irony of ironies, the suspect - Maj. Nadal Malik Hassan was a mental health professional :armyeek:

An article:

he did it not bec he was nuts, he did it bec he was a Muslim :headbang:

Fort Hood shooting: Nidal Malik Hasan 'said Muslims should rise up'



By Philip Sherwell in New York
Published: 1:41AM GMT 06 Nov 2009

Col Terry Lee, a retired officer who worked with him at the military base in Texas, described angry confrontations between Maj Hasan and other officers after he expressed his views.

Maj Hasan was reportedly fighting orders to be deployed to Iraq at the end of the month, claiming that he was the victim of harassment and insults because of his Arab background and his faith.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/...ld-rise-up.html

Army: 12 dead, 31 hurt in attack at Fort Hood
AP

By APRIL CASTRO and DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writers April Castro And Devlin Barrett, Associated Press Writers – 18 mins ago

FORT HOOD, Texas – An Army psychiatrist set to be shipped overseas opened fire at the Fort Hood Army post Thursday, authorities said, a rampage that killed 12 people and left 31 wounded in the worst mass shooting ever at a military base in the United States.

The gunman, first said to have been killed, was wounded but alive and in stable condition under military guard, said Lt. Gen. Bob Cone at Fort Hood. "I would say his death is not imminent," Cone said. Col. Ben Danner said the suspect was shot four times and was in critical condition.

The man was identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old from Virginia.



Major Malik Nidal Hasan, the U.S. Army doctor identified by broadcast media as a suspect in the shooting at the U.S. Army post in Fort Hood, Texas, is seen in this undated handout photo from U.S. Government Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences' website downloaded on November 5, 2009. REUTERS/Department of Defense/Handout

President Barack Obama called the shooting at the Soldier Readiness Center, where soldiers who are about to be deployed or who are returning undergo medical screening, "a horrific outburst of violence."

"It's difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas," the commander in chief said. "It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil."

There was no official word on motive. Hasan had transferred to Fort Hood in July from Walter Reed Medical Center, where he received a poor performance evaluation, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said generals at Fort Hood told her that Hasan was about to deploy overseas. Retired Col. Terry Lee, who said he had worked with Hasan, told Fox News he was being sent to Afghanistan.

Lee said Hasan had hoped Obama would pull troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq and got into frequent arguments with others in the military who supported the wars.

Faizul Khan, a former imam at a mosque Hasan attended in Silver Spring, Md., said he spoke often with Hasan about how Hasan wanted to find a wife. Hasan was a lifelong Muslim and attended prayers regularly, often in his Army uniform, Khan said.

The shooter used two pistols, one of them semiautomatic. Neither were military-issued, Danner said.

Video from the scene showed police patrolling the area with handguns and rifles, ducking behind buildings for cover. Sirens could be heard wailing while a woman's voice on a public-address system urged people to take cover.

"I was confused and just shocked," said Spc. Jerry Richard, 27, who works at the center but was not on duty during the shooting. "Overseas you are ready for it. But here you can't even defend yourself."

Soldiers at Fort Hood don't carry weapons unless they are doing training exercises.

The Rev. Greg Schannep was about to head into a graduation ceremony when a man in uniform approached him, warning him that someone had opened fire. Schannep heard three volleys of gunfire and saw people running.

"There was a burst of shots and more bursts of shots and people running everywhere," said Schannep, who works for local Congressman John Carter.

The uniformed man who had warned him ran to the theater. Schannep said he could see the man's back was bloodied from a wound. The man survived, was treated and will be fine, Schannep said.

Cone said initially three people were held, and all have been interviewed. Authorities believe, however, that there was a single shooter.

The Soldier Readiness Center holds hundreds of people and is one of the most populated parts of the base, said Steve Moore, a spokesman for III Corps at Fort Hood. Nearby there are barracks and a food center where there are fast food chains.

The wounded were dispersed among hospitals in central Texas, Cone said. Their identities, and the identities of the dead, were not immediately released.

Amber Bahr, 19, was shot in the stomach but was in stable condition, said her mother, Lisa Pfund of Random Lake, Wis.

