonbeliever the Koran says you should have your head cut off, you should have oil poured down your throat, you should be set on fire. And I said well couldn’t this just be his educating you? And the psychiatrist said yes, but one of the Muslims in the audience, another psychiatrist, raised his hand and was quite disturbed and he said you know, a lot of us don’t believe these things you’re saying, and that there was no place where Hasan couched it as this is what the Koran teaches but you know I don’t believe it. And people actually talked in the hallway afterwards about ‘is he one of these people that’s going to freak out and shoot people someday?’
In other words, his coworkers and associates were wondering if this guy was a ticking time bomb, and yet it didn't raise flags come promotion time? It would appear that someone may have dropped the ball here, and perhaps someone may not have wanted to come forward to address this issue because of the religious issues involved?
This further adds to my thesis that this wasn't a sudden inspiration to kill, but a premeditated act. I am awaiting to see if the reports indicate whether Hasan picked the time and place for the attack so as to maximize casualties - in conjunction with the intake for soldiers as well as the graduation ceremony, etc. all in the hall?
At least seven people are dead and 12 wounded in a shooting at Fort Hood in Texas, the base's public affairs office told NBC News on Thursday.
The official would not give his name nor additional details. It was unknown whether victims are soldiers or civilians. One gunman was reportedly in custody and another was on the loose, NBC News said.
The base was reportedly on lockdown. Two nearby school districts were also being locked down.
My thoughts and prayers go out the families and friends of those involved.
UPDATE: The Fort Hood websites are overwhelmed at the moment, so news from the source is going to take some time to come out.
There were apparently two gunmen involved, one is in custody while a second is on the loose according to MSNBC. No word on whether those involved (either the gunmen or victims) were soldiers or civilians.
UPDATE: Unconfirmed reports that one gunman is holed up in the 42006 building on the base. Same report notes that gunman has high powered rifle. The local school districts are in various levels of lockdown:
Killeen ISD says all Fort Hood schools are on lockdown.
Temple ISD is on a "soft" lockdown. Parents will be able to pick their children up at the normal times, though they may experience delays.
UPDATE: MSNBC reports that there might be a third gunman involved. Video updates here.
UPDATE: Rep. John Carter was nearing entrance of building where a graduation ceremony was being held when a soldier ran up covered in blood.
Greg Schannep, an aide to U.S. Rep. John Carter, told the Austin American-Statesman that he was on the Army post to attend a graduation service. He said that as he neared the entrance of a building where the service was being held, a soldier with blood on his uniform ran past him and said a man was shooting.
Schannep told the newspaper that the shootings appeared to have occurred in a complex near a theater where the service was scheduled. He was with the injured soldier, who he said appeared to have been struck in the shoulder but did not have life-threatening injuries.
According to unconfirmed reports, one of the shooters was being surrounded by police in the 42006 building on Fort Hood. That source told KCEN the shooter has a high-powered rifle.
UPDATE: Fox News is reporting at least 20 were injured, and I fear that the toll will increase as more information comes available.
UPDATE: Fort Hood is a vast facility, and is the largest military base in the world. This incident has all the hallmarks of a planned attack, quite possibly terrorism, but that is speculation at the moment.
UPDATE: Sources on Fort Hood say only 2 shooters; both have now been taken into custody. 4 SWAT injured in the gunfire.
The Army says seven people were killed and 20 wounded in a pair of shootings at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas. An Army spokesman at the Pentagon says the shootings began about 1:30 p.m. Thursday at a personnel and medical processing center at Fort Hood.
The spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Nathan Banks, says two shooters were apparently involved. There is no word yet on who they were, nor on identities of the dead.
Banks says the second incident took place at a theater on the sprawling base.
They go on to speculate that the incident was the result of someone with PTSD, even though there's no evidence to suggest a motive at this point. The AP also editorializes that the army has been suffering from high suicide rates because of repeat deployments.
CNN now reports nine dead, and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison was briefed that there were at least 30 injured.
UPDATE: At least 11 killed, plus one gunman. The dead gunman has been identified as Major Malik Nadal Hasan. The major opened fire at around 1:30PM local time, 31 soldiers were wounded. Two other individuals are in custody. Gov. Rick Perry was providing a presser, but his information was out of date.
UPDATE: Hasan's background is starting to emerge. He was a licensed psychiatrist from Silver Spring, Md. There are also reports that he was unhappy about a deployment to Iraq and that he was a recent convert to Islam. However, to focus on his profession, that he was a psychiatrist might jibe with reports mentioning that part of the incident occurred in a traumatic brain injury clinic on base.
UPDATE: The WSJ reports:
Military officials said that Maj. Hasan was a psychiatrist who had been recently promoted to major and transferred to Fort Hood from Washington's Walter Reed Medical Center. Maj. Hasan's professional specialties included post-traumatic stress disorder, combat stress and other emotional issues common to the troops implicated in earlier incidents of military fratricide.
A defense official said that there "were some signs that this might be an Akbar-type event," a reference to a bloody incident in early 2003 when Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar threw grenades into tents occupied by fellow members of the 101st Airborne Division.
Two officers were killed in the 2003 attack in Kuwait, which wounded 14 others. Military prosecutors said that Sgt. Akbar, who was ultimately sentenced to death, was motivated by anger at the deaths of Iraqi civilians at the hands of U.S. troops.
Other shooting incidents have been linked to combat stress and and emotional problems many soldiers are suffering after long, repeat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. With the military stretched thin by the long wars, many troops have done three and in some cases four tours to the war zones.
There's no word on whether Hasan had actually served overseas. There are also conflicting reports over whether two other people remain in custody.
UPDATE: Contradictory and conflicting evidence. Hasan was recently promoted, despite the fact that officials were following Hasan's online postings in light of the following:
Federal law enforcement officials say the suspected Fort Hood, Texas, shooter had come to their attention at least six months ago because of Internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats.
The officials say the postings appeared to have been made by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who was killed during the shooting incident that left least 11 others dead and 31 wounded. The officials say they are still trying to confirm that he was the author. They say an official investigation was not opened.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.
One of the Web postings that authorities reviewed is a blog that equates suicide bombers with a soldier throwing himself on a grenade to save the lives of his comrades.
Why would someone who was under investigation in the manner alleged above be granted a promotion that puts him in line to possibly be called upon to deploy to Iraq? Moreover, why was he promoted if he got a poor performance review? Would not a discharge have been more appropriate than a promotion?
UPDATE: The other two individuals who were detained by law enforcement were released.
