12 dead in Fort Hood shooting spree

[JackRiddler]

Was Fort Hood shooter being groomed for an intelligence role?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... 89x6981996

[elfismiles]

Fort Hood: A media orgy of rumors, speculation and falsehoods
Much of the initial coverage turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
by Glenn Greenwald

Global Research, November 9, 2009
Salon - 2009-11-06

Last night, right-wing blogger (and law professor) Glenn Reynolds promoted this media analysis from right-wing blogger (and Los Angeles Assistant District Attorney) Patterico regarding coverage of the Fort Hood shootings. Patterico wrote: "Whenever there is breaking news, it’s good to keep a few things in mind: . . . Always follow Allahpundit" -- referring to one of the two bloggers at Michelle Malkin's Hot Air site.

Upon reading that, I went to Hot Air to read what he had written, and it's actually quite revealing -- not in terms of what it reveals about Hot Air (that topic wouldn't warrant a post) but, rather, what it reveals about major media coverage of these sorts of events. Allahpundit's post consists of a very thorough, contemporaneous, and -- at times -- appropriately skeptical chronicling of what major media outlets were reporting about the Fort Hood attack, combined with his passing along of much unverified gossip and chatter from Twitter, most of which turned out to be false.

It's worth focusing on what the major media did last night, and one can use the Hot Air compilation to examine that. I understand that in the early stages of significant and complex news stories, it's to be expected that journalists will have incomplete and even inaccurate information. It's unreasonable to expect them to avoid errors entirely. The inherently confusing nature of a mass shooting like this, combined with the need to rely on second-hand or otherwise unreliable sources (including, sometimes, official ones), will mean that even conscientious reporters end up with inaccurate information in cases like this. That's all understandable and inevitable.

But shouldn't there be some standards governing what gets reported and what is held back? Particularly in a case like this -- which, for obvious reasons, has the potential to be quite inflammatory on a number of levels -- having the major media "report" completely false assertions as fact can be quite harmful. It's often the case that perceptions and judgments about stories like this solidify in the first few hours after one hears about it. The impact of subsequent corrections and clarifications pale in comparison to the impressions that are first formed. Despite that, one false and contradictory claim after the next was disseminated last night by the establishment media with regard to the core facts of the attack. Here are excerpts from Allahpundit's compilation, virtually all of which -- except where indicated -- came from large news outlets:

Number of shooters

The fact that at least three gunmen are involved already has Shuster and Miklaszewski mentioning similarities to the Fort Dix Six plot on MSNBC . . . two of the gunmen are still at large and one has fired shots at the SWAT team on the scene . . . . New details from CNN: One gunman "neutralized," one "cornered," no word on the third. . . . Whether there are two shooters or three seems to be in dispute at the moment, but there’s certainly more than one: The second shooting on the base evidently occurred at a theater. . . . Fox News says there are reports that the men were dressed in fatigues. . . . MSNBC TV says two shooters are in custody now. . . . it sounds like both shooters are military . . .According to MSNBC, there were three shooters. . . In case you're wondering whether the other two soldiers in custody were actual accomplices or just being questioned because they knew Hasan, Rick Perry just said at the presser he’s holding that all three were shooters. . . . Hearing rumblings on Twitter right now that Perry was wrong and that the two other "suspects" have now been released. Was Hasan, in fact, a lone gunman? . . . . According to the general conducting the briefing going on right now, he appears to be a lone gunman.

The fate of the shooter

One of the shooters is dead. . . One is dead, two more are in custody. Has there ever been a case of "battle stress" that involved a conspiracy by multiple people? . . . So poor and fragmented have the early media reports about this been that only now, after 9 p.m. ET, do we learn that ... Hasan’s still alive. He’s in stable condition.

The weapons used

M-16s involved: . . . From the local Fox affiliate, how it all went down. Evidently McClatchy’s report of M-16s was wrong:

The shooter's background

According to Brian Ross at ABC, Hasan was a convert to Islam. . . . Contra Brian Ross, the AP says it’s unclear what Hasan’s religion was or whether he was a convert. . . . Apparently, one of Hasan’s cousins just told Shep that he’s always been Muslim, not a recent convert. . . .

I’m hearing on Twitter that Fox interviewed one of his neighbors within the last half-hour or so and that the neighbor claims Hasan was handing out Korans just this morning. Does anyone have video? . . . . "Brenda Price of KUSJ reported to Greta at 10:33: 'also, the latest I am hearing, this morning, apparently according to his neighbors, he was walking around kind of giving out his possessions, giving away his furniture, handing out the Koran...'" . . .: Evidently CNN is airing surveillance footage from a convenience store camera taken this just morning showing Hasan in a traditional Muslim cap and robe. . . "A former neighbor of Hasan’s in Silver Spring, Md. told Fox News he lived there for two years with his brother and had the word ‘Allah’ on the door."

Miscellaneous claims

Good lord — there’s a report from BNO News on Twitter that new shooting is being heard on the base. . . . For what it’s worth, an eyewitness report of Arabic being shouted during the attack: . . .Federal law enforcement officials say the suspected Fort Hood, Texas, shooter had come to their attention at least six months ago because of Internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats. . . . The $64,000 questions: What was he doing at Fort Hood among the population if he thought suicide bombers were heroes?

