Nidal Malik Hasan

Army official says Nidal Malik Hasan is alive!

"His death is not imminent."

Army: Fort Hood shootings suspect is alive; death toll from attack remains 12.



Wow.
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Major Malik Nadal Hasan has been identified as the murderer of 12 people at Fort Hood this afternoon.

According to an AP report, he was an Army mental health professional.

More from AP:

A soldier opened fire at a U.S. Army base in Fort Hood, Texas on Thursday, 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.

The shooting began around 1:30 p.m., Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said at a news conference. He said all the casualties took place at the base's Soldier Readiness Center, where soldiers who are about to be deployed or who are returning undergo medical screening.

"It's a terrible tragedy. It's stunning," Cone said.

A law enforcement official identified the shooting suspect as Army Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan. The official said Hasan, believed to be in his late 30s, was killed after opening fire at the base. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

The official says investigators are trying to determine if Hasan was his birth name, or if he changed his name and converted to Islam at some point in his life.

Cone said the soldier used two handguns in the attack. It was not clear if the gunman had stopped to reload.

A graduation ceremony for soldiers who finished college courses while deployed was going on in an auditorium at the Readiness Center at the time of the shooting, said Sgt. Rebekah Lampam, a Fort Hood spokeswoman.

Greg Schanepp, U.S. Rep. John Carter's regional director in Texas, was representing Carter at the graduation, said John Stone, a spokesman for Carter, whose district includes the Army post.

This is horrific.

What motivated Hasan?

Why open fire and slaughter fellow American soldiers?

We'll find out more, but it's hard not to wonder if there was some political motivation.

Was this attack something more than the sick act of a disgruntled member of the military?

There were accomplices and they are in custody.

Their names haven't been released, though clearly their identities are known.

(Note: The two suspects have been released.)

There's so much we don't know. We do know that there was a senseless slaughter at Fort Hood. It was a planned attack.

Twelve innocent people lost their lives.

My prayers are with the loved ones of those killed and wounded by Hasan.
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More on Hasan:

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Associated Press is reporting that a source has told them the shooting suspect in Thursday's attacks on the Fort Hood Army Post in Texas is Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan, an Army mental health professional.

...According to the AP, a defense official said Hasan was a mental health professional—either an Army psychologist or psychiatrist. It's not known if he was treating people at the post.

The AP said that officials are trying to determine if Hasan was his birth name, or if he converted to the Islamic faith at some point in his life. He was believed to have been in his late 30s.

FOX News reports the soldier who was the gunman in the attacks is from Virginia, but they have not confirmed his name. They also report that the shooter was not happy about the prospect of being deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.

According to Lt. Gen. Bob Cone at Fort Hood, the shooter used two handguns in the attacks at the Soldier Readiness Center on Thursday around 1:30 CDT. The gunman was then shot and killed by a civilian policeman.

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The man identified as the shooting suspect at Fort Hood was believed to be an Army mental health professional preparing to deploy to Iraq.

NBC News’ Pete Williams reported that U.S. officials identified the gunman as Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who had been promoted to major in May. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, said military officials told her that the gunman, who was 39 or 40, was about to be deployed to Iraq and was “upset about it.”

NBC News' Robert Windrem said Hasan specialized in traumatic stress. A U.S. military official said Hasan had orders to deploