Shooting at Ft Hood; 7 dead, 20+wounded

[Eve]

Radical Imam Praises Alleged Fort Hood Shooter, Urges Muslims to 'Follow in Footsteps' - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News - FOXNews.com

Anwar said the only way a Muslim can justify serving in the U.S. military is if he intends to "follow in the footsteps of men like Nidal."

...

American Muslims who condemned the attacks on the Texas military base last week are hypocrites who have committed treason against their religion.

 

[Reba]

Do you agree with these statements?
1. Quote:
I think Muslims shouldn't join military, because it could afflict others - IMO.

2. Quote:
The fact that Hassan perpetrated this act based on religion, sets these two incidents worlds apart.

I could have sworn that I previously posted the answer to #1, and I've been searching the thread but I can't find it. So, I guess I have to do it again.

Short answer: Muslims shouldn't be prohibited from joining our military solely on the basis of being Muslims.

#2 We don't have all the facts in yet to determine why he shot up the soldiers.

 

[Jiro]

I could have sworn that I previously posted the answer to #1, and I've been searching the thread but I can't find it. So, I guess I have to do it again.

Short answer: Muslims shouldn't be prohibited from joining our military solely on the basis of being Muslims.

#2 We don't have all the facts in yet to determine why he shot up the soldiers.

 

[somedeafdudefromPNW]

That was a long discussion.... on someone's position who has had remained neutral from Post #1.

 

[sallylou]

I wrote rouge instead of rogue. I'm dyslexic today!

I'm glad that the shooter is awake so that investigators can question him.

Does he have to be tried under military law? If so, I'm wondering it the federal rules of procedure apply.

 

[Reba]

I wrote rouge instead of rogue. I'm dyslexic today!

I'm glad that the shooter is awake so that investigators can question him.

Does he have to be tried under military law? If so, I'm wondering it the federal rules of procedure apply.

Hasan is an Army officer, and the shooting occurred on an Army post, so I assume the Army would have jurisdiction. That means a court martial under the UCMJ.

 

[saywhatkid]

let's try spending less time hunting for conspiracy theories and be patient with what authority comes up with. beside - look at the card. an AOL email address? pretty fishy.

That card looks like something an idiot would create to stir the fires of anti-Muslim hate. I shudder to think that anyone believes it is authentic. :roll:

 

[Jiro]

interesting commentary and insightful -

The Meaning of Fort Hood

The attempt to sort out the meaning of the murderous actions of Maj. Nidal Hasan has consumed numerous blog cycles since Thursday. Does Hasan’s rampage signal an internal jihadi threat we’re ill-equipped to thwart, or was it just another meaningless moment of American lone-gunman violence?

Melanie Phillips at The Spectator is pretty clear on her take: “Multiculturalism kills.”

Ditto David Horowitz at his blog: “The Fort Hood killings are the chickens of the left coming home to roost.”

Rod Dreher wants to know “how many more Fort Hoods we’re going to have before U.S. authorities wake up and realize that we’ve got a big problem in this country with the Islamic leadership class, which is heavily dominated by the radical Muslim Brotherhood.”

ABC News, citing two unnamed intelligence sources briefed on the situation, says the C.I.A. became aware months ago that Hasan may have been trying to make contact with al Qaeda.

If this is true, heads should roll — especially if it is established during the investigation that political correctness — sorry, Gen. Casey, “diversity” — kept competent authorities from acting swiftly and sensibly against Hasan.

Yesterday at The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg said many in the media were responsible for underplaying the importance of the moment. “I do think that elite makers of opinion in this country try very hard to ignore the larger meaning of violent acts when they happen to be perpetrated by Muslims.”

It seems, though, that when an American military officer who is a practicing Muslim allegedly shoots forty of his fellow soldiers who are about to deploy to the two wars the United States is currently fighting in Muslim countries, some broader meaning might, over time, be discerned, especially if the officer did, in fact, yell “Allahu Akbar” while murdering his fellow soldiers, as some soldiers say he did. This is the second time this year American soldiers on American soil have been gunned down by a Muslim who was reportedly unhappy with America’s wars in the Middle East (the first took place in Arkansas, to modest levels of notice). And, of course, this would not be the first instance of an American Muslim soldier killing fellow soldiers over his disagreements with American foreign policy; in 2003, Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar killed two officers and wounded fourteen others when he rolled a grenade into a tent in a homicidal protest against American policy.