Isn't it clear that anyone following all of that as it unfolded would have been more misinformed than informed?

The New York Times' Robert Mackey did an equally comprehensive job of live-blogging the media reports, and his contemporaneous compilation reflects many of these same glaring errors in the coverage: "CNN reports that two military sources say that the second gunman at Fort Hood is 'cornered' . . . Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison told Fox 4 News in Texas that one shooter was in custody and 'another is still at large' . . . CNN’s Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr reports that 12 people have been killed and up to 30 wounded. One of the dead is said to have been one of the gunmen. . . . Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, just revealed that earlier reports that the suspected gunman, Major Nidal Hasan, had been killed were incorrect. Major Hasan was wounded but remains alive."


Perhaps most irresponsible of all is the unverified claim that Hasan had written on the Internet in defense of suicide attacks by Muslims, even though the origins of those writings are entirely unverified. Similarly, certain news organizations -- like NPR -- used anonymous sources to disseminate inflammatory claims about Hasan's prior troubles allegedly grounded in activism on behalf of Islam. Much of this may turn out to be true once verified, or it may not be, but all of the conflicting, unverified claims flying around last night enabled many people to exploit the "facts" they selected in order to create whatever storyline that suited them and their political preconceptions -- and many, of course, took vigorous advantage of that opportunity.

I'm obviously ambivalent about the issues of media responsibility raised by all of this. It's difficult to know exactly how the competing interests should be balanced -- between disclosing what one has heard in an evolving news story and ensuring some minimal level of reliability and accuracy. But whatever else is true, news outlets -- driven by competitive pressures in the age of instant "reporting" -- don't really seem to recognize the need for this balance at all. They're willing to pass on anything they hear without regard to reliability -- to the point where I automatically and studiously ignore the first day or so of news coverage on these events because, given how these things are "reported," it's simply impossible to know what is true and what isn't. In fact, following initial media coverage on these stories is more likely to leave one misled and confused than informed. Conversely, the best way to stay informed is to ignore it all -- or at least treat it all with extreme skepticism -- for at least a day.

The problem, though, is that huge numbers of people aren't ignoring it. They're paying close attention -- and they're paying the closest attention, and forming their long-term views, in the initial stages of the reporting. Many people will lose their interest once the drama dissolves -- i.e., once the actual facts emerge. Put another way, a large segment of conventional wisdom solidifies based on misleading and patently false claims coming from major media outlets. I don't know exactly how to define what the balance should be, but particularly for politically explosive stories like this one, it seems clear that media outlets ought to exercise far more restraint and fact-checking rigor than they do. As it is, it's an orgy of rumor-mongering, speculation and falsehoods that play a very significant role in shaping public perceptions and enabling all sorts of ill-intentioned exploitation.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... &aid=15948

[elfismiles]

Alleged Fort Hood Shooter Frequented Local Strip Club
Monday, November 09, 2009
By Jana Winter

KILLEEN, Texas — The Army psychiatrist authorities say killed 13 people and wounded 29 others at the Fort Hood Army Base Thursday was a recent and frequent customer at a local strip club, employees of the club told FoxNews.com exclusively.

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan came into the Starz strip club not far from the base at least three times in the past month, the club's general manager, Matthew Jones, told FoxNews.com. Army investigators building their case against Hasan plan to interview Jones soon.

"The last time he was here, I remember checking his military ID at the door, and he paid his $15 cover and stayed for six or seven hours," Jones, 37, said.

Hasan's presence at the club paints a starkly different portrait of the alleged killer from that offered by his imam and family members, who have described him as a devout Muslim, and one who had difficulty finding a wife who would wear a head scarf and would pray five times a day.

Starz is a strip club located just down the road from the main gate entrance to the Fort Hood Base. It does not serve alcohol, but customers bring their own beer and liquor and buy ice buckets and mixers at the club.

Hasan sat at a table in the back corner of the club, to the left of the stage on which strippers dance around a pole, employees said.

Jennifer Jenner, who works at Starz using the stage name Paige, said Hasan bought a lap dance from her two nights in a row. She said he paid $50 for a dance lasting three songs in one of the club's private rooms on Oct. 29 and Oct. 30.

"I remembered his face because it was the first lap dance I [gave] to a customer while working here," she said. "When I saw his face [Friday] on TV, I jumped out of bed, I knew it was him."

Jenner, 31, said Hasan was dressed casually both nights he came to the club - in jeans and a T-shirt the first night and then wearing a baseball cap the next. She recalled that he arrived at about 6:30 p.m. and stayed until 2 a.m. She said he brought in a six pack of light beer, took only a few sips from one can and gave the rest to the strippers.

"He preferred the blondes," said Jenner, whose hair was dyed blond at the time. "He said he was a medic and that he was being deployed soon, but mostly he wanted to ask us questions."

"He asked us why we were working at the strip club, if we liked the lifestyle, if we had any kids," she said. "It was right before Halloween so he asked what our kids were dressing up as. He just wanted to know a lot about us."

Jenner said she asked Hasan why he liked coming to Starz instead of another of the roughly half a dozen other clubs nearby, all about an 8-minute drive from the Army base.

"I like it here because no one I work with is here," she said Hasan replied.

Starz is smaller than most of the other clubs, has only about 10 dancers and caters to a louder crowd. Jenner said Army medics generally don't hang out at the club.

