Thursday, November 5, 2009

"Troubling portrait emerges of Fort Hood suspect"


This ain't the only thing that's troubling. For example, when's the last time a mass shooter got reported dead only to spring magically back to life? When's the last time an Army General had to reverse himself in dueling press conferences? But there are other oddities in the story by Brett Blackledge below. I know Blackledge. He used to do outstanding investigative pieces on crooked politicians here in Alabama for the Birmingham News. If he writes it, it is solid.

Mike
III

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_FORT_HOOD_SHOOTING_SUSPECT?SITE=YAHOO&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Nov 5, 10:22 PM EST

Troubling portrait emerges of Fort Hood suspect

By BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE
Associated Press Writer

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 from officials and are troubling.

For six years before reporting for duty at Fort Hood, Texas, in July, the 39-year-old Army major worked at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center pursuing his career in psychiatry, as an intern, a resident and, last year, a fellow in disaster and preventive psychiatry. He received his medical degree from the military's Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., in 2001.

While an intern at Walter Reed, Hasan had some "difficulties" that required counseling and extra supervision, said Dr. Thomas Grieger, who was the training director at the time.

Grieger said privacy laws prevented him from going into details but noted that the problems had to do with Hasan's interactions with patients. He recalled Hasan as a "mostly very quiet" person who never spoke ill of the military or his country.

"He swore an oath of loyalty to the military," Grieger said. "I didn't hear anything contrary to those oaths."

But, more recently, federal agents grew suspicious.

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.

One of the officials said late Thursday that federal search warrants were being drawn up to authorize the seizure of Hasan's computer.

Retired Army Col. Terry Lee, who said he worked with Hasan, told Fox News that Hasan had hoped President Barack Obama would pull troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq. Lee said Hasan got into frequent arguments with others in the military who supported the wars, and had tried hard to prevent his pending deployment.

Hasan attended prayers regularly when he lived outside Washington, often in his Army uniform, said Faizul Khan, a former imam at a mosque Hasan attended in Silver Spring, Md. He said Hasan was a lifelong Muslim.

"I got the impression that he was a committed soldier," Khan said. He spoke often with Hasan about Hasan's desire for a wife.

On a form filled out by those seeking spouses through a program at the mosque, Hasan listed his birthplace as Arlington, Va., but his nationality as Palestinian, Khan said.

"I don't know why he listed Palestinian," Khan said, "He was not born in Palestine."

Nothing stood out about Hasan as radical or extremist, Khan said.

"We hardly ever got to discussing politics," Khan said. "Mostly we were discussing religious matters, nothing too controversial, nothing like an extremist."

Hasan earned his rank of major in April 2008, according to a July 2008 Army Times article.

He served eight years as an enlisted soldier. He also served in the ROTC as an undergraduate at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg. He received a bachelor's degree in biochemistry there in 1997.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

From what I've gleaned so far, my gut feeling is this particular shooter is/was primarily a mental case in the DSM-IV sense, and only secondarily a bomb-head:

http://bp1.blogger.com/_XEttvZvoFGA/R8A_vnJRUdI/AAAAAAAAAAg/uT4KqOkmbMU/s1600-h/muhammad+bomb.jpg

Disliked by peers, single at 39 and possibly his whole life, interested in psychology/psychiatry (which draws people seeking self-help), the guy sounds like a depressed and of late suicidal loner. To strike out at those who represented social success, and who had thereby grated on his nerves for twenty years in the army, was to be his last act.

The method of attack was relatively inefficient and he stood a chance of being quickly taken out. If motivated primarily to kill the greatest number of infidels per the cuddly tenets of the "religion of peace", he'd probably have been a serial bomber.

Still.. I think we'll be seeing more of this in the near future. The geopolitical imperative demands control of ME oil, and brewing trouble at home requires a diversion. War with Iran will serve both purposes splendidly, but first they'll have to "make the case to the American people".

Anonymous said...

And he went to Virginia Tech. Well that's two modern mass murderers associated with VT.

My heart just hurts for those families. May God grant them peace and grace in this time. May God grant justice upon the guilty.

I've stopped believing in coincidences. While crooks in Washington DC are voting this week to take away as much of your freedom and liberty as they can, the primary media focus is on Ft. Hood, Texas on a mass murder perpetrated by a Muslim who-at least on Iraq and Afghanistan seems even with or possibly left of Obama. Rest assured, the group that brought you the phrase, "never let a crisis go to waste", won't.

Eric
III

Anonymous said...