I am not arguing, of course, that American Muslims, as a whole, are violently unhappy with America (I’ve argued the opposite, in fact). But I do think that elite makers of opinion in this country try very hard to ignore the larger meaning of violent acts when they happen to be perpetrated by Muslims. Here’s a simple test: If Nidal Malik Hasan had been a devout Christian with pronounced anti-abortion views, and had he attacked, say, a Planned Parenthood office, would his religion have been considered relevant as we tried to understand the motivation and meaning of the attack? Of course. Elite opinion makers do not, as a rule, try to protect Christians and Christian belief from investigation and criticism. Quite the opposite. It would be useful to apply the same standards of inquiry and criticism to all religions.

Goldberg was responding in part to his colleague James Fallows, who was early with the meaningless P.O.V. Just hours after the shootings on Thursday he wrote, “As the Vietnam-era saying went, ‘Don’t mean nothing.’ ”

One consequence of having been alive through a lot of modern American history is remembering a lot of mass shootings. I was working at a high school summer job when news came over the radio that Charles Whitman had gunned down more than 40 people, killing 14, from the main tower at the University of Texas at Austin. I was editing a news magazine during the schoolyard killings in Paducah, Kentucky in 1997 and sent reporters to try to figure out what it all meant. I can remember where I was when the live-news coverage switched to the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado, and the shootings at the one-room schoolhouse in the Amish country of Pennsylvania, and the Virginia Tech shootings two years ago. And all the rest.

In the saturation coverage right after the events, the “expert” talking heads are compelled to offer theories about the causes and consequences. In the following days and weeks, newspapers and magazine will have their theories too. Looking back, we can see that all such efforts are futile. The shootings never mean anything. Forty years later, what did the Charles Whitman massacre “mean”? A decade later, do we “know” anything about Columbine? There is chaos and evil in life. Some people go crazy. In America, they do so with guns; in many countries, with knives; in Japan, sometimes poison.

In Fallows’ rather than Goldberg’s camp, Ta-Nehisi Coates wants to know “What is the big ‘thing’ that we should be seeing, in this case?”

Jeff asks what we’d say if a devout Christian had attacked Planned Parenthood. Fair enough–we have a pretty good corollary in George Tiller. I could be wrong, but I don’t recall a lot of “media elites” trying to divine what Tiller’s death said about Christianity, itself. Again, beyond the fact that some wacko interpreted Christianity to mean he had the right to shoot people, what else would there be to say?

That’s really my issue. What is the big “thing” that we should be seeing, in this case? What are those elite blinders preventing us from seeing?

Michael Tomasky at the Guardian also remains among the unconvinced:

Okay, it’s certainly starting to look like Nidal Hassan held some extreme views and had some dubious connections. . . .

Fair enough. If them’s the facts, them’s the facts. My position last Friday — that his roots and background may or may not turn out to be relevant, and that in the meantime we should not rush to conclusions — was not only entirely reasonable but was a position taken more out of distrust of the media than any kind of Palestinian sympathy. The initial media hysteria in these instances is usually wrong. Never forget poor Richard Jewell.

So if Hassan was indeed an American-hating extremist, what are we to make of it? Yes, I’m well aware that some of you think we should make of it that Barack Obama is behind it all and that Hassan’s actions are phase one of Obama’s plot to destroy the country. But I mean back here on planet Earth.

We make of it that the Army needs more rigorous screening and more thoroughgoing reviews of soldiers’ states of mind. Anything else?

At the National Review today, Jeffrey Goldberg has been working a variation of Hasan inquiry: can we call his attack an act of terrorism? Goldberg’s post was prompted in part by an e-mail from a reader, which asked Goldberg, “Would you say the Disco bombing in Berlin was a terrorist act? Was the crash into the Pentagon a terrorist act?”

The reader continued:

I would say that an act which is unexpected and carried out with the intention to kill indiscriminately for the sole purpose of punishing those who do not hold your beliefs is an Islamic terrorist act. If he chose to wear a suicide belt instead of shooting would that make it easier for people to make the distinction?

In reply, Goldberg agreed that both the Berlin bombing and the Pentagon crash were terrorist acts, but balked at calling the Fort Hood murders an act of terrorism.

I am very uncomfortable with the idea that I might sound like I’m trying to diminish the guy’s crimes. He committed treason and murder. It was a cowardly act. If we are at war, then it was a war crime.

But I think the reader’s definition of terrorism might move us into dangerous territory. In Pakistan, we launch missiles at people’s homes with civilians in or around them to take out al-Qaeda leadership. The attacks are — hopefully — always intended to be something of a surprise. But I wouldn’t call that terrorism. I’m just uncomfortable with the word terrorism metastasizing into “anything the bad guys do to us.” Why not call what Hasan did a war crime? Terrorism is a war crime but not all war crimes are terrorism.