"He wasnt too loud like some of our other customers, or sleazy. He didn't try to take any of us home and he was respectful," she said. "I think he mostly came here to kill some time and just relax. He stood out here because he was much more reserved than our other customers.

"I just can't believe that he's the one who killed all those people. You know, he tipped every girl as she came off the stage after her dance. He was a really good tipper."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,573052,00.html

[Nordic]

How convenient. That "inquiry" will be headed by that tireless worker for peace, justice, integrity and open government, Sen. Joe Lieberman.

Isn't there an emoticon for throwing up? I can't find it.

Anyone who thinks that Washington politics is anything other than pure theatre .....? Is at this point an idiot.

[lightningBugout]

FWIW Colin Ross is questioned extensively about Hasan and/or the DC Sniper being Manchurian Candidates in the power hour interview that Elfis posted. He strongly states this is possible. Given that Hasan is going to go before a military tribunal, this looks very fishy.

[Nordic]

Given that Hasan is going to go before a military tribunal, this looks very fishy.

Yeah, that's what I thought when I read today he was going the military tribunal route. That way they can utterly control the situation, out of the public eye. I was going to comment on that story here, but see others have beat me to it, which is fine. Had a relatively busy day thus far (considering I was unemployed).

The whole thing is really stinking to high heaven, and like I said earlier, I'm starting to wonder if it's something they can really keep a lid on.

[JackRiddler]

Watch out for FOXNEWS stories from strip clubs!

Judging from the following, if it was a psyop, it may have been targeted at this guy:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/us/11 ... nted=print

November 11, 2009

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Remarks of President Obama, as Prepared for Delivery for the memorial service at Fort Hood, Tex.

We come together filled with sorrow for the thirteen Americans that we have lost; with gratitude for the lives that they led; and with a determination to honor them through the work we carry on.

This is a time of war. And yet these Americans did not die on a foreign field of battle. They were killed here, on American soil, in the heart of this great American community. It is this fact that makes the tragedy even more painful and even more incomprehensible.

For those families who have lost a loved one, no words can fill the void that has been left. We knew these men and women as soldiers and caregivers. You knew them as mothers and fathers; sons and daughters; sisters and brothers.

But here is what you must also know: your loved ones endure through the life of our nation. Their memory will be honored in the places they lived and by the people they touched. Their life's work is our security, and the freedom that we too often take for granted. Every evening that the sun sets on a tranquil town; every dawn that a flag is unfurled; every moment that an American enjoys life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – that is their legacy.

Neither this country – nor the values that we were founded upon – could exist without men and women like these thirteen Americans. And that is why we must pay tribute to their stories.

Chief Warrant Officer Michael Cahill had served in the National Guard and worked as a physician's assistant for decades. A husband and father of three, he was so committed to his patients that on the day he died, he was back at work just weeks after having a heart attack.

Major Libardo Eduardo Caraveo spoke little English when he came to America as a teenager. But he put himself through college, earned a PhD, and was helping combat units cope with the stress of deployment. He is survived by his wife, sons and step-daughters.

Staff Sergeant Justin DeCrow joined the Army right after high school, married his high school sweetheart, and had served as a light wheeled mechanic and Satellite Communications Operator. He was known as an optimist, a mentor, and a loving husband and father.

After retiring from the Army as a Major, John Gaffaney cared for society's most vulnerable during two decades as a psychiatric nurse. He spent three years trying to return to active duty in this time of war, and he was preparing to deploy to Iraq as a Captain. He leaves behind a wife and son.

Specialist Frederick Greene was a Tennessean who wanted to join the Army for a long time, and did so in 2008 with the support of his family. As a combat engineer he was a natural leader, and he is survived by his wife and two daughters.

Specialist Jason Hunt was also recently married, with three children to care for. He joined the Army after high school. He did a tour in Iraq, and it was there that he re-enlisted for six more years on his 21st birthday so that he could continue to serve.

Staff Sergeant Amy Krueger was an athlete in high school, joined the Army shortly after 9/11, and had since returned home to speak to students about her experience. When her mother told her she couldn't take on Osama bin Laden by herself, Amy replied: "Watch me."

Private First Class Aaron Nemelka was an Eagle Scout who just recently signed up to do one of the most dangerous jobs in the service – diffuse bombs – so that he could help save lives. He was proudly carrying on a tradition of military service that runs deep within his family.

Private First Class Michael Pearson loved his family and loved his music, and his goal was to be a music teacher. He excelled at playing the guitar, and could create songs on the spot and show others how to play. He joined the military a year ago, and was preparing for his first deployment.

Captain Russell Seager worked as a nurse for the VA, helping veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress. He had great respect for the military, and signed up to serve so that he could help soldiers cope with the stress of combat and return to civilian life. He leaves behind a wife and son.

Private Francheska Velez, the daughter of a father from Colombia and a Puerto Rican mother, had recently served in Korea and in Iraq, and was pursuing a career in the Army. When she was killed, she was pregnant with her first child, and was excited about becoming a mother.

Lieutenant Colonel Juanita Warman was the daughter and granddaughter of Army veterans. She was a single mother who put herself through college and graduate school, and served as a nurse practitioner while raising her two daughters. She also left behind a loving husband.

Private First Class Kham Xiong came to America from Thailand as a small child. He was a husband and father who followed his brother into the military because his family had a strong history of service. He was preparing for his first deployment to Afghanistan.