"We know nothing, just that she was shot in the belly," Pfund told The Associated Press. She couldn't provide more details and only spoke with emergency personnel.

Hasan was single with no children. He graduated from Virginia Tech, where he was a member of the ROTC and earned a bachelor's degree in biochemistry in 1997. He received his medical degree from the military's Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., in 2001 and was at Walter Reed for six years for his internship, residency and a fellowship.

The attack happened just down the road from one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history. On Oct. 16, 1991, George Hennard smashed his pickup truck through a Luby's Cafeteria window in Killeen, Texas, and fired on the lunchtime crowd with a high-powered pistol, killing 22 people and wounding at least 20 others.

No other shooting at a military base in the U.S. has been anywhere near as deadly as Thursday's. In 1993, a gunman at Fort Knox shot five civilian co-workers, killing three, and then fatally shot himself.

Around the country, some bases stepped up security precautions, but no others were locked down.

Covering 339 square miles, Fort Hood is the largest active duty armored post in the United States. Home to about 52,000 troops as of earlier this year, it is located halfway between Austin and Waco.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_fort_hood_shooting

A swat team enters the main gate at Fort Hood, Texas, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009. A soldier opened fire at a U.S. Army base in Fort Hood, unleashing a stream of gunfire that left 12 people dead and 31 wounded. Authorities killed the gunman, and apprehended two other soldiers suspected in what appears to be the worst mass shooting at a U.S. military base. (AP Photo/Waco Tribune Herald, Jerry Larson)



Members of a local law enforcement SWAT team deploy at Fort Hood, Texas November 5, 2009 in this video frame grab handout from the Department of Defense. A U.S. Army major firing two handguns killed 11 people and wounded 31 others in a shooting rampage on Thursday at Fort Hood base in Texas, a prime point of deployment for U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. REUTERS/Department of Defense Video/Handout



In this image made from Associated Press Television video, police respond at the scene at the U.S. Army base in Fort Hood Texas where a soldier opened fire, unleashing a stream of gunfire that left at least 12 people dead and at least 31 wounded. (AP Photo/APTN)



A law enforcement officer, center, rubs his eyes as he and other officers guard the closed front gate at Fort Hood, Texas, after a mass shooting, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009.
(AP Photo/Michael Thomas)

FORT HOOD, Texas – Military officials were starting Friday to piece together what may have pushed an Army psychiatrist trained to help soldiers in distress to turn on his comrades in a shooting rampage that killed 12 people and wounded 31 in Texas.





The suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was on a ventilator and unconscious in a hospital after being shot four times during the shootings at the Army's sprawling Fort Hood, post officials said. In the early chaos after the shootings, authorities believed they had killed him, only to discover later that he had survived.

In Washington, a senior U.S. official said authorities at Fort Hood initially thought one of the victims who had been shot and killed was the shooter. The mistake resulted in a delay of several hours in identifying Hasan as the alleged assailant.





Authorities have not ruled out that Hasan was acting on behalf of some unidentified radical group, the official said. He would not say whether any evidence had come to light to support that theory.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters that were under investigation.

Officials are not ruling out the possibility that some of the casualties may have been victims of "friendly fire," that in the mayhem and confusion at the shooting scene some of the responding military officials may have shot some of the victims.





The gunfire broke out around 1:30 p.m. at the Soldier Readiness Center, where soldiers who are about to be deployed or who are returning undergo medical screening. Nearby, some soldiers were readying to head into a graduation ceremony for troops and families who had recently earned degrees.

Pastor Greg Schannep had just parked his car along the side of the theater and was about to head into the ceremony when a man in uniform approached him.





"Sir, they are opening fire over there!" the man told him. At first, he thought it was a training exercise — then heard three volleys and saw people running. As the man who warned him about the shots ran away, he could see the man's back was bloodied from a wound.
Page 1 of 2

Schannep said police and medical and other emergency personnel were on the scene in an instant, telling people to get inside the theater. The post went into lockdown while a search began for a suspect and emergency workers began trying to treat the wounded. Some soldiers rushed to treat their injured colleagues by ripping their uniforms into makeshift bandages to treat their wounds.