Of course, the fact that Jihadis reject all of the rules of war makes it very difficult to figure out how to even talk about the rules. (Just out of curiosity, what would the legal definition be of, say, a Japanese officer turning on fellow Japanese troops during World War Two in the apparent hope of aiding the Allies?)

As I said before, if terrorism is now the catchall for dastardly acts committed by Jihadis, then calling this attack terrorism works fine for me. But if this is really a war — and I think it is — then I think we could spend some more time thinking a bit more rigorously about our vocabulary.

At Mother Jones, Kevin Drum applauds Goldberg’s response: “I think that’s right, and it’s nice to see some pushback from the right on this. ”

There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that Nidal Malik Hasan was (a) quite mentally disturbed and (b) motivated by religious beliefs, but that doesn’t make what he did a terrorist act. Unlike, say, a suicide bomber in Jerusalem, there’s hardly even a hint that he was trying to make any kind of political statement. There was no note, no videotape left behind, no explanation while he was shooting, no nothing. What kind of terrorist does that?

At Outside the Beltway, James Joyner argues that “whether Hasan is a ‘terrorist’ depends entirely on his motivation.”

To qualify as ‘terrorism,’ the act has to be committed to instill fear for the purpose of achieving political goals. If he’s just an angry Muslim who went nuts and started shooting people, he’s a psychopath and a killer but not a terrorist. Even if he was trying to send an “I’ll show them” message, he’s no more a terrorist than the Columbine killers, the lunatic who shot up Virginia Tech, or one of those postal workers who go on a rampage.

Now, evidence is still pouring in. Hasan reportedly “once gave a lecture to other doctors in which he said non-believers should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats” and actually “was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda.” That, combined with various Internet postings and other rants, at very least makes him a terrorist sympathizer. And Jim Lindgren sees some matchup of Hasan with the typical psychology of a terrorist.

But even if Hasan was an al Qaeda wannabe who was trying to restore the Caliphate with his evil deeds, I’m not sure that he’s a “terrorist” in any sense that really matters. If he’s just a lone fanatic rather than part of an organized group, the difference between him and any other mass murderer is academic. Indeed, Charles Manson was politically motivated and actually had a group of followers but he’s never referred to as a “terrorist.”

 

[VamPyroX]

I'm surprised that nothing was done as soon as the signs began to appear that he was going against our country.

 

[Jiro]

Investigators look for missed signals in Fort Hood probe

Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- Investigators believe the suspected gunman in last week's massacre at Fort Hood acted alone, but his communications had been flagged by U.S. intelligence agencies in late 2008, the FBI said Monday.

The suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, remained in intensive care at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. In a statement issued Monday night, the FBI said its investigation so far "indicates that the alleged gunman acted alone and was not part of a broader terrorist plot."

Thursday's shooting left 13 dead, 12 of them U.S. soldiers, and 42 wounded.

Hasan, a U.S.-born citizen of Palestinian descent, was a licensed psychiatrist who joined the Army in 1997. He was promoted to major in May and was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan sometime soon, but had been telling his family since 2001 that he wanted to get out of the military.

A Muslim, he had told his family he had been taunted after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In August, he reported to police that his car was keyed and a bumper sticker that read "Allah is Love" was torn off. A neighbor was charged with criminal mischief after that complaint.

But the FBI disclosed that Hasan came to its attention as part of an unrelated terrorism probe in December 2008, when agents reviewed "certain communications between Maj. Hasan and the subject of that investigation."

The intercepts "raised no red flags," with no mention of threats or violence that would have triggered a U.S. terrorism investigation, senior investigative officials said Monday.

Hasan, 39, was wounded several times during the attack. Though still in intensive care, his ventilator was removed over the weekend, and he began talking afterwards, hospital spokesman Dewey Mitchell said.

Federal agents attempted to interview Hasan on Sunday, but he refused to cooperate and asked for an attorney, the investigative officials said.

U.S. military officials said intelligence agencies intercepted communications between Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki, a former imam at the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia, a Washington suburb. Al-Awlaki, who left the United States in 2002 and is believed to be living in Yemen, was the subject of several federal investigations dating back to the late 1990s, but was never charged.

Military officials told CNN on Monday that intelligence agencies intercepted communications from Hasan to al-Awlaki and shared them with other U.S. government agencies. But federal authorities dropped the inquiry into Hasan's communications after deciding that the messages warranted no further action, one of the officials said.

According to the FBI, investigators from one of its Joint Terrorism Task Forces determined "that the content of those communications was consistent with research being conducted by Maj. Hasan in his position as a psychiatrist at the Walter Reed Medical Center [in Washington]."

Hasan was first an intern, then a resident and finally a fellow at Walter Reed before moving to Fort Hood.