These men and women came from all parts of the country. Some had long careers in the military. Some had signed up to serve in the shadow of 9/11. Some had known intense combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, and some cared for those did. Their lives speak to the strength, the dignity and the decency of those who serve, and that is how they will be remembered.

That same spirit is embodied in the community here at Fort Hood, and in the many wounded who are still recovering. In those terrible minutes during the attack, soldiers made makeshift tourniquets out of their clothes. They braved gunfire to reach the wounded, and ferried them to safety in the backs of cars and a pick-up truck.

One young soldier, Amber Bahr, was so intent on helping others that she did not realize for some time that she, herself, had been shot in the back. Two police officers – Mark Todd and Kim Munley – saved countless lives by risking their own. One medic – Francisco de la Serna – treated both Officer Munley and the gunman who shot her.

It may be hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy. But this much we do know – no faith justifies these murderous and craven acts; no just and loving God looks upon them with favor. And for what he has done, we know that the killer will be met with justice – in this world, and the next.

These are trying times for our country. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, the same extremists who killed nearly 3,000 Americans continue to endanger America, our allies, and innocent Afghans and Pakistanis. In Iraq, we are working to bring a war to a successful end, as there are still those who would deny the Iraqi people the future that Americans and Iraqis have sacrificed so much for.

As we face these challenges, the stories of those at Fort Hood reaffirm the core values that we are fighting for, and the strength that we must draw upon. Theirs are tales of American men and women answering an extraordinary call – the call to serve their comrades, their communities, and their country. In an age of selfishness, they embody responsibility. In an era of division, they call upon us to come together. In a time of cynicism, they remind us of who we are as Americans.

We are a nation that endures because of the courage of those who defend it. We saw that valor in those who braved bullets here at Fort Hood, just as surely as we see it in those who signed up knowing that they would serve in harm's way.

We are a nation of laws whose commitment to justice is so enduring that we would treat a gunman and give him due process, just as surely as we will see that he pays for his crimes.

We are a nation that guarantees the freedom to worship as one chooses. And instead of claiming God for our side, we remember Lincoln's words, and always pray to be on the side of God.

We are a nation that is dedicated to the proposition that all men and women are created equal. We live that truth within our military, and see it in the varied backgrounds of those we lay to rest today. We defend that truth at home and abroad, and we know that Americans will always be found on the side of liberty and equality. That is who we are as a people.

Tomorrow is Veterans Day. It is a chance to pause, and to pay tribute – for students to learn of the struggles that preceded them; for families to honor the service of parents and grandparents; for citizens to reflect upon the sacrifices that have been made in pursuit of a more perfect union.

For history is filled with heroes. You may remember the stories of a grandfather who marched across Europe; an uncle who fought in Vietnam; a sister who served in the Gulf. But as we honor the many generations who have served, I think all of us – every single American – must acknowledge that this generation has more than proved itself the equal of those who have come before.

We need not look to the past for greatness, because it is before our very eyes.

This generation of soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen have volunteered in a time of certain danger. They are part of the finest fighting force that the world has ever known. They have served tour after tour of duty in distant, different and difficult places. They have stood watch in blinding deserts and on snowy mountains. They have extended the opportunity of self-government to peoples that have suffered tyranny and war. They are man and woman; white, black, and brown; of all faiths and stations – all Americans, serving together to protect our people, while giving others half a world away the chance to lead a better life.

In today's wars, there is not always a simple ceremony that signals our troops' success – no surrender papers to be signed, or capital to be claimed. But the measure of their impact is no less great – in a world of threats that know no borders, it will be marked in the safety of our cities and towns, and the security and opportunity that is extended abroad. And it will serve as testimony to the character of those who serve, and the example that you set for America and for the world.

Here, at Fort Hood, we pay tribute to thirteen men and women who were not able to escape the horror of war, even in the comfort of home. Later today, at Fort Lewis, one community will gather to remember so many in one Stryker Brigade who have fallen in Afghanistan.

Long after they are laid to rest – when the fighting has finished, and our nation has endured; when today's servicemen and women are veterans, and their children have grown – it will be said of this generation that they believed under the most trying of tests; that they persevered not just when it was easy, but when it was hard; and that they paid the price and bore the burden to secure this nation, and stood up for the values that live in the hearts of all free peoples.

So we say goodbye to those who now belong to eternity. We press ahead in pursuit of the peace that guided their service. May God bless the memory of those we lost. And may God bless the United States of America.

[Nordic]

It may be hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy. But this much we do know – no faith justifies these murderous and craven acts; no just and loving God looks upon them with favor.

And that is why I'm sending 40,000 more of you to Afghanistan to slaughter more of our fellow humans. Because, by God, two wrongs DO make a right

Asshole.[/quote]

[Sweejak]

[JackRiddler]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8351740.stm

BBC NEWS
US major contacted radical cleric

US authorities knew that an army major accused of killing 13 people at a military base had been in contact with a cleric sympathetic to al-Qaeda.

Intelligence agencies monitoring the e-mail of Yemen-based Anwar al-Awlaki said he had communicated with Maj Nidal Malik Hasan on 10 to 20 occasions.

However, it was decided that this did not merit further investigation.

