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Online threats linked to suspected shooter

Nov. 6, 2009

For a timeline of the day's events and for information about Fort Hood, download the PDF issue of the Lariat. List yourself or search for a loved one on the American Red Cross Safe and Well Website.

Jed Dean | Photo Editor Police crowd around the outside of the East Gate of the Fort Hood military post following the lockdown Thursday afternoon. The suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was shot and is now in custody.

Hasan

By The Associated Press and The New York Times

WASHINGTON -- Born and reared in Virginia, the son of immigrant parents from a small town near Jerusalem, he joined the Army right out of high school, against his parents' wishes.

The Army, in turn, put him through college and then medical school, where he trained to be a psychiatrist.

The Army psychiatrist had come to the attention of authorities six months ago because of Internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats, law enforcement officials said Thursday.

Jed Dean | Photo Editor Steve Moore, III Corps Public Affairs Specialist, briefs the media on the events taking place inside the Fort Hood Military Base on Thursday evening just outside of the post's Main Gate.

Jed Dean | Photo Editor Above: A police officer directs all traffic away from the main entrance of the Fort Hood military post following Thursday's shootout. During the lockdown, which lasted from about 2:30 to 7 p.m., only medical personnel were allowed in and out of the base.

The postings appeared to have been made by 39-year-old Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who was wounded during the shootings at the Army post that killed 12 soldiers and wounded at least 30 others. A Fort Hood spokesman had earlier said Hasan was killed.

The officials say they are still trying to confirm that Hasan was the author of the Internet postings. They say an official investigation was not opened.

One of the officials said late Thursday that federal search warrants were being drawn up to authorize the seizure of Hasan's computer.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.

One of the Web postings that authorities reviewed is a blog that equates suicide bombers with a soldier throwing himself on a grenade to save the lives of his comrades.

"To say that this soldier committed suicide is inappropriate. Its (sic) more appropriate to say he is a brave hero that sacrificed his life for a more noble cause," said the Internet posting. "Scholars have paralled (sic) this to suicide bombers whose intention, by sacrificing their lives, is to help save Muslims by killing enemy soldiers."

Military officials said Hasan had worked for six years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, where he had received a poor performance evaluation. He transferred to Fort Hood in July.

The officials, who had access to Hasan's military record, spoke on condition of anonymity because such records are confidential.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said Hasan was about to deploy overseas, but it was not known whether he was headed to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Retired Army Col. Terry Lee told Fox News that he worked with Hasan, who had hoped Obama would pull troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Lee said Hasan got into frequent arguments with others in the military who supported the wars, and had tried hard to prevent his pending deployment.

Hasan was single with no children. He graduated from Virginia Tech University, 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. He did his internship, residency and a fellowship at Walter Reed.

Hasan started having second thoughts about his military career a few years ago after other soldiers harassed him for being a Muslim, he told relatives in Virginia.

He had also more recently expressed deep concerns about being sent to Iraq or Afghanistan. Having counseled scores of returning soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder, first at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and more recently at Fort Hood, he knew all too well the terrifying realities of war, said a cousin, Nader Hasan.

"He was mortified by the idea of having to deploy," Nader Hasan said. "He had people telling him on a daily basis the horrors they saw over there."

Nader Hasan said his cousin never mentioned in recent phone calls to Virginia that he was going to be deployed, and he said the family was shocked when it heard the news on television Thursday afternoon.

"He was doing everything he could to avoid that," Hasan said. "He wanted to do whatever he could within the rules to make sure he wouldn't go over."

Several years ago, that included retaining a lawyer and making inquiries about whether he could get out of the Army before his contract was up, because of the harassment he had received as a Muslim.

But Nader Hasan said the lawyer had told his cousin that even if he paid the Army back for his education, it would not allow him to leave before his commitment was up.

Nader Hasan, 40, a lawyer living in northern Virginia, described his cousin as a respectful, hard-working man who had devoted himself to his parents and his career.

He said his cousin had been a practicing Muslim who had become more devout after the deaths of his parents, in 1998 and 2001. But he said he had not expressed anti-American views or radical ideas.

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