[Fiipolera]

Officials: 11 killed, plus gunman, in Fort Hood shootings

November 5, 2009 5:44 p.m. EST




STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Source: Slain gunman identified as Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan
• NEW: One of the dead was a civilian police officer, official says
• More than one may have been involved, Fort Hood spokesman says
• President Obama: Shootings "tragic"

(CNN) -- Eleven people plus a gunman were dead and 31 wounded after the gunman opened fire Thursday on a soldier-processing center at Fort Hood, Texas, officials said.
The gunman was a soldier, and two other soldiers have been detained as suspects, Army Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said.

The slain gunman was identified as Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan, according to a law enforcement source. The source believes he is 39 or 40 years old.
Ten of the other dead also were soldiers, while the remaining one was a civilian police officer who was working as a contractor on the base, Cone said.
Two of the injured were in "very serious" condition, Fort Hood spokesman Christopher Hogue said.

More than one shooter may have been involved, Cone said.
"All the casualties took place at the initial incident, that took place at 13:30 [1:30 p.m. CT], at the soldier readiness facility," Cone said.

















The primary shooter had two weapons, both handguns, he said.
"The local police response forces were there relatively quickly and killed the confirmed shooter," Cone said.
President Obama called the shootings "tragic" and "a horrific outburst of violence." He expressed his condolences for the shooting victims.

"These are men and women who have made the selfless and courageous decision to risk, and at times give, their lives to protect the rest of us on a daily basis," Obama said. "It's difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas. It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil."

Officials at Fort Hood, which is the Army's largest U.S. post, were asking people there to stay away from windows, CNN affiliate KXXV said. The incident took place at the sports dome, now known as the soldier readiness area, the station reported.
A congressional aide said he was on the post to attend a graduation service when he saw a soldier with blood on his uniform near the building where the service was being held, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

Greg Schannep, an aide to U.S. Rep. John Carter, said the soldier ran past him and said a man was shooting. He said the soldier appeared to be injured in a shoulder, the American-Statesman reported.
FBI agents are headed to the scene to assist, said Erik Vasys, spokesman for the FBI office in San Antonio. He had no other details.
On the Fort Hood Web site, the word "closed" is posted with the statement, "Effective immediately, Fort Hood is closed. Organizations/units are instructed to execute a 100 percent accountability of all personnel."

Fort Hood, with about 40,000 troops, is home to the Army's 1st Cavalry Division and elements of the 4th Infantry Division, as well as the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and the 13th Corps Support Command. It is located near Killeen, Texas.

At least 25,000 people are at Fort Hood on any given day, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon said.
Fort Hood is home to the Warrior Combat Stress Reset Program, which is designed to help soldiers overcome combat stress issues.

In June, Fort Hood's commander, Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch, told CNN that he was trying to ease the kind of stresses soldiers face. He has pushed for soldiers working a day schedule to return home for dinner by 6 p.m., and required his personal authorization for anyone working weekends. At the time, two soldiers stationed there had committed suicide in 2009 -- a rate well below those of other posts.

[Angeheade]

That is so sad! Some nut job went on a killer rampage.

[MasTaBlau]

really?

[bahrain41]

Oh, don't start.

[tpdirorg]

It seems to me that it is a major case of PTSD. I'm no expert, but I know these troops have to be stressed out from serving in two wars with little to no end in sight. This doesn't excuse it, but if anything, this will at least show the Miitary, that we have to better monitor all members of the Service.

[AffipgyncDync]

The shooter, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, was himself an army psychologist.

Reported now:

12 Dead, 31 Injured.

Shooter Major Hasan was shot multiple times but is alive & in custody and, according to military spokesperson, the shooter's "Death is not imminent"

Apparently the female first responder who shot Hasan was shot multiple times herself but was not killed and is in stable condition following surgery.

[kictainiSot]

Apparently he was yelling Allah Akbar (God is Great) while shooting. Not good. Hopefully he pulls through and we can pin this on being crazy instead of being Muslim. Last thing we need is some stupid witch hunt.

[TeksPaisimi]

Here's a pic of the shooter. Just Googled it.

[BrianGoldsmith]

Apparently he was yelling Allah Akbar (God is Great) while shooting.

We should hold off on such statements, even though that claim ^ is going viral.

Unverified reports (both from blogs and news sources) regarding the claim say qualified things like this:

A top US Army official confirmed Friday that the suspect in the killing of at least 13 people at a Texas army base likely shouted 'Allah Akbar' (God is great) before opening fire ... Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said officials had not yet confirmed that the suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, made the comment, which is Arabic for “God is great!” before the rampage Thursday ...

[Slonopotam845]

Kimberly Munley praised for ending Fort Hood rampage

Police officer confronted gunman and shot him four times despite being wounded herself

guardian.uk
November 6, 2009

The civilian police officer who shot and "subdued" the gunman responsible for the Fort Hood killings was today hailed as a hero.

Sergeant Kimberly Munley was praised for her "amazing and aggressive performance" by the top commander at Fort Hood, Lieutenant General Bob Cone, who credited her with stopping the shooting rampage that killed 13 people at the Texas post. Munley shot the gunman four times despite being wounded herself.