"Because the content of the communications was explainable by his research and nothing else derogatory was found, the JTTF concluded that Maj. Hasan was not involved in terrorist activities or terrorist planning," it said.

FBI Director Robert Mueller has ordered a review of the matter, the FBI said.

The independent commission that investigated the 9/11 attacks found al-Awlaki was a "spiritual adviser" to two of the hijackers in that plot, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Midhar, while al-Awlaki was at the Virginia mosque and earlier, in San Diego.

The commission report said it was not clear whether the imam knew al-Hazmi and al-Midhar were involved in the hijacking plot, but security experts have described him as a radical Islamic fundamentalist who was "very supportive of terrorists in the past," former White House homeland security adviser Frances Townsend told CNN.

An online post attributed to al-Awlaki praised Hasan as a hero for the Fort Hood attack, saying he "could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people." But the Dar Al-Hijrah mosque denounced al-Awlaki's remarks, and its current imam said he was stunned to hear Hasan was the suspect in the rampage.

"The quiet, very peaceful person coming in and out of the mosque, I couldn't believe he could have done this," Sheikh Shaker Elsayed told CNN.

Three senior investigative officials, who insisted they not be identified by name because of the sensitive nature of the ongoing federal investigation, told reporters in Washington that Hasan was never nominated to be on a watch list. He was able to purchase weapons legally and had done nothing to justify even a preliminary investigation, they said.

In addition, Hasan had a security clearance at the "secret" level and received good performance reviews, they said. Nonetheless, they continued to examine his communications with the cleric in Yemen for several months as a precaution.

Authorities have not identified a motive in Thursday's attack. But at Fort Hood the post commander told reporters he has ordered his officers to "immediately take a hard look and make sure if there's anybody out there struggling."

"Hasan was a soldier and we have other soldiers ... that might have some of the same stress and indicators that he has," Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said. "We have to look across our entire formation, not just in a medical community but really look hard to our right and left. That's the responsibility for everybody from the top to the bottom to make sure we're taking care of our own."

Army officials have voiced concern about jumping to any conclusions about Hasan's motive, warning about a possible backlash against Muslim soldiers. But several witnesses, like Pvt. Robert Foster, who was wounded in the hip during the attack, reported Hasan shouted "Allahu Akbar" -- Arabic for "God is great" -- which Islamic terrorists have used as a battle cry.

"I was sitting in about the second row back when the assailant stood up and yelled 'Allah Akbar' in Arabic and he opened fire," Foster, 21, said Monday on CNN's "American Morning."

The Army leadership at Fort Hood will "take a very hard look at ourselves and look at anything that might have been done to have prevented this," Cone said Monday.

"I think what we're looking for are sort of people with overwhelming personal problems and patterns of behavior that are not at all related to religion," Cone said.

No charges have been filed against Hasan. The investigative officials who briefed reporters said he was likely to be charged in the military court system.

President Obama will speak at Tuesday's memorial service for the shooting victims at Fort Hood, and will meet with victims' families, his spokesman said.

"The president will meet with families of those that lost a loved one last week, as well as speak to the larger memorial that will take place at the base," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in his daily briefing Monday.

First lady Michelle Obama will accompany the president on the trip, Gibbs said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates will also participate in the memorial service, but he will not speak, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said.

so far..... that pretty much answer most of posters' questions

1. no link to terrorist activities.
2. he is a licensed psychiatrist.
3. he will be tried in military court system
4. he has requested for attorney

 

[sallylou]

Wow. The plot thickens.

Nidal Hasan Tried To Contact Al Qaida, US Officials Knew Months Ago

"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," ABC writes.

 

[Jiro]

At Fort Hood, Some Violence Is Too Familiar

FORT HOOD, Tex. — Staff Sgt. Gilberto Mota, 35, and his wife, Diana, 30, an Army specialist, had returned to Fort Hood from Iraq last year when he used his gun to kill her, and then took his own life, the authorities say. In July, two members of the First Cavalry Division, also just back from the war with decorations for their service, were at a party when one killed the other.

That same month, Staff Sgt. Justin Lee Garza, 28, under stress from two deployments, killed himself in a friend’s apartment outside Fort Hood, four days after he was told no therapists were available for a counseling session. “What bothers me most is this happened while he was supposed to be on suicide watch,” said his mother, Teri Smith. “To this day, I don’t know where he got the gun.”

Fort Hood is still reeling from last week’s carnage, in which an Army psychiatrist is accused of a massacre that left 13 people dead. But in the town of Killeen and other surrounding communities, the attack, one of the worst mass shootings on a military base in the United States, is also seen by many as another blow in an area that has been beset by crime and violence since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began. Reports of domestic abuse have grown by 75 percent since 2001. At the same time, violent crime in Killeen has risen 22 percent while declining 7 percent in towns of similar size in other parts of the country.

