A senior Obama administration official, speaking on background Friday to a group of reporters, characterized the Fort Hood shooting as “an act of terrorism,” the first time an administration official has used that term in describing the massacre.
“To me, what he did certainly was using terror at its worst,” the official said, defining terrorism as the use of violence to promote political beliefs. The official spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity in order to provide insight into the administration’s discussions.
The acknowledgement was stunning given the criticism from conservatives over the administration’s reluctance to call the incident an act of terror.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates declined to characterize the Nov. 5 incident, which killed 13 people and wounded 43 others, as terrorism when pressed at a Pentagon briefing earlier Friday, saying he did not want to disrupt an ongoing legal case. When asked similar questions about terrorism shortly after the attack in November, Gates said, “I’m not going to go there,” and said he needed more facts.
Two reports on the shooting are now in the hands of the Obama administration. A Pentagon report which was released publicly Friday morning described the Army’s failure to flag inappropriate behavior from the suspected shooter, Maj. Nadal Hasan. The report said the Army has not done enough to stop “self-radicalization” within its ranks.
A Pentagon review released Friday portrayed a systemic breakdown within the military that permitted an Army psychiatrist, now charged with killing 13 people, to advance through the ranks despite concerns from his superiors about his behavior.
The review, the first into the Nov. 5 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Tex., concluded that the Department of Defense was poorly prepared to defend itself from internal threats well beyond the single case of the military doctor accused of the killings, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.
The review’s findings, although they were focused only on the military and not on other agencies, are the latest signal that the government has not achieved the smooth communications and agility among intelligence agencies that has been sought since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
On Nov. 4, the day after his last attempt to raise the issue, he took extra target practice at Stan’s shooting range in nearby Florence, Texas and then closed a safe deposit box he had at a Bank of America branch in Killeen, according to the reports. A bank employee told investigators Hasan appeared nervous and said, “You’ll never see me again.”
Diane Wagner, Bank of America’s senior vice president of media relations, said that her company does not “comment or discuss customer relationships” but is “cooperating fully with law enforcement officials.”
Investigators believe Hasan’s frustration over the failure of the Army to pursue what he regarded as criminal acts by U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan may have helped to trigger the shootings.
Interviewer: Let us begin with the most recent development on the American front, and the racial discrimination against Muslims and their persecution – the incident associated with Mr. Nidhal Hassan, a Muslim psychiatrist of Arab origin, who killed 13 soldiers at the US Fort Hood base. To what extent might this incident affect the Muslims in the US and make them targets of persecution?
[...]
Louis Farrakhan: As you know, since 9/11, in America and in other parts of the world, those anti-Islamic forces have stepped up their efforts to make Muslims… to cause the Muslims to be looked at as uncivilized, savage, or wicked people. This is an attempt by anti-Islamic forces, and some members of the Jewish community, and some members of the Christian community, who have united to condemn Islam and to speak ill of our Prophet Muhammad, and to even go so far as to say that the Muslims worship the devil.
President Obama on Saturday urged Congress to hold off on any investigation of the Fort Hood rampage until federal law enforcement and military authorities have completed their probes into the shootings at the Texas Army post, which left 13 people dead.
On an eight-day Asia trip, Obama turned his attention home and pleaded for lawmakers to “resist the temptation to turn this tragic event into the political theater.” He said those who died on the nation’s largest Army post deserve justice, not political stagecraft.
“The stakes are far too high,” Obama said in a video and Internet address released by the White House while the president he was flying from Tokyo to Singapore, where Pacific Rim countries were meeting.
Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, was charged on Thursday with the shooting spree at Fort Hood last week. Army investigators have said Hasan is the only suspect and could face additional charges.
Obama already had ordered a review of all intelligence related to Hasan and whether the information was properly shared and acted upon within government agencies. Several members of Congress, particularly Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, have also called for a full examination of what agencies knew about Hasan’s contacts with a radical Muslim cleric in Yemen and others of concern to the U.S.
Hoekstra confirmed this week that government officials knew of about 10 to 20 e-mails between Hasan and the radical imam, beginning in December 2008.
…
Senior Sergeant Mark Todd doesn’t consider himself a hero, but spend five minutes with him and you’ll know that’s exactly what he is.
He and fellow Sergeant Kimberly Munley were the first officers to arrive at the shooting scene in Fort Hood last week where 13 people lost their lives. Sr. Sgt. Todd told us when he first got the call, he thought it might have been people mistaking soldiers practicing a 21 gun salute for real gunfire. But as he got closer, the police dispatcher said she too had heard gunfire.
When Todd and Munley arrived, people pointed in the direction of the shooter. Then they saw him. He started firing at them and they split up. The next time Todd saw him, Todd says he drew the gunman’s attention away from the crowd and the gunman started firing at Todd again. Todd makes a point to say that both he and Officer Munley are responsible for stopping the suspect, but with Munley wounded, it was Sr. Sgt. Todd who cuffed the suspect. In a statement that speaks to Todd’s character, he says the real heros are the medics who then began to minister to the wounded. Initially, Todd wanted to remain anonymous.