Cone said Munley and her partner responded within three minutes of reported gunfireyesterday afternoon. Munley had been directing traffic moments before she confronted the gunman, the New York Daily News reported.

Munley, who had been trained in active-response tactics, rushed into the building and confronted the shooter as he was turning a corner, Cone said.

"It was an amazing and an aggressive performance by this police officer," Cone said.

Munley was only a few feet from army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan when she opened fire.

Munley was reported to be in a stable condition at a local hospital.

She was well enough to spend last night phoning fellow officers to find out about casualties in the attack, the New York Daily News reported.

Cone said Munley's aggressive response training taught her that "if you act aggressively to take out a shooter you will have less fatalities".

"She walked up and engaged him," he said. He praised her as "one of our most impressive young police officers".

© Guardian News and Media Limited 2009

[pissmanvd]

Regarding an email sent to Mother Jones writer Kevin Drum from a soldier who was in the room when the shooting started:

Letter From Fort Hood

By Kevin Drum
Fri November 6, 2009

A former reader emails today to pass along a firsthand account of the shooting at Fort Hood on Thursday ....

There have been several media reports that the Fort Hood shooter yelled "Allahu Akbar!" during his rampage, but my correspondent says, "He was silent in my presence."

[gabbaman]

Regarding an email sent to Mother Jones writer Kevin Drum from a soldier who was in the room when the shooting started:

Letter From Fort Hood

By Kevin Drum
Fri November 6, 2009

A former reader emails today to pass along a firsthand account of the shooting at Fort Hood on Thursday ....

There have been several media reports that the Fort Hood shooter yelled "Allahu Akbar!" during his rampage, but my correspondent says, "He was silent in my presence."

Good to hear. Apparently he is awake and talking. Since this is a military case, I suspect this will be less circus-like than the media is happy with.

[kiosokkn]

Fort Hood gunman Nidal Hasan 'is a hero': Imam who preached to 9/11 hijackers in Va. praises attack

BY James Gordon Meek
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Originally Published:Monday, November 9th 2009, 12:05 PM
Updated: Monday, November 9th 2009, 12:36 PM


Magana/AP
The former iman at the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Virginia, who once preached to two of the 9/11 hijackers, praised Army Maj. Nidal Hasan...


Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
...who is accused of killing 13 in last week's rampage on Fort Hood.



FALLS CHURCH, Va. - A Muslim imam who once preached at a suburban Washington mosque and befriended several 9/11 hijackers appeared to gloat about Army Maj. Nidal Hasan's killing spree at Fort Hood on his blog Monday.

Hasan reportedly attended services in 2001 at the massive Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Virginia -- and his mother's funeral service was held there that year at a time when Anwar al-Awlaki was its imam.
A message posted on Awlaki's blog was titled, "Nidal Hassan Did the Right Thing."

"Nidal Hassan is a hero," Awlaki wrote. "He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people."
The blog entry surfaced on the same day as an ABC News report that American intelligence agencies knew months ago that the Fort Hood gunman had tried to contact people linked to Al Qaeda.

The Dar al-Hijrah mosque is directly across the street from a residence where a half-dozen Turkmen Muslims known as Uighurs were slated to be relocated from Guantanamo Bay, according to a law enforcement source. Lawmakers scuttled the plan.

Awlaki's blog posting was first reported by NEFA Foundation terror expert Evan Kohlmann.
Awlaki is a American who left the U.S. after the 9/11 attacks and is believed to be in Yemen -- where he is believed to have maintained Al Qaeda and Hamas affiliations.

Federal agents may be trying to connect Hasan to Awlaki.
The 9/11 commission's final report said its investigators unsuccessfully tried to locate Awlaki, who has denied meeting future hijackers Hani Hanjour and Nawaf al-Hazmi at his Falls Church mosque.

But Awlaki had also met with al-Hazmi and hijhacker Khalid al-Midhar when they all lived in San Diego. The FBI suspected the imam tasked an associate in Virginia to help the Al Qaeda operatives.
"We share that suspicion, given the remarkable coincidence of Awlaki's prior relationship with al-Hazmi," the commission said in its 2004 report.
Awlaki did not say in his blog posting whether he had known or communicated with Hasan, who killed 13 people in a shooting spree at Fort Hood on Thursday -- but he referred to him repeatedly by his first name.

"Nidal opened fire on soldiers who were on their way to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. How can there be any dispute about the virtue of what he has done?" Awlaki wrote of the Army officer's "heroic act."

[adariseediups]

Prosecutors to seek death penalty when Nidal Malik Hasan faces a court-martial

BY Richard Sisk
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Monday, November 9th 2009, 11:02 PM


Raedle/Getty
Bewildered soldiers talk together at the army base where the shooting rampage took place






WASHINGTON - Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan will be tried in a military court-martial, and prosecutors are expected to seek the death penalty, officials said yesterday.