US officials say Maj Hasan apparently acted alone in carrying out Thursday's massacre at Fort Hood base in Texas.

President Barack Obama is due to visit Fort Hood later on Tuesday for a memorial service for the 13 people who died in last week's shootings.

US policy denounced

The major, a 39-year-old US-born Muslim of Palestinian descent, was scrutinised by an FBI-led joint terrorism task force because of a series of e-mails between December 2008 and early 2009 with Mr al-Awlaki.

MARDELL'S AMERICA
“ If a soldier, a Muslim unhappy about waging war on other Muslims, gets in touch with a man well-known for advocating terrorism, shouldn't that 'raise a red flag'? ”
Mark Mardell BBC North America editor

Mr al-Awlaki, who was released from a Yemeni jail last year, was once an imam at the mosque in Falls Church, Virginia, where Maj Hasan and his family occasionally worshipped.

He now runs a website denouncing US policy. It has praised Maj Hasan's alleged actions at Fort Hood as heroic.

US officials said the content of the e-mail messages did not advocate or threaten violence, and was consistent with Maj Hasan's research for his job as an army psychiatrist, part of which involved post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from US combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The terrorism task force concluded that Maj Hasan was not involved in terrorist planning.

A senior Republican on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee has called on all the US intelligence agencies to preserve the information they have on Maj Hasan.

Representative Pete Hoekstra said in a statement: "I believe members of the full committee on a bipartisan basis will want to scrutinise the intelligence relevant to this attack, what the agencies in possession of that intelligence did with it, who was and wasn't informed and why, and what steps America's intelligence agencies are taking in light of what they know."

Congressional investigation

FBI Director Robert Mueller has ordered a review of how the agency dealt with information about Maj Hasan.

Senior US Senator Joe Lieberman has said he plans to open a congressional investigation into whether the shootings were a terrorist attack.

Mr Lieberman also said he hoped to determine whether the army missed signs that Maj Hasan may have harboured extreme views.

Maj Hasan, who is recovering from gunshot wounds at a military hospital, will be charged in a military court over the Fort Hood shootings. He has declined to be interviewed by investigators.

He was transferred to Fort Hood in April and was to have been deployed in Afghanistan, with some reports indicating he was unhappy about this.

Bob Baer, a former CIA field officer who wrote the book See No Evil, told BBC News the attack did not "fit the signature of al-Qaeda or any other Islamic group".

"Not only there is no motive, there was no claim for the attack.

"We are missing so many parts of this. It does look like a man that was motivated by belief, but it looks like an individual act so far."

US MEDIA REACTIONS

Columnists, bloggers and commentators have expressed their opinions about the news that Maj Hasan had communications with a radical cleric.

political correctness has clouded the reporting on Maj Hasan's possible motives: Hasan was portrayed as a victim of society, a poor soul who was pushed over the edge by prejudice and unhappiness... This response was understandable. But it was also patronizing. Public commentators assumed the air of kindergarten teachers who had to protect their children from thinking certain impermissible and intolerant thoughts.

why Maj Hasan was not fired from the army for his views when gay and lesbian soldiers face exactly that fate on the grounds of their sexual orientation: Apparently, the military retained a person who suffered from known (or reasonably discoverable) psychological problems and who attempted to contact an anti-US terrorist group. Meanwhile, the military continues to enforce Don't Ask, Don't Tell and to discharge mentally fit and loyal gay and lesbian service members.

Maj Hasan's motive was religious in nature and accuses other media outlets of closing their eyes to the truth: Any American who is not prepared to lie to himself has reason to believe that Hasan's religious views were prominent, if not exclusive, factors for why he slaughtered fellow American soldiers. The motives appear as clear as any could be.

the truth lies somewhere in the middle: The politically correct version blames a lonely soldier's personal meltdown, precipitated by the fear of being deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. The politically incorrect view portrays Hasan, the son of Palestinian immigrants, as a homegrown Islamic terrorist, whether he coordinated with any terrorist groups or not. In the end, it may turn out that both views are correct - in that Hasan would not be the first unstable person to immerse himself in an extremist ideology before he turned his rage on his fellow man.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/a ... 351740.stm

Published: 2009/11/10 17:51:28 GMT

© BBC MMIX

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[MacCruiskeen]

A senior Republican on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee has called on all the US intelligence agencies to preserve the information they have on Maj Hasan.

Translation:

A senior Republican on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee today issued the codeword triggering an orgy of document-shredding at Langley and Fort Meade.

A hard job, but somebody's got to do it.

[8bitagent]

One thing this angle the media has done with Anwar al-Aulaqi(as he's previously been known) is open back up the hidden dark truth of who was aiding and abetting the 9/11 hijackers(within serious 9-11 research communities)

[seemslikeadream]

Walter Reed Officials Asked: Was Hasan Psychotic?
by Daniel Zwerdling

Enlarge
Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesAlleged Fort Hood gunman Maj. Nidal Hasan worked at Walter Reed Medical Center for six years. Hasan was transferred to Texas in July.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesAlleged Fort Hood gunman Maj. Nidal Hasan worked at Walter Reed Medical Center for six years. Hasan was transferred to Texas in July.
Heard On 'All Things Considered'
heard on All Things Considered
November 11, 2009

Walter Reed Officials Raised Concerns About Hasan
[5 min 36 sec]
Add to PlaylistDownloadtext sizeAAANovember 11, 2009 Starting in the spring of 2008, key officials from Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences held a series of meetings and conversations, in part about Maj. Nidal Hasan, the man accused of killing 13 people and wounding dozens of others last week during a shooting spree at Fort Hood. One of the questions they pondered: Was Hasan psychotic?