The stresses are seen in other ways, too.

Since 2003, there have been 76 suicides by personnel assigned to Fort Hood, with 10 this year, according to military officials.

A crisis center on base is averaging 60 phone calls a week from soldiers and family members seeking various help for problems from suicide to anger management, with about the same volume of walk-ins and scheduled appointments.

In recent days, Army officials have pledged to redouble their efforts to help soldiers cope with deployment. The base, which uses some of the most innovative approaches in the military, plans to expand a help center set up in September that provides a variety of assistance to soldiers, including breathing techniques for handling combat stress and goal-setting skills upon their return.

“Fort Hood is very attuned to this,” said Col. William S. Rabena, who runs the help center known as the Resiliency Center Campus. “It’s the only thing to do.”

The Army has also sent an array of specialists to Fort Hood to help soldiers and their families, including chaplains, social workers, combat stress specialists, counselors and experts in crisis and disaster behavioral management. Army officials said more such assistance might be sent to the base.

But interviews with soldiers who have deployed one or more times to Iraq or Afghanistan, and with family members of those who died violently back here in Texas, show that the Army’s efforts are still falling short. Even some alarm bells rung by the Army leadership have gone unanswered.

In July, two weeks after Sergeant Garza’s death, Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch, then the base commander, told Congress he was in dire need of more mental health professionals. “That’s the biggest frustration,“ he told a House subcommittee. “I’m short about 44 of what I am convinced I need at Fort Hood that I just don’t have.”

Among the medical personnel brought to Fort Hood to help deal with the growing mental health issues was Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who arrived in July. Major Hasan is accused in the attacks last week, but little is known about what might have driven him.

“Our soldiers are coming back and not getting the help they need,” said Cynthia Thomas, an Army wife who runs a private assistance center for soldiers in Killeen called Under the Hood Café. “Whether it’s self-medicating, anger or violence, these are the consequences of war, and you have to think about all the people affected by soldiers coming home, the parents, spouses, children, brothers, sisters, aunts and cousins.”

Pfc. Michael Kern, of Riverside, Calif., said he tried unsuccessfully to obtain help for stress last year in Baghdad, but was ridiculed by an officer in front of his tanker unit. “He said he would have to impose mandatory sleeping times,” said Private Kern, 22, “and that health care was for people with serious problems.”

Back at Fort Hood, Private Kern said he had a breakdown that led to hospitalization and is now awaiting discharge at his request. If he had received therapy in Iraq, he said, “I might not be in this situation now.”

Military officials say the crime and violence associated with Fort Hood must be viewed with the base’s size in mind. With 53,000 soldiers assigned to the base, it has become the largest facility in the country, and much of the surrounding area is tied to the military through family or business.

Col. Edward McCabe, a Catholic chaplain at Fort Hood, said signs of fatigue and other strains are “rampant” on the base. “The numbers of divorces I’ve had to deal with are huge, the cases of physical abuse,” Colonel McCabe said. “Every night in my apartment complex some soldier and his wife are screaming and shouting at each other.“

The Army influences nearly every aspect of life in Killeen, a cotton town until the base moved in during World War II. About 55 miles north of Austin, the town straddles U.S. 190 and is split by a long corridor of strip malls. Most of the 102,000 residents are soldiers, their families or Army retirees. Business here and in the surrounding smaller communities like Belton and Harker Heights ebbs and flows around the first and 15th of each month — military paydays — and around deployments.

At The Killeen Daily Herald, which covers the base with a sympathetic ear to its military readers, employees see similar patterns play out with each troop rotation.

One day, it is a homecoming, with hundreds of families waving flags and homemade signs along T. J. Mills Boulevard leading into the base’s main gate. The next day, crime reports increase, especially cases of domestic violence. “Unfortunately, you see the trend every time there’s a homecoming, when the divisions come home,” said Olga Pena, the paper’s managing editor.

Nicolas Serna, the managing attorney of the local legal aid office, said requests for protective orders had steadily increased over the last several years.

He questioned whether Fort Hood was doing nearly enough for soldiers or for victims of domestic violence. A few years ago, he said, the base refused the group’s offer to provide legal assistance and to help with protection orders for families on Fort Hood.

Some social workers in the area see it differently. The Army, while not perfect, has been trying to address the situation, said Suzanne Armour, the director of programs at the Families in Crisis shelter in Killeen.

Michael Sibberson, the principal of Killeen High School, which has 1,880 students, a little over half with military parents, said in one sense the wars had helped the students relate to one another. On the other side, Mr. Sibberson said, the students are not getting the parental guidance they need because so many have parents deployed. That has led to poor grades, and more behavioral problems.