He says, “I’m a police officer. I showed up, I did my job.” But of course, it’s more than that. Sr. Sgt. Todd spent 22 years in the military himself. After retirement, he wanted to continue to serve, so he became a police officer. Sr. Sgt. Todd had never fired his weapon in the course of his job until last week. He credits good training for his quick response.
And although Todd would never take credit for himself, there are a lot of people today who would say they owe him their lives.
Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan was charged Thursday with 13 counts of premeditated murder in last week’s Fort Hood mass shootings.
Hasan, 39, is suspected of killing 13 of his comrades Nov. 5 when he opened fire at a soldier processing center at the Army base in Killeen, Texas.
The Army Criminal Investigation Command formally announced the charges against Hasan at Fort Hood about 1 p.m. Wednesday.
Hasan was charged and will be tried in the military’s court-martial system. Prosecutors will likely seek the death penalty.
The American-born military psychiatrist survived the rampage and is being guarded at a hospital in San Antonio. He has been talking to investigators.
…
In the interest of true justice, Hasan should be prosecuted under the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, also known as Laci and Conner’s law, named for the pregnant woman and unborn baby who were murdered in California by Scott Peterson, the baby’s father.
It would seem that the law applies in this case for three reasons: the act of violence was committed on federal property…the shooting was allegedly done by a member of the military…and the violence could be classified as an act of terrorism.
Then there’s the question of Texas law.
According to National Right to Life, under a law signed in June of 2003 and taking effect in September of that year, the protections of the entire criminal code extend to “an unborn child at every stage of gestation from fertilization until birth.” This law does not apply to “conduct committed by the mother of the unborn child” or to “a lawful medical procedure performed by a physician or other licensed health care provider with the requisite consent.”
Velez had a right to give birth to her baby. Her child had a right to be protected from violence.
Velez’s cousin, Jennifer Arzuaga, was quoted in the Washington Post as saying, “She (Velez) was supposed to be coming very, very soon. Everyone’s devastated. Everyone’s at a loss for words. She was very young. She wasn’t supposed to die the way she died.”
…
U.S. military doctors overseeing Nidal Malik Hasan’s medical training were concerned he was “psychotic” and possibly capable of killing other American soldiers, before the Army major allegedly went on a deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas.
Psychiatrists and medical officials at Walter Reed Army Medical Center held a series of meetings beginning in the Spring of 2008 to discuss serious concerns about his work and behavior, National Public Radio reported.
One of the questions they asked: Was Hasan psychotic?
“Put it this way,” one official told NPR. “Everybody felt that if you were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, you would not want Nidal Hasan in your foxhole.”
One official who participated in the discussions reportedly told others he was worried that if Hasan was deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, he might leak covert military information to Islamic extremists, NPR reported.
Another official “wondered aloud” to colleagues whether Hasan might be capable of killing fellow soldiers in the same way a Muslim sergeant in 2003 had set off grenades at a base in Kuwait, killing two and wounding 14, the radio network reported.
The officials who discussed Hasan’s status were unaware — as some top Walter Reed hospital officials were — that intelligence agencies had been tracking Hasan’s e-mails to a radical imam since December 2008, NPR said.
…
President Obama has ordered a review of all intelligence related to Fort Hood shooting suspect Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, and whether the information was properly shared and acted upon within government agencies.
The review will be overseen by John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism. The first results are due to the White House by Nov. 30.
…
Are Americans ready to declare war against all Muslims living in the US based on the shooting spree at Fort Hood? While that may seem preposterous to most of us, to the some on the left, it’s a likely scenario.
Do they really believe this, or is it merely a political scare tactic, designed to shift blame from the accused killer to “intolerant” Americans?
For his part, libtalker Montel Williams of Air America Radio was willing to take this several steps further, suggesting that this road could even lead to a second round of internment camps!
Talk about overheated “rhetoric”, the very issue Williams cites as a key concern:
The claim comes as officials in different branches of law enforcement and the military squabble over who knew what when about Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s leanings toward faith-inspired violence, and as charges fly that ‘political correctness’ prevented officials from taking action and is still being used as a crutch in explaining the rampage after the fact.
Investigators would have been “crucified” over First Amendment rights if they had launched a full-scale probe into e-mails Fort Hood massacre suspect Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan allegedly sent to a radical imam, a government investigator told Fox News.
The claim comes as the squabble grows among officials in different branches of law enforcement and the military over who knew what, and when, about Hasan’s leanings toward faith-inspired violence, and amid charges that “political correctness” prevented officials from taking pre-emptive action.
