Fort Hood was the site of the massacre today. AP Photo Greg Sharkey
Update: Since this article was published subsequent reports have shown that Major Hasan was scheduled to be depoyed to Afghanistan and not Iraq.
Details are still emerging on the Fort Hood story today in which 12 soldiers were killed and thirty-one soldiers wounded by one or possibly a few gunmen. Almost all news organizations are running with the story that one of the suspected gunmen was Major Malik Nadal Hasan. Here is what is being reported so far about Hasan:
Talking Points Memo notes that the rank of Major is a very high up in the Army. This however does not mean that Hasan had been in the military that long as Army MD's enter the military at a higher rank. They also discuss the obvious which is that Nadal has a foreign sounding, Arabic name which is sure to be a topic of conversation in coming days.
Think Progress notes how multiple media organizations (Fox News, Texas Newspaper, and Politico) all are reporting that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) has been told that Hasan was very upset about a future deployment to Iraq.
Think Progress also cites an ABC report which states that Hasan was a recent convert to Islam. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has released a statement condemning what they call the "cowardly attack" and stating that no religious or political ideology could ever justify such violence.
I will provide more updates as they come in from various sources. No political commentary at this point as right now I think it is just a time evaluate and sympathize with the loss of those involved.
Comments
Reports are he was an MD and Masters of Public Health and a 'mental health professional,' which with the MD implies psychologist.
New report on the wire:
Military officials said that Maj. Hasan was a psychiatrist who had been recently promoted to major and transferred to Fort Hood from Washington's Walter Reed Medical Center. Maj. Hasan's professional specialties included post-traumatic stress disorder, combat stress and other emotional issues common to the troops implicated in earlier incidents of military fratricide.
Headline coming soon: Pshrink Goes Crazy!
Thoughts and prayers to the Hood troops and their families.
What makes you think he was crazy?
There are Muslims doing this all over the world; he's just following the template of the violent minority.
What makes you think he was crazy?
There are Muslims doing this all over the world; he's just following the template of the violent minority.
He was from Virginia and had been a Convert to The Worlds' Most Peaceful Religion. Islamist groups in washington have condemed the major's action.
There are 43 families who are hurting now plus many others traumatised. God Bless each and every one.
It took the America hating Obama more than 2 minutes to address this tragedy AFTER he gave his shout outs!
It took him DAYS to comment on the shooter at the Holocaust Museum.
What a DISGRACE this man is. What a disgrace to America and the Office of the President.
I know at least two Muslims in Special Operations who I would trust with my life - and in fact have, more than once.
Shove your bigotry up your chickenhawk ass, Jihad.
Jakie Boy,
Let others have an opinion!
But others having differing opinions is not what Jake fought to support Gigi. Sorry Jake...sad but true.
Your words belie a different story Jake/Jane. Oh and Ryan Where are you on name-calling here??? Your little band of "merry Men" get a pass huh?
Jake you supporting member of "The Most Peaceful Religion in the World", whose former imam at his mosque in Siver Springs Md. says he spoke often with Hasan about how he wanted to find a wife. Then your mohammedan brother Shoots Amber Bahr 19 years old in the stomach. Army reports are that a pregnant woman was also shot and killed.
You hide behind your "service record" as an excuse to spout ANYTHING that is Liberal and Politically Correct. Even to other Military familiy members who disagree with you...you tell them to
"Burn in Hell". I wonder Jake/Jack/James, what would be the reaction of those soldiers if they knew you spewed your venom at their families using your 'Military Service' as support for your invective. Actuaaly I wonder how brave you would be to say to they're faces.
Nidal Malik Hasan was reprimanded several times by the Army.
oh and I did try to come on and correct that mohammedan Nidal Malik Hasan was a lifelong mohammedan according to his Maryland Imam. Also that he was alive. But I kept getting a servor error.
See Ryan I do know, and state, the difference between a servor error and a delete!
Ryan,
I want to say thank you for seeing that Jake's comment was spiteful and unnecessarily venomous towards other regular posters.
But I also want to say that I would NOT like Jakes or ANY other posters to be deleted. All of our comments should be able to be judged on merits and the responses as well. I really am for freedom of speech for EVERYONE. Perhaps Jake is right and I am a bigot, or my comments can be interpreted or MISinterpreted as such. Point is we ALL should have the opportunity to speak. It is an essential mechanism of our republic and should not be abrogated.
The NET has become the great sounding board of the populace in place of the Coffee shop etc.. Foucault is essential for a modern emphasis on this ( in translation...he is unreachable in French IMO). Please allow more free speech. Thanks
(except of course regarding the Queen and her manor of dress, here disparaging words should of course not be tolerated).
Freedom of speech means free of control from government. It does not mean you have a right to say whatever you want in whatever forum. I promise that if I call Glenn Beck and ask to be on his show he is not going to let me on (1) Because I am not a big enough deal and (2) Because he controls what comes on his show. I would submit that I allow for much more disagreement with me in this forum than Beck ever allows on his show.
But to the larger point I must respectfully disagree. If I allow name-calling and that sort of behavior to go on with no restraint (it is impossible to eliminate ALL of it) then it occurs more and more often with more venom until eventually every debate quickly disintegrates into everyone accusing the other of being a child molester. Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC all "censor" the comments they receive that they show on air. You never see Bill O' Reilly being called a Mothereffer when he addresses comments even though I am sure that he is called that.
I understand what you saying. But understand also that big Trees from little acorns grow. And that BIG tree could become a comfortable compliance with disallowing opponents to speak.
So calling a bigot a bigot is now "spiteful?"
amazing. The lunatic fringe has it's own version of 'political correctness,' I see - one that precludes calling them out when they spew their venom.
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