Fort Hood Lt. Gen. Bob Cone praised the soldiers for their quick reaction.

"God bless these soldiers," Cone said. "As horrible as this was it could have been worse."

Video from the scene showed police patrolling the area with handguns and rifles, ducking behind buildings for cover. Sirens could be heard wailing while a woman's voice on a public-address system urged people to take cover. Schools on the base went into lockdown, and family members trying to find out what was happening inside found cell phone lines jammed or busy.

"I was confused and just shocked," said Spc. Jerry Richard, 27, who works at the center but was not on duty during the shooting. "Overseas you are ready for it. But here you can't even defend yourself."





The wounded were dispersed among hospitals in central Texas, Cone said. Their identities and the identities of the dead were not immediately released.

Jamie and Scotty Casteel stood outside the emergency room at the hospital in Temple waiting for news of their son-in-law Matthew Cooke, who was among the injured.

"He's been shot in the abdomen and that's all we know," Jamie Casteel told The Associated Press. She said Cook, from New York state, had been home from Iraq for about a year.

Amber Bahr, 19, was shot in the stomach but was in stable condition, said her mother, Lisa Pfund of Random Lake, Wis.




"We know nothing, just that she was shot in the belly," Pfund said. She couldn't provide more details and only spoke with emergency personnel.

Ashley Saucedo told WOOD-TV in Michigan that her husband was shot in the arm, but she couldn't discuss specifics. Saucedo said she and the couple's two children weren't permitted to leave their home at Fort Hood during the shootings.

The motive for the shooting wasn't clear, but Hasan was apparently set to deploy soon, and had expressed some anger about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said generals at Fort Hood told her that Hasan was about to deploy overseas. Retired Col. Terry Lee, who said he had worked with Hasan, told Fox News he was being sent to Afghanistan.





Lee said Hasan had hoped Obama would pull troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq and got into frequent arguments with others in the military who supported the wars.

For six years before reporting for duty at Fort Hood, in July, the 39-year-old Army major worked at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center pursuing a 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.

But his record wasn't sterling. At Walter Reed, he received a poor performance evaluation, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly. And while he was an intern, Hasan had some "difficulties" that required counseling and extra supervision, said Dr. Thomas Grieger, who was the training director at the time.





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.

Investigators had not determined for certain whether Hasan was 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.

___

Associated Press Writer Lara Jakes contributed to this report from Washington.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_fort_hood_shooting

Soldiers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment storm the grounds of the Soldier Readiness Center in a show of force as they help in the apprehension of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan Thursday Nov. 5, 2009. Hasan, a psychiatrist set to be shipped overseas opened fire at the Fort Hood Army post Thursday, authorities said, a rampage that killed 12 people and left 31 wounded in the worst mass shooting ever at a military base in the United States. (AP Photo/David Morris, Killeen Daily Herald)



Soldiers move into the Soldier Readiness Center on Fort Hood as they secure the area where Maj. XX shot and killed 12 soldiers and wounded 31 others during a shooting spree that took over 7 hours to clear the scene. (AP Photo/David Morris, Killeen Daily Herald)



Soldiers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment plan out their course of action at the Army Base at Fort Hood, Texas in front of the Soldier Resiliency Center as they try to locate Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who shot and killed 12 people Thursday Nov. 5, 2009. (AP Photo/Killeen Daily Herald, David Morris)



A member of the Fort Hood police department rushes down the street away from the Soldier readiness Center at Fort Hood following a mass shooting where Maj.Nidal Malik Hassan shot and killed 12 individuals and injured 31 others during the standoff that lasted more than 7 hours and involved State, County and Local agencies.
(AP Photo/David Morris, Killeen Daily Herald)



Officers from the Killeen Police Department wait for the Fort Hood's Explosive Ordnance Device team to arrive at the apartment of Maj Nadal Malik Hasan as they prepare to search his residence following the mass shooting on Fort Hood, late Thursday evening. (AP Photo/David Morris, Killeen Daily Herald)

Sgt Kimberly Munley. Officials say 34-year-old Munley ended the shooting spree at Fort Hood on Thursday, Nov. 5 when she shot and wounded alleged shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. Munley was wounded in the shooting, and was recovering Friday in stable condition. (AP Photo/via Sgt. Munley's Twitter page)


The Ft. Hood Hero: Who is Kimberly Munley?