"Put it this way," says one official familiar with the conversations that took place. "Everybody felt that if you were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, you would not want Nidal Hasan in your foxhole."

In documents reviewed by NPR and conversations with medical officials at Walter Reed and USUHS, new details have emerged regarding serious concerns that officials raised about Hasan during his time at both institutions.

Hasan spent six years as a psychiatrist at Walter Reed, beginning in 2003, and he had a fellowship at USUHS until shortly before he went to Fort Hood in the summer of 2009. A committee of officials from both places regularly meets once a month to discuss pressing topics surrounding the psychiatrists and other mental health professionals who train and work at the institutions.

NPR spoke with military psychiatrists and officials who worked closely with Hasan, as well as those who monitored the committee and/or student and faculty matters. None would allow their names to be used, because of the criminal investigation into the Fort Hood shootings.

Enlarge
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences/APA portrait taken of Hasan upon entering the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Disaster and Military Psychiatry Fellowship program in 2007.

Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences/APA portrait taken of Hasan upon entering the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Disaster and Military Psychiatry Fellowship program in 2007.
Deeply Troubling, Schizoid Behavior

When a group of key officials gathered in the spring of 2008 for their monthly meeting in a Bethesda, Md., office, one of the leading — and most perplexing — items on their agenda was: What should we do about Hasan?

Hasan had been a trouble spot on officials' radar since he started training at Walter Reed, six years earlier. Several officials confirm that supervisors had repeatedly given him poor evaluations and warned him that he was doing substandard work.

Both fellow students and faculty were deeply troubled by Hasan's behavior — which they variously called disconnected, aloof, paranoid, belligerent, and schizoid. The officials say he antagonized some students and faculty by espousing what they perceived to be extremist Islamic views. His supervisors at Walter Reed had even reprimanded him for telling at least one patient that "Islam can save your soul."

Participants in the spring meeting and in subsequent conversations about Hasan reportedly included John Bradley, chief of psychiatry at Walter Reed; Robert Ursano, chairman of the Psychiatry Department at USUHS; Charles Engel, assistant chair of the Psychiatry Department and director of Hasan's psychiatry fellowship; Dr. David Benedek, another assistant chairman of psychiatry at USUHS; psychiatrist Carroll J. Diebold; and Scott Moran, director of the psychiatric residency program at Walter Reed, according to colleagues and other sources who monitor the meetings.

NPR tried to contact all these officials and the public affairs officers at the institutions. They either didn't return phone calls or said they could not comment.

But psychiatrists and officials who are familiar with the conversations, which continued into the spring of 2009, say they took a remarkable turn: Is it possible, some mused, that Hasan was mentally unstable and unfit to be an Army psychiatrist?

Shootings at Fort Hood

One official involved in the conversations had reportedly told colleagues that he worried that if Hasan deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, he might leak secret military information to Islamic extremists. Another official reportedly wondered aloud to colleagues whether Hasan might be capable of committing fratricide, like the Muslim U.S. Army sergeant who, in 2003, killed two fellow soldiers and injured 14 others by setting off grenades at a base in Kuwait.

Bureaucratic And Other Obstacles

So why didn't officials act on their concerns and seek to remove Hasan from his duties, or at least order him to receive a mental health evaluation? Interviews with these officials suggest that a chain of unrelated events and factors deterred them.

For one thing, Walter Reed and most medical institutions have a cumbersome and lengthy process for expelling doctors, involving hearings and potential legal battles. As a result, sources say, key decision-makers decided it would be too difficult, if not unfeasible, to put Hasan on probation and possibly expel him from the program.

Second, some of Hasan's supervisors and instructors had told colleagues that they repeatedly bent over backward to support and encourage him, because they didn't have clear evidence that he was unstable, and they worried they might be "discriminating" against Hasan because of his seemingly extremist Islamic beliefs.

Third, the officials involved in deliberations this year reportedly were not aware, as some top Walter Reed officials were, that intelligence analysts had been tracking Hasan's e-mails with at least one suspected Islamic extremist since December 2008.

And finally, Hasan was about to leave Walter Reed and USUHS for good and transfer to Fort Hood, in Texas. Fort Hood has more psychiatrists and other mental specialists than some other Army bases, so officials figured there would be plenty of co-workers who would support Hasan — and monitor him.

[barracuda]

Islam can save your soul.

Wow. That is so massively extremist it's no wonder they thought he might be psychotic. Not a word in there about Jeebus, and how he can forgive you for killing people.

[Nordic]

Anybody familiar with this Michael Hoffman cat? He seems pretty tuned in.

http://revisionistreview.blogspot.com/2 ... -fort.html

Interviewer: What would you say is the most striking aspect of the Fort Hood shootings?

Hoffman: There are so many anomalies, things that just don't add up, but rather than going into hypotheses that would be difficult for most people to follow, I'll focus on something glaring, which is -- the rush to judgment of Hasan -- the total mockery of the ancient right of innocent until proven guilty.

Interviewer: You mean in naming Major Hasan as the shooter and the only shooter?