…
The Army psychiatrist suspected of killing 13 people in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood had “more unexplained connections to people being tracked by the FBI” than just a radical Muslim imam, investigators have found, according to a report.
The names of the individuals Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was in contact with was not revealed by the official, but sources in Congress told ABC News their names and locations will likely emerge soon.
The mystery over whether the military knew Hasan was communicating with radical imam Anwar al-Awlaki lapsed into finger-pointing ahead of congressional investigations looking into the Army psychiatrist’s contacts with extremists.
…
Hasan, the sole suspect in the massacre of 13 fellow US soldiers in Texas, attended the controversial Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Great Falls, Virginia, in 2001 at the same time as two of the September 11 terrorists, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. His mother’s funeral was held there in May that year.
The preacher at the time was Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Yemeni scholar who was banned from addressing a meeting in London by video link in August because he is accused of supporting attacks on British troops and backing terrorist organisations.
Hasan’s eyes “lit up” when he mentioned his deep respect for al-Awlaki’s teachings, according to a fellow Muslim officer at the Fort Hood base in Texas, the scene of Thursday’s horrific shooting spree.
As investigators look at Hasan’s motives and mindset, his attendance at the mosque could be an important piece of the jigsaw. Al-Awlaki moved to Dar al-Hijrah as imam in January, 2001, from the west coast, and three months later the September 11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hamzi and Hani Hanjour began attending his services. A third hijacker attended his services in California.
Hasan was praying at Dar al-Hijrah at about the same time, and the FBI will now want to investigate whether he met the two terrorists.
Charles Allen, a former under-secretary for intelligence at the Department of Homeland Security, has described al-Awlaki, who now lives in Yemen, as an “al-Qaeda supporter, and former spiritual leader to three of the September 11 hijackers… who targets US Muslims with radical online lectures encouraging terrorist attacks from his new home in Yemen”.
Last night Hasan remained in a coma under guard at a military hospital in San Antonio, Texas, and was said to be in a “stable” condition. Born in America to a Palestinian family, Hasan, 39, was an army psychiatrist who had chosen to sign up for the US military against his parents’ wishes.
Lieutenant General Robert W. Cone of Fort Hood just confirmed that at 1:30 PM Central time today one shooter, armed with two handguns, entered the Soldier Readiness Facility on Fort Hood and started shooting during a graduation ceremony. There are twelve confirmed dead and 31 wounded. All victims are soldiers, except for one who is a civilian police officer.
“We have a terrible, tragic situation here,” said General Cone. “Soldiers, family members and the civilians that work here are absolutely devastated.”
View Larger Map
The shooter has been confirmed as a soldier. He was killed by local police.
U.S. officials confirmed that the shooter is 40-year old Major Malik Nadal Hasan, a Muslim. Hasan, a mental health professional, was very agitated by his recent orders to deploy to Iraq.
Major Malik Nadal Hasan
Eyewitnesses report that upon entering the facility, Hasan began shooting his victims “execution style” with great precision.
Police have also taken two other soldiers into custody for questioning.
Fort Hood Locked down until authorities have given the all clear.
The FBI has ruled out terrorism.
Lieutenant General Cone is the Commanding General of III Corps and Fort Hood at the massive Central Texas Army post located near Killeen, TX. The General assumed command of III Corps and Fort Hood from Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch on September 22, 2009.
Lieutenant General Robert W. Cone
All wounded have been taken to Scott and White Hospital. The hospital is requesting that people donate blood.
Update 1…
Hasan was born and raised in Virginia.
Hasan was transferred in July 2009 from Walter Reed Hospital to Fort Hood. He had received a poor evaluation for his work as a psychiatrist at Walter Reed, where he had worked for six years.
Colleagues report that Hasan had frequently complained about the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and had even suggested that Muslims should “fight against the aggressor.”
Hasan’s cousin reports that Hasan wanted out of the military and was very upset that he was going to be deployed to Iraq. Furthermore, Hasan had reportedly been harassed because of his middle eastern heritage.
Update 2…
The two soldiers that had been taken into custody for questioning have been released.
Texas Congressman John Carter reports that another person has been taken into custody for question.
Some eyewitnesses report that there was some fire from an automatic weapon.
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison was told that Hasan targeted people that he knew.
Update 3…
Lockdown lifted at Fort Hood.
Fox reports that authorities were concerned as recently as six months ago about Hasan because he had posted on a blog that suicide bombers were equal to soldiers who dove on grenades.
Update 4…
Fort Hood shooter is not dead but wounded and in stable condition.
Single shooter is responsible for all fatalities. He opened fire on a medical waiting area and the readiness facility using a semi-automatic weapon.
Although Fort Hood is no longer on lockdown, it will increase security in the coming days.
![Glenn Beck - States Test the 10th Amendment [1 of 2] - May 7, 2009](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/W_Lv0Nfvkvo/1.jpg)