By HILARY HYLTON / KILLEEN Hilary Hylton / Killeen – Sun Nov 8, 9:00 am ET

The west side of Killeen, Texas is like countless other places in America's heartland, freshly carved out of prairie pastures with wide streets in bucolic neighborhoods like "Sunflower Estates" and "Bridgewood." But on a glorious cloudless fall day, the flags at the home sales center nearby are at half mast in honor of the 13 fallen at Ft. Hood, victims of a gunman whose deadly attack was stopped thanks to a petite, long-haired blonde mom from the neigborhood.

Sgt. Kimberly Munley, 34, a civilian Department of Defense police officer at the base, is credited with stopping the firing rampage of U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan at the Soldier Readiness Center within a few minutes after he launched his attack. The center is a quick five minute drive from Munley's home, past the new strip centers and the high school football field along wide Cross Creek Boulevard, but a world away from the horrors inflicted in one of the worst incidents of soldier-on-soldier violence in U.S. Army history. (Read TIME's report: "Stresses at Fort Hood Were Likely Intense for Hasan")

Munley, described by neighbor Brooke Beato, as "very petite, with long blonde hair and a strong personality," was credited by base officials with preventing further carnage by aggressively engaging Hasan as he shot at her. She rounded a corner, took aim at Hasan and brought him down, officials said. "It was an amazing and an aggressive performance by this police officer," base commander Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said. It also was a tactic straight out of recent lessons learned from the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, when first responders waited for additional backup before engaging the shooter.

"She walked up and engaged him," said Lt. Gen. Cone told Associated Press. As a member of the base Special Reaction Team, Munley had learned that ["if you act aggressively to take out a shooter, you will have less fatalities," Cone said.

Soon after Munley fired at Hasan, taking him down, she herself fell wounded and police radios quickly sent out an "Officer down" call. Wounded three times in the arm and leg, Munley is in stable condition after undergoing surgery Friday to repair damage to an artery. Base officials said she wishes she could have acted even faster and saved more lives, and she spent Thursday evening calling friends and colleagues, expressing those regrets.

While Thursday's shooting sent a shockwave through the tight-knit Killeen community, Beato, whose husband is an Army captain, said she was not surprised when Munley's name surfaced as the police officer who ended the shooting. "It was just like her - she carries herself with confidence," Beato said.

Beato is a 30-year-old mother of four whose children often play with Munley's daughters, ages 12 and 3, in the quiet cul-de-sac. "I couldn't believe what happened, but when I heard what she did," says Beato of her neighbor, "I believed that because of who she is - I know her."

Munley, who worked as a police officer for five years in North Carolina where her father, Dennis Barbour, once served as mayor of Carolina Beach, is a talented shooter and member of the base's Special Reaction Team which trains for the possibility of events like Thursday's shooting rampage. She also is a passionate fan of Twitter and once news of her actions spread, her followers began to blossom in number - among them country singer Dierks Bentley who posed for a photo with the petite police officer at the fort's annual July Fourth FreedomFest. The photo is posted on her Twitter page along with a brief biographical quote: "I live a good life...a hard one, but I go to sleep peacefully at night knowing that I may have made a difference in someone's life."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/08599193644400



This photo released by the Defense Department shows detectives assigned to the Fort Hood Directorate of Emergency Services responding to a shooter barricaded in the post's deployment readiness center, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009, at Fort Hood, Texas.
(AP Photo/Defense Department, Andrew Evans)



This photo released by the Defense Department shows Post police taking at the Fort Hood Soldier Readiness Processing Center, in Fort Hood, Texas, Thursday, Nov. 5. 2009. (AP Photo/Defense Department, Andrew Evans)