Hoffman: Yes, that's part of it. Even if he was the gunman, however, even if he was indeed another lone nut, the precedent that's been set here by the government's mouthpiece corporate media is dreadful. They report as fact whatever the government chooses to tell them. Notice too that the Glenn Beck anti-government rebels believe the government in this Texas case, just like Beck believes the government narrative in the 9/11 attacks. It's remarkable, this bipolar suspension of the suspicion of government when it comes to official accounts of shootings, wars and terrorist attacks.

Interviewer: Anything else?

Hoffman: In addition to proclaiming Major Hasan guilty until proven innocent, the effect of Fort Hoodwink on the public, as filtered through the media, is to induce in the American people one of the lowest, dumbest, golem-like mentalities of obtuseness.

Interviewer: That's insulting to your fellow Americans.

Hoffman: They insult themselves by their behavior. A friend in California who is one of the few honest attorneys e-mailed me and pointed out that if there were two or more shooters, as eyewitnesses initially reported, then it could be that one or more of them is one of the "victims" mourned by Obama today.

Interviewer: You're blaming the victims?

Hoffman: How do we know they're all victims? Tell me how we know that every one of the dead in Fort Hood is a victim of Hasan, a mere 100 or so hours after the shooting? Give me a break. Let's dispense with the boy scout gullibility. Assassination tactics sometimes entail a backup shooter to eliminate the main shooter after the job is done. This was the m.o. when the head of the Columbo crime family was shot in New York in 1971. The assassin himself was immediately shot by a second assassin put in place for that very task.

Interviewer: Major Hasan may have killed the shooter or shooters responsible for the killings at Fort Hood?

Hoffman: I don't know if he did or didn't, but it's certainly a possibility given early reports of "eyewitness testimony" of more than one shooter. Consider a plausible scenario: Hasan is told he's going to stop a mass murder and he's sent in for that very reason and then after he kills the actual shooter or shooters he's left holding the bag.

Interviewer: You think the President may have honored one of the killers at today's (Nov. 10) memorial service for the victims? You're saying that one of those mourned as a victim was actually a perpetrator?

Hoffman: Stranger things have been known to happen. What I do know for certain, as a reporter who investigated crime cases for the Associated Press in New York, is what every cop and detective worth his salt knows, that a crime like this cannot be neatly wrapped up and tied in a ribbon a few days after it was committed. Today's presidential memorial service in Fort Hood, centering on Obama's speech, was a way of preempting questions that should be asked but are not being asked. Instead, only approved questions are getting asked.

Interviewer: Such as?

Hoffman: Such as, to what extent was this a Muslim extremist conspiracy. Those are the only kind of questions that are being allowed or encouraged.

Interviewer: If it's so obvious that there's more to it, why don't more people see what you see?

Hoffman: Mass hypnotism. As Charles Fort once said, the proper hypnotic belief has been induced and people believe properly. That's been the story of humanity from time immemorial, but Americans are too puffed up on their own pride to believe that they are susceptible to hypnotic cues. They discount their hypnotic susceptibility, which makes them ideal hypnotic subjects.

Interviewer: What's the main objective of the operation in Fort Hood, if it was actually a government set-up?

Hoffman: First and foremost is the precedent of a mouthpiece media acting as a shill for the government. It happened in the aftermath of Sept. 11 and it's happening in the aftermath of the 5th of November. People are getting conditioned to axiomatic belief in what the government decrees where violent crimes or wars are involved. They won't believe Obama on health care, abortion or gun control, but they'll believe him when it comes to Fort Hood. Even the enemies of the Obama administration are seen to believe the administration in this case. That's a very powerful precedent and it's intended to apply under a Republican or a Democratic administration. Believe and obey what they say when the guns begin to fire, and Americans by and large do, without doubting or revolting.

We are losing our humanity. We're so dumbed down, even as our digital gadgets and personal computers evolve to ever higher planes of magical realism. The alchemical component in this process, the real alchemy, is not base metals into gold, it is the gold of humanity coagulated into the basest shadow of what it means to be human; voila -- human alchemy. Mozart portrayed something along these lines in his "Magic Flute" opera, shortly before his untimely sudden death and the disappearance of his corpse.

Interviewer: Any other dimension to this that benefits the powers that be?

Hoffman: There is the stirring of the embers of hatred for Muslims and Islam, the "clash of civilizations;" the idea that we can terror-bomb Afghan wedding parties and dismiss it as "collateral damage" and still consider ourselves heroes and sleep well at night -- although many front-line American troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are not sleeping well at night, because they still have a conscience, unlike the top brass. But no Afghan is supposed to send any avenging troops against us, here in America, to defend the lives of Afghan people from our bombs. We claim that right while we deny it to them. That's Talmudic.

The test of the justice of any law is its universality. When you have one law for the agents of the American empire and another for the people of the Third World, you have a rabbinic standard. Yesterday the head of a Talmud school (yeshiva) in the occupied Palestinian territories, Rabbi Yitzhak Shapiro, published a book, The King's Torah, calling for the murder of the children and infants of gentiles who thwart "Israel."