Anon, this guy is no more a mental case than I am Marie of Romania. What he is, and what our leadership and law enforcement fail to recognize is that he is a follower of Islam. True Islam. Not the peaceful 'one of three Abrahamic faiths' from the peaceful Meccan verses, but the later dictated Medinan verses. Those verses call for destruction for anything not in the House Of Islam. We (the good readers here) are pigs, unless we are Jewish; then we are apes.

We can accept one of three positions within a world that caters to Islam; either convert, pay a special 'infidel tax'(they have a name for it - jizya)(and tell me the obscene billions that go to Pak, SA, and other Islamic dictatorships aren't jizya) or we can die at the hands of Muslims in their 'righteous' slaughter. Three choices. I know which one I will choose, and it's not on the menu of the three items offered by those who look to impose their theocracy on the world.

Educate yourselves about Islam, what it really is, not what the media and Teh One wants us to believe.

please see JihadWatch.org for the real story.

Anonymous said...

I think he fits the typical profile of someone who goes on a rampage: loner, single, withdrawn, etc. But, set that aside for a moment.

As a foreign-born Muslim he had issues with the U.S., but at the same time he was milking it for everything he could get. The government (through the military) was paying for his education and he could justify and tolerate his non-combat service for that very reason. It really bites to become dependent on something you despise.

The day finally comes when he is ordered to go overseas and possibly kill fellow Muslims. He had a choice between obeying government or defending followers of his deeply-esteemed religion. This story of personal conflict is as old as the Biblical account of Daniel in the lion's den.

When it comes to the choice of religion and country, most people will go with their faith rather than government; even at great personal cost to themselves. It just so happened this person was of a sort which was open to a mass shooting as a solution.

To simply refuse orders would result in a personal consequence to himself only. A rational person, like Daniel in the Bible story, would simply accept the consequence as a matter of standing up for personal convictions. However, Hasan was not a rational person.

He was an expert in psychology, yet he still chose his violent course of action. In his mind, one which fits the profile of a mass shooter, there was no other option. If he was going to pay a price, he would take others down with him.

Reports have come out that he gave away his possessions before the rampage started. This proves he thought about it and planned it.

I think it's clear this mass shooting was not done by a nut job under duress, but by one who had conflicted allegiances. He didn't have PTSD as he had never been in combat.

I think the lesson to be learned here (aside from the obvious concerning the Second Amendment) is that our government and military needs to be wary of those who appear to have conflicted allegiances.

(I could easily start talking about an elected official right now, but I'll refrain.)

j said...

I am still puzzled - unless there were 'friendly fire' casualties, - and yes, I know that "there ain't no such thing as friendly fire" - the man MUST have had at least one rifle; the news said he carried two handguns, but even with 14 + 1 capacities in each, even accounting for no misses, he could not have hit that many. It would be like the old budget cowboy movies in whcih the faithful six-shooter could fire 20 rounds without reloading.

One of the guys at work said that the two best approaches would be to (1) exclude all muzzies from military enlistment and
(2) also to find the imam and mosque which were frequented by any muzzie criminal and execute the imam & blow up or implode the mosque. Consistently. I think that Black Jack Pershing might agree.

Anonymous said...

"...'He swore an oath of loyalty to the military,' Grieger said..."

No you moron - he swore an oath to the CONSTITUTION!

Just like the 535 traitors in the Capitol building and numerous others on the government dole.

Someday - when their treason is finally understood as the crime it is - we're going to need a VERY big gallows...

Anonymous said...

Today, some Army official said something about needing to find out why he acted out in this way and then working back from that point to have programs to deal with this.

Unrestricted war with Weapons of Mass Destruction on targets such as Mecca and Tehran would be a program, wouldn't it? There's some change I could believe in.

Crustyrusty said...

Anymore, when I see things like this, my first thought is "false flag."

All that we "know" is being funneled through the .gov.

Even if it isn't, you know they're going to abuse the hell out of this for political gain.

Anonymous said...

The 5.7 pistols that this guy have 18 round mags IIRC. That's 36 rounds in two pistols. Thank goodness the officer ran to the sound of the guns, otherwise I suspect that the casualty rate would have been much higher.
emdfl

TC said...

The real oath...

"I (insert name), having been appointed a (insert rank) in the U.S. Army under the conditions indicated in this document, do accept such appointment and do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter, so help me God."


Not to the Army.

SamenoKami said...

The Ft. Hood killings kinda put the masturbatory discussion from earlier on, in the proper light. You remember that one? When the FED raids the muslims, do we help the muslims? Now you know why we don't and why it was a stupid discussion to start with. Again, when the muslim population in the US reaches a critical point, the FEDs will be the least of your worries.