“Kids are not getting the support at the dinner table they need because Mom or Dad is not there,” he said, adding, “When you call the house you are likely to get Grandma, or a mom who says, ‘I am so full I don’t know what to do with him anymore.’ ”

Henry Garza, the district attorney for Bell County, which includes Killeen, said increases in crime might reflect the town’s rapid growth, though the federal crime data is adjusted for population changes. But the data may be understated because it does not count crimes prosecuted by the military authorities, who sometimes handle serious felonies and misdemeanors by active-duty soldiers even when they occur off base.

Base officials declined to release crime data without a Freedom of Information Act request.

Whether civilian or military official investigate deaths, the proceedings often leave families frustrated by the lack of clear answers.

The list of medals awarded to Sergeant Garza (no relation to the district attorney) tell of a good soldier. After two tours in Iraq, he shared a tight bond with unit members and missed them greatly when the Army sent him to a base in Georgia for additional training after a second deployment. He was troubled by a breakup with a girlfriend. And though he seldom spoke with his family about his combat tours, he once confided to his mother that he had a killed a person in Iraq. “He said, ‘It was him or me,’ ” Ms. Smith said. “But you could tell it troubled him.”

His family believes he did not get the care he needed, despite signs he had fallen into despair.

In June, he left the Georgia base without permission, and the Army tracked him to a hotel room in Paris, Tex. In a suicide note he sent to a friend before leaving, he said he wanted to end it close to his friends. Among his purchases was a shotgun.

Sergeant Garza was brought back to Fort Hood and committed for psychiatric care, first to a civilian hospital because there was no room at the base hospital, said his uncle, Gary Garza, who lives in Killeen. After three days, he was transferred to the base hospital. He was released after two weeks and assigned to take outpatient counseling.

“We thought he was doing better,” said his grandfather, Homer Garza, a retired command sergeant major who served in Korea and Vietnam and who himself had silently suffered for decades with post-traumatic stress.

In fact, Sergeant Garza had shared misgivings about his treatment at the base hospital with his uncle.

“He said he felt like he was getting really good treatment at the civilian hospital,” his uncle said. “He said the civilian doctors seemed to care more. And for the military doctors, it was just like a job for them.”

True or not, on July 7 Sergeant Garza received a message on his cellphone canceling what was to be his first outpatient appointment.

Though his family says the Army was supposed to be checking his apartment for guns and alcohol, that Sunday he put a pistol to his head and pulled the trigger. His mother later listened to the message.

“They said, ‘Sorry, we don’t have a counselor for you today,’ ” Ms. Smith said. “ ‘If you don’t hear back from us by Monday, give us a call.’ ”

my heart goes out to these soldiers who are having trouble coping with their issues

 

[kokonut]

That card looks like something an idiot would create to stir the fires of anti-Muslim hate. I shudder to think that anyone believes it is authentic. :roll:

Well, we already have that idiot.

Funny how the White House supposedly "forgot" to lower the flag at half mast?
What a woman can do Ramparts 360

Funny how Obama decided not to rush to judgement and wait until all verdicts are in about the Hasan case? But it was ok to rush to judgement about the Gates' incident? This guy is a walking conundrum.

 

[kokonut]

And the odd thing is that just like one of the 9/11 hijackers did, Hasan frequented a strip club just days before the attack.

Context of 'Before September 11, 2001: Hijackers Drink Alcohol and Watch Strip Shows, Especially towards Eve of Attacks'

 

[sara1981]

update from Yahoo news

Investigators say Fort Hood suspect acted alone
Investigators say Fort Hood suspect acted alone - Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON – The Army psychiatrist accused of the Fort Hood massacre is believed to have acted alone despite repeated communications — monitored by authorities — with a radical imam overseas, U.S. officials said Monday. The FBI will conduct an internal review of its handling of the information, they said.

An investigative official and a Republican lawmaker said Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was in contact with Anwar al-Awlaki, an imam released from a Yemeni jail last year, 10 to 20 times. Despite that, no formal investigation was opened into Hasan, they said.

Investigative officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case. Republican Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said it was his understanding Hasan and the imam exchanged e-mails that counterterrorism officials picked up.

Hasan, awake and talking to doctors, met his lawyer Monday in the Texas hospital where he is recovering under guard from gunshot wounds in the rampage Thursday that left 13 people dead and 29 injured. Officials said he will be tried in a military court, not a civilian one.

FBI Director Robert Mueller has ordered an internal inquiry to see whether the bureau mishandled worrisome information gathered about Hasan beginning in December 2008 and continuing into early this year.