FBI and Army investigators tried to interview Hasan, who is recovering from bullet wounds in a San Antonio Army hospital, on Sunday, but he refused and demanded a lawyer.
Under the military system, Hasan's fellow Army officers - almost certainly combat veterans - will rule on whether he is guilty of the mass murder of 12 soldiers and one civilian at Fort Hood, and, if so, on his punishment. A death penalty would be carried out by lethal injection.
The last military execution was carried out in 1961, and the last execution in a federal court case was in 2003.

If Hasan receives the death penalty in a military court, his appeals could drag on for years. Nine soldiers are on military Death Row at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.; one has been there for more than 20 years.
In the first legal challenge in the Hasan case, lawyer John Galligan, who has been retained by Hasan's family, said a planned visit today by President Obama to Fort Hood for a memorial service could prejudice a potential jury.

"You've got his commander in chief showing up" at Fort Hood to meet with troops and comfort families, said Galligan, 60, of nearby Belton, Tex.
Obama's planned visit "creates an issue as to whether you find a fair and impartial forum, whether that's in the military or even if it were in a federal forum," the retired Army colonel added.

Since leaving the Army, Galligan has defended soldiers in high-profile cases. In 2005, he represented two troopers charged in the beating death of an Afghan detainee.

Galligan is a veteran military lawyer, Last year, he represented a Fort Hood master sergeant accused of negligence during a training exercise in which a soldier died.

He also has dabbled in local politics. In 2006, Galligan ran for Bell County judge, but lost in the Republican primary by a 2-to-1 margin.
Much of the initial legal maneuvering in the Hasan case is behind the scenes. Military officials would not confirm whether Hasan has been advised of his rights under Article 31B of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which is similar to a Miranda warning.
The military also has yet to name a "convening authority" - a senior officer who would designate court-martial procedures.
With James Gordon Meek

[Emunsesoxmete]

The Barbarian Inside The Gate

The Daily Dish
November 14, 2009

"I was very struck also by Janet Napolitano’s comment, I hadn’t read it before to see her say that, that the number one priority is to bring [Hasan] to justice is such a knee-jerk comment and such a stupid comment. He’s going to be brought to justice. He is not going to be innocent of murder. There are a lot of eyewitnesses to that. They should just go ahead and convict him and put him to death," - William Kristol, appearing on Fox News.

Let us be clear: this is a fascist statement.

You begin to understand now why these goons instituted torture. They have total contempt for the Western system of justice, utter contempt for the rule of law. Kristol here is all but calling for a lynching. This is what "conservatism" has come to: the worship of violence and revenge. It makes the Cheney years more comprehensible, doesn't it?

[NewYorkDoctorD]

Soldier arrested near Fort Hood in 'terror plot'

Kentucky private, AWOL amid child porn investigation, acted alone, police say By Alex Johnson Reporter msnbc.com

updated 7 minutes ago 2011-07-28T19:56:29

An AWOL U.S. soldier facing a court-martial was gunning for "military personnel" when he was arrested with bomb-making materials near the U.S. military base at Fort Hood, Texas, authorities said Thursday. Killeen, Texas, police arrested Pfc. Naser J. Abdo, 21, of Garland, Texas, on Wednesday afternoon at a motel near Fort Hood, Police Chief Dennis Baldwin said Thursday afternoon. He was arrested without incident and was being questioned at the Killeen City Jail by police and officers from Fort Hood's Criminal Investigative Division.
Confirming a report by NBC News early Thursday, Baldwin said at a news conference that "military personnel were targeted" at the base, where a gunman killed 13 people in 2009.
"I would call it a terror plot," he said, adding: "We would probably have been giving a different briefing here if he had not been stopped."
Abdo, an infantryman with the 1st Brigade Combat Team (Rear Provisional) of the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., was arrested at an America's Best Value Inn on South Fort Hood Road, initially on child pornography charges stemming from an investigation at Fort Campbell.
Abdo went missing this month after he was recommended for a court-martial on those charges. Abdo, who has mounted an extensive public campaign to leave the Army, has denied he was involved in child pornography.
Tip from gun store
U.S. officials told NBC News that police went to Abdo's motel room on a tip from a gun dealer who said Abdo was asking suspicious questions about smokeless powder, a component often used in pipe bombs. Explosives were found in the room and in a backpack, the officials said.

A U.S. military official said Abdo was overheard saying he wanted to attack Fort Hood and that he repeated the statement after he was in custody. Authorities said it was not clear whether his alleged intended targets were soldiers in general or specific individuals on the base.
Abdo — pronounced AB-doo — was arrested on a child pornography warrant, police said. He had been wanted since he went AWOL earlier this month after he was recommended for a court-martial in a child pornography investigation at Fort Campbell.
Police and the FBI said Abdo would likely be charged with possession of bomb-making materials and transferred to federal custody.
The threat "has been eliminated and mitigated, and there was nothing to indicate he was acting with anyone else," said Erik Vasys, a spokesman for the FBI in San Antonio.
Baldwin agreed, saying, "We are not aware of any additional threats."

Rest of story:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43926884...me_and_courts/