Almost no one among the super-patriots who have methodically studied the "evils" of the religion of Islam from alpha to omega, knows anything about this rabbi's ruling, or many similar rulings from what are called, in Judaism, the "posikim." It's rabbinic theology like this that got 1400 Palestinians slaughtered last December and January. But to the superior Talmudic mind, what is done to the inferior non-Talmudic being doesn't register. Victims of Zionism and Talmudism have no right to fight back. "Christian" America has adopted this Talmudic standard. Palestinian resistance is completely illegitimate in the eyes of contemporary Western governments and media.

This applies to resistance by all Muslims anywhere, unless it involves Muslims battling against Christians like the Serbs, who the Cryptocracy also fear, as apart of a resurgent Russia and Russian Orthodox Church, which is a hereditary enemy of Judaics like the recently deceased physicist Vitaly Ginzburg, one of the architects of the Soviet atomic bomb. In the case of Serbia, the Cryptocracy played the Muslims against the Serbs and NATO terror-bombed Serbia for weeks, "in defense of Muslim civilians." Yeah, right.

I would add that in this age of instant communication and a dearth of deep reflection or contemplation, we have been given the illusion that a man can be justly tried and convicted in the media of all places, of a heinous crime, in the space of five days. We're speeding everything up to the detriment of thought and reflection -- or for that matter, serious thought at all. Fort Hood is an example of this. We've become nerve-endings tethered to Twitter, the Internet and simplistic "solutions" to what are, at the very least, mysterious and complex criminal cases with plaintiffs and defendants that deserve a fair test of evidence and a suspension of belief in the guilt of the accused. All that is lost here. Suddenly in Hasan's case, the Constitution doesn't apply. He's guilty of everything General Cone and Fox News say he did. Period. Unless they change the script and then we'll believe the new script and mentally discard the old one. This is the essence of programming.

Interviewer: What criminal cases have you investigated as a reporter?

Hoffman: The big ones have been the Double Initial murders in Rochester, New York, which is still an open case; the Son of Sam murders in New York City; and the Unabomber. Those are three that I worked on personally; others I have sleuthed long distance, but with those three I was actively involved with the investigation. All three cases are discussed in my book, Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare.

Interviewer: Are you optimistic about the future in terms of solving the conspiracies we have today?

Hoffman: Not all of them are necessarily conspiracies. But Fort Hood obviously stinks, at least that's what my instincts tell me. The way they resurrected Hasan from the dead -- he either survived when he wasn't supposed to, or they changed the script and decided he was worth more to them alive than dead, in terms of a courtroom circus and show-trial; especially if he's medicated, as I believe Ted Kaczynski was at his sentencing.

The shootings in Texas happened on what is known legally as a military reservation; that means witnesses and bystanders are constrained under loyalty and secrecy oaths by reason of their military service and by reason of where the shootings took place.

Interviewer: Any disadvantages for the System in the Fort Hood killings?

Hoffman: Muslims the world over are enraged at how Americans and Israelis treat the most defenseless civilians in their families and neighborhoods as so much crap to be flushed. When we kill their grandmothers, brothers, mothers and babies we refuse to take responsibility for our crimes. We call them collateral damage. We say the child-victims we kill were killed while being callously used as "human shields" -- which is a neocon canard refuted in Gaza by the Goldstone Report. What we've done in Iraq and Afghanistan, and what our Israeli "ally" has perpetrated in Lebanon and occupied Palestine, is the slaughter of dehumanized Arabs, some of whom are Christians, and of course many of whom are Muslim; all are less than zero in the eyes of the Cryptocracy and for that matter, large segments of the American population.

Americans are okay with this because our victims are not wealthy whites or Freemasons; they're not "Jews," so who cares? But the fact is, the Muslims care, and the awful blowback from the "clash of civilizations" which the Cryptocracy so assiduously wants to escalate into generational, perpetual war for perpetual "peace and democracy," is that it is a war we can't possibly win.

Zionists, Orthodox rabbis and occultists are ultimately self-destructive; they serve a god with no loyalty to them. They are coffin riders hurtling this planet into a conflagration, the only actual beneficiary of which is the devil. The disadvantage for the System in this case is that Major Hasan the cartoon-monster --as opposed to Major Hasan the actual man -- is now a figure of heroic avenging resistance to millions of Muslims worldwide who have been on the receiving end of the Cryptocracy's "power over the air,'" which they ritually cultivated with their parrot familiars long before they gained actual air force power over the civilizations of the Near East.

Interviewer: What are "parrot familiars"?

Hoffman: We'll save that for some other time.

And yeah, how bout that second shooting on the base?


http://militarytimes.com/news/2009/11/a ... gs_110509/

Banks said the second incident took place at a theater on the sprawling post.

Another Army official identified that site as Howze Theater.

That official, who requested anonymity to discuss an evolving incident, said a graduation had been scheduled for 2 p.m. at the theater.

Here's an account from the theater, in an article that (deliberately) confuses the two shootings, making it sounds as if it was from the "only" one:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/ ... 06412.html

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.

So that account is from the 2nd shooting, where a man was surrounded by military police, then whisked away by men in suits, in a black Crown Victoria.

Which everyone is now conveniently ignoring.

And, as yet, nobody has explained how this guy could fire so many bullets, so many shots, from a handgun. One handgun. And reloading constantly, according to eyewitnesses, without all these trained soldiers jumping him while he was reloading. It's not like he was Rambo, he was a cherubic psychiatrist, 39 years old.

This whole thing is really bothering me.