Based on all the investigations since the attack, including a review of that 2008 information, the investigators said they have no evidence that Hasan had help or outside orders in the shootings.

Even so, they revealed the major had once been under scrutiny from a joint terrorism task force because of the series of communications going back months. Al-Awlaki is a former imam at a Falls Church, Va., mosque where Hasan and his family occasionally worshipped, and runs a Web site denouncing U.S. policy — a site that praised Hasan's alleged actions in the massacre as heroic.

Military officials were made aware of communications between the two, but because the messages did not advocate or threaten violence, civilian law enforcement authorities could not take the matter further, the officials said. The terrorism task force concluded Hasan was not involved in terrorist planning.

Officials said the content of those messages was "consistent with the subject matter of his research," part of which involved post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from U.S. combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A law enforcement official said the communications consisted primarily of Hasan posing questions to the imam as a spiritual leader or adviser, and the imam did respond to at least some of those messages.

No formal investigation was ever opened based on the contacts, the officials said.

They said the decision to bring military charges instead of civilian criminal charges against Hasan did not mean it wasn't a terrorism case. But it is likely authorities would have had more reason to take the case to federal court if they had found evidence Hasan acted with the support or training of a terrorist group.

Investigators tried to interview Hasan on Sunday at the military hospital where he is held under guard, but he refused to answer and requested a lawyer, the officials said.

On Monday afternoon, Hasan's new civilian and military attorneys met him for about half an hour at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, said retired Col. John P. Galligan, who was hired by Hasan's family.

Galligan said Hasan asked for an attorney even though he is on sedatives and his condition is guarded.

"Given his medical condition, that's the smart move," Galligan told The Associated Press on Monday night. "Nobody from law enforcement will be questioning him."

Galligan said both he and Maj. Christopher E. Martin, Fort Hood's senior defense attorney, met Hasan. Galligan questioned whether Hasan can get a fair trial at Fort Hood, given President Barack Obama's planned visit to the base on Tuesday and public comments by the post commander, Lt. Gen. Robert Cone. Galligan also said he plans to raise the issue of Hasan's mental condition.

The most serious charge in military court is premeditated murder, which carries the death penalty.

The Army has not yet appointed a lead prosecutor in the case, said Fort Hood spokesman Tyler Broadway.

 

[sara1981]

update from BBC

US Army attack 'not terror plot'
BBC NEWS | Americas | US Army attack 'not terror plot'

The FBI says that a US Army major suspected of killing 13 people was not part of a "broader terrorist plot".

Maj Nidal Hasan was noticed by the FBI in December as part of an unrelated inquiry by the Joint Terrorism Task Force, but did not raise concerns.

Investigators said his communications with another person were in line with his job as an army psychiatrist.

Maj Hasan remains in hospital but has regained consciousness after being shot by police during the attack last week.

Thirteen people died and another 29 were injured in the shooting at Fort Hood base in Texas on Thursday.

The FBI said it had "no information to indicate that Maj Hasan had any co-conspirators or was part of a broader terrorist plot".

The bureau did not name the person Maj Hasan communicated with, and did not confirm reports that he was a radical cleric living in Yemen.

The content of the communications between Maj Hasan and the other individual was assessed as "consistent with research being conducted by Major Hasan in his position as a psychiatrist at the Walter Reed Medical Center" in Washington DC.

'No red flag'

"Because the content of the communications was explainable by his research and nothing else derogatory was found, the JTTF concluded that Major Hasan was not involved in terrorist activities or terrorist planning," the FBI said in a statement.

There were between 10 and 20 communications, beginning in December 2008 and continuing in 2009.

Content was of a social nature as well as "religious guidance".

They did not include the sort of threatening or inciting language that would have triggered an investigation.

A senior government official said the "general tenor of the communications was benign".

The communications contained "no red flag", according to the official.

Senior investigators say Maj Hassan, who is conscious and has called for a lawyer, is to be charged in a military court, rather than the US District Court.

Motive unclear

Investigators also said that being on the FBI's radar would not have been enough to prevent Maj Hassan from legally obtaining a weapon.

The FBI investigation has not identified a motive, and a number of possibilities remain under consideration.

Some reports said Maj Hasan, a 39-year-old US-born Muslim, was unhappy about being deployed to Afghanistan.

FBI Director Robert Mueller has ordered a review of how the agency dealt with information about Maj Hasan.

Senior US Senator Joe Lieberman has said he plans to open a congressional investigation into whether the shootings were a terrorist attack.

Mr Lieberman also said he hoped to determine whether the army missed signs that Maj Hasan may have harboured extreme views.

