[ssf] Fort Hood shooting-- From Wikipedia,

[Gerald Ali.]

Major Nidal Malik Hasan was born in Virginia to parents who immigrated to the US from Jordan.  He joined the army immediately after high school, and in exchange the army paid for him to go to college and medical school.  According to Hasan's aunt, he had sought for several years to receive a discharge, due to harassment relating to his religion, Islam.  Hasan's cousin, Nader Hasan, a lawyer in Virginia, said that Nidal Hasan turned against the wars after hearing the stories of those who came back from Afghanistan and Iraq.  The cousin added that Hasan had been harassed by his Army colleagues because of his Middle Eastern ethnicity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Hood_shooting

Fort Hood shooting
>From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

     This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses. 

The Fort Hood shooting was an active shooting which occurred within a brief span of time on Thursday, November 5, 2009, at Fort Hood, an army post in Texas, and which resulted in 43 victims. At approximately 1:30 p.m. (local time), Major Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist stationed at the Killeen U.S. Army base, allegedly entered the Soldier Readiness Center and opened fire, initially killing 11 people and wounding 30 others (two of whom later died in the hospital) before he was shot and seriously injured by local police. Two others were detained but later released without charge.[1]

     

Shootings
According to news reports, Major Hasan entered the Soldier Readiness Center -- a complex used to process soldiers before and after deployment -- at approximately 1:30 p.m. (CST) and opened fire with two handguns on a crowd gathered 30 minutes before a scheduled college graduation ceremony for soldiers and family members.[2] Thirteen people (eleven soldiers and two civilians) were killed;[3] eleven people died at the scene and the twelfth[4] and thirteenth[5] later in the hospital. Thirty-one others were wounded before Hasan was shot at least four times by police officers. Contrary to initial reports he was not killed in the incident, and was hospitalized in stable condition.[1]
Initially, three soldiers were believed to have been involved in the shooting; two soldiers were initially detained but subsequently released. The Fort Hood website posted a notice that indicated that the shooting was not a drill. Immediately after the shooting, the base and surrounding areas, including a number of local schools, were locked down with military police and SWAT teams. The lockdown lasted about five hours and by 7 p.m. local time was lifted.[6] In addition, FBI agents were called in from Austin and Waco,[7] and Texas Rangers were dispatched.[8] United States President Barack Obama was briefed on the incident, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters. President Obama later held a press conference about the shooting.[1]

Suspect
 

Hasan in 2007
Major Nidal Malik Hasan, age 39, was a U.S. Army psychiatrist at the time of the shooting. In July 2009 he had been transferred to Fort Hood from Washington's Walter Reed Medical Center.[1]

Early life and education
Hasan's parents immigrated to the US from Jordan.[9] He was born in Virginia, where he grew up. He joined the army immediately after high school, and in exchange the army paid for him to go to college and subsequently to medical school.[10] Hasan graduated in 1997 from Virginia Tech, where he was a member of ROTC,[11] with a bachelor's degree in biochemistry and in 2003 from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences with a medical degree (M.D.), and later finished his residency as a psychiatrist.[12][9] In 2009, he completed a fellowship in Disaster and Preventive Psychiatry at the Center for Traumatic Stress.[13]

Recent context and possible harassment
Hasan was promoted from Captain to Major in May 2009.[13][14] Before being transferred to Fort Hood in July 2009, Hasan had received a poor performance evaluation.[15]

According to Hasan's aunt, Noel Hasan of Falls Church, Virginia, he had sought for several years to receive a discharge, due to harassment relating to his religion, Islam. An Army spokesman could not confirm the aunt's statement.[16]

Hasan had come to the attention of federal authorities at least six months before the attacks because of internet postings he may have made discussing suicide bombings[17] and other threats. However, it remains unclear that he was the author of the posts, and no official investigation was opened.[15]

According to retired Colonel Terry Lee, "He said maybe Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor. At first we thought he meant help the armed forces, but apparently that wasn't the case. Other times he would make comments we shouldn't be in the war in the first place."[11]

Hasan was about to be deployed, whether to Iraq or Afghanistan is unclear,[18] on November 28. According to Jeff Sadoski, spokesperson of U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, "Hasan was upset about his deployment".[9] Hasan's cousin, Nader Hasan, a lawyer in Virginia, said that Nidal Hasan turned against the wars after hearing the stories of those who came back from Afghanistan and Iraq.[19] Noel Hamad said, however, that the family did not know he was being sent to Iraq. "He didn't tell us he was going to deploy," she said.[20]

According to his cousin, Nidal Hasan was a practicing Muslim who had become more devout after the deaths of his parents in 1998 and 2001.[10] However, his cousin does not recall him ever expressing any radical or anti-American views.[10] The cousin added that Hasan had been harassed by his Army colleagues because of his Middle Eastern ethnicity. Said the cousin, "He was dealing with some harassment from his military colleagues. I don't think he's ever been disenchanted with the military. It was the harassment. He hired a military attorney to try to have the issue resolved, pay back the government, to get out of the military. He was at the end of trying everything."[21]

Hasan is single with no children.[22]

Victims
Ten of the wounded survivors of the shooting were treated at Scott & White Memorial Hospital, a Level 2 trauma center in Temple, Texas.[23] All of them had gunshot wounds.[23] Seven more were taken to Metroplex Adventist Hospital in Killeen.[23] Another wounded victim, a civilian police officer working on the base, who is credited with shooting the suspect, was originally reported to have been killed.[7] Ten of the dead were soldiers, the other two civilians.

Response
Lieutenant General Robert W. Cone, commanding officer of Fort Hood, called the attack "a terrible tragedy, stunning", saying the base community was "absolutely devastated."[24] Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Defense Department called the shooting an "isolated and tragic case."[25] and Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, "I can pledge that the Department of Defense will do everything in its power to help the Fort Hood community get through these difficult times."[26] The chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee Carl Levin said "Our hearts go out to the families of the brave Americans who lost their lives in today's senseless violence at Fort Hood, Texas, and to those who were injured"[26] and the shooting was condemned by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.[27]

Other military bases increased security in the hours after the shooting.[28][29][30]

Within minutes of the incident becoming public, President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and former president George W. Bush, issued statements of support and sympathy for the victims. Obama described the incident as "tragic" and "a horrific outburst of violence" in a press conference in Washington, D.C. going on to say, "It is difficult enough when we lose these brave men and women abroad, but it is horrifying that they should come under fire at an army base on U.S. soil." "My immediate thoughts and prayers are with the wounded and the families of the fallen," he said. Obama also offered his help to Cone.[1] His statement was preceded by Joe Biden who said "Jill and I join the President and Michelle Obama in expressing our sympathies to the families of the brave soldiers who fell today. We are all praying for those who were wounded and hoping for their full and speedy recovery. Our thoughts and prayers are also with the entire Fort Hood community as they deal with this senseless tragedy",[31] while Bush said he "was saddened to learn of the tragic incident at Fort Hood. Laura Bush and I are keeping the victims and their families in our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time."[26] Texas Senators, Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn both issued messages expressing their shock and sympathy at the shooting.[7][32]

See also
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