Suspected Gunman in Custody After 12 Killed in Rampage at Fort Hood
An Army psychiatrist who reportedly feared an impending war deployment is in custody as the sole suspect in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Texas that left 12 dead and 31 wounded, an Army official said Thursday night.
The news that the suspect, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, was alive and in stable condition came as a sudden reversal of early reports that the gunman was among the dead.
“I would say his death is not imminent,” Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said. Col. Ben Danner said the suspect was shot at least four times.
Dang! Survived four bullets. Too bad.
The rampage was believed to be the deadliest at a U.S. military base in history. The exact motive wasn’t clear, though Hasan, a Virginia native and a Muslim, reportedly was against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and had been the target of harassment for his ethnicity.
The Chief has experienced harassment in a military setting. It can be a real annoyance, but certainly survivable without taking out frustrations by attacking his fellow sailors.
UPDATE: Troubling portrait emerges of Fort Hood suspect
His name appears on radical Internet postings. A fellow officer says he fought his deployment to Iraq and argued with soldiers who supported U.S. wars. He required counseling as a medical student because of problems with patients.
There are many unknowns about Nidal Malik Hasan, the man authorities say is responsible for the worst mass killing on a U.S. military base. Most of all, his motive. But details of his life and mindset, emerging from official sources and personal acquaintances, are troubling.
According to the reports he had a problem with some of his fitness reports, and apparently had some sort of problems dealing with patients. That may or may not have any significance, but the following does raise some concerns:
At least six months ago, Hasan came to the attention of law enforcement officials because of Internet postings about suicide bombings and other threats, including posts that equated suicide bombers to soldiers who throw themselves on a grenade to save the lives of their comrades.
They had not determined for certain whether Hasan is the author of the posting, and a formal investigation had not been opened before the shooting, said law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the case.
Wonder what it takes to get investigated these days. (Probably bad-mouthing B.O.!) They probably couldn’t proceed due to fears of being caught “profiling”.
One of the officials said late Thursday that federal search warrants were being drawn up to authorize the seizure of Hasan’s computer.
They can hack out anything that’s there…even stuff that had been erased…of course, that doesn’t mean that anything about it will ever see the light of day. For instance, the IMMEDIATE response was that this was no way terrorism.
Uh…how could they know, if there had been no previous investigation? Also, IMHO, a terrorist is as a terrorist does. One does NOT have to have an official notarized al Qaida membership card to be a terrorist. By MY reckoning, this sure seems like terrorism to me!
UPDATE II: Fort Hood shooting: Nidal Malik Hasan ‘said Muslims should rise up’
Maybe some of this has to do with being harassed:
Col Terry Lee, a retired officer who worked with him at the military base in Texas, alleged Maj Hasan had angry confrontations with other officers over his views.
Maj Hasan was reportedly fighting orders to be deployed to Iraq at the end of the month, claiming that he was the victim of harassment and insults because of his Arab background and his faith….
“He was making outlandish comments condemning our foreign policy and claimed Muslims had the right to rise up and attack Americans,” Col Lee told Fox News.
“He said Muslims should stand up and fight the aggressor and that we should not be in the war in the first place.” He said that Maj Hasan said he was “happy” when a US soldier was killed in an attack on a military recruitment centre in Arkansas in June. An American convert to Islam was accused of the shootings.
Col Lee alleged that other officers had told him that Maj Hasan had said “maybe people should strap bombs on themselves and go to Time Square” in New York.
This is in side of an Army community…is it any wonder that this might get a negative reaction?