 

[kokonut]

This thing need to be looked into a bit more deeply. Sen. Lieberman is right. A congressional investigation is warranted.

 

[sara1981]

updates from People magazines websites

Ft. Hood Hero Cop 'Deeply Touched' by America's Prayers
Ft. Hood Hero Cop 'Deeply Touched' by America's Prayers : People.com

While recovering from three gunshot wounds, Sgt. Kimberly Munley issued her first public statement Monday since the Fort Hood rampage, returning the gratitude that Americans have showered on her.

"Kimberly Munley and family would like to extend their thanks and appreciation for all of the thoughts and concerns surrounding Kim from around the nation," reads the statement, issued through her hospital. "They are deeply touched by the outpouring of strength, thoughts and prayers that have been sent their way. At this time, the main concern for Kim's family is her safe and rapid recovery."

Munley, 34, underwent her second surgery at Metroplex Hospital in Killeen, Texas, and "is currently in good condition," the statement says.

"The family would also like to extend their heartfelt condolences to all those affected by the tragedy on Fort Hood," adds the statement. "Mrs. Munley is very concerned with the well-being and safety of all involved and is hopeful that all injured will make a speedy recovery."

Cards and prayers can be sent via the hospital's Web site.

On the day of the Ft. Hood shootings, Munley cut short a trip to a garage to have her car fixed when news of a gunman at the Texas Army base came over the radio. The veteran sergeant sped to the scene within five minutes of the first report, pulled out her handgun, and fired at alleged shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who was finally incapacitated under the volley of bullets from Munley and her partner. She was shot twice in the leg and once in the wrist.

Munley, a member of the SWAT team for the civilian police department at Fort Hood, is a Tar Heel, graduating from high school in Wilmington, N.C., before becoming a cop in the beachside town of Wrightsville, N.C., despite her petite height of 5-feet 4-inches.

"She's a ball of fire," Munley's onetime partner, Wrightsville, N.C., police inspector Shaun Appler tells The New York Times. "She's a real good cop."

She joined the Fort Hood civilian police force in January 2008, but is in the process of moving to North Carolina, where her husband, a Special Forces soldier, has been reassigned. The couple have two children.

Comfortable with firearms since she was a child, Munley had hobbies that reflected her upbringing in the South and her teenage years near the beach: She loved to hunt, as well as surf. Neighbors and friends describe her as honest, friendly and fearless – she once took down a burglar in her neighborhood.

See what other readers have to say about this story – or leave a comment of your own

 

[Maria]

I could have sworn that I previously posted the answer to #1, and I've been searching the thread but I can't find it. So, I guess I have to do it again.

Short answer: Muslims shouldn't be prohibited from joining our military solely on the basis of being Muslims.

#2 We don't have all the facts in yet to determine why he shot up the soldiers.

I am not sayin' "Muslims" that shouldn't be prohibited from joinin' our military. I am sayin' "Muslims" based on their religion because, they believe in "honor the killings". It's why I said Muslims shouldn't join the military. I find this difficult for me to understand why this man use the words "Allah Akbar" before shootin'. You know that I am for this country and I support troops, regardless their races or whatever their backgrounds are. Those troops are supposed to be for "country", not "killin'" troops. Yes, I can understand that bein' a military/troop is a very stressful job and it can stress their health and mind. I respect troops for their doin' job very well. That's my appreciation.

My question is : Is there any history that an American troop shot other troops just like this man ? I mean, by followin' his religion just like this man ? I am not sure if, I remember any .... :-/

 

[somedeafdudefromPNW]

I am not sayin' "Muslims" that shouldn't be prohibited from joinin' our military. I am sayin' "Muslims" based on their religion because, they believe in "honor the killings". It's why I said Muslims shouldn't join the military. I find this difficult for me to understand why this man use the words "Allah Akbar" before shootin'. You know that I am for this country and I support troops, regardless their races or whatever their backgrounds are. Those troops are supposed to be for "country", not "killin'" troops. Yes, I can understand that bein' a military/troop is a very stressful job and it can stress their health and mind. I respect troops for their doin' job very well. That's my appreciation.

My question is : Is there any history that an American troop shot other troops just like this man ? I mean, by followin' his religion just like this man ? I am not sure if, I remember any .... :-/

It wasn't long ago soldiers used to yell "for God and Glory" before going over the top in the trenches... Regardless "Allah akbar" is ued in almost every situation from expressing happiness, to relieving stress, feeling blessed to praising or approving of someone... it;s pretty much a catch-all phrase for every significant event. Similar to how we use "thank God" even under fire.

And for the last sentence, you can find anyone with a similar mindset regardless of creed. Look at school shootings... how can you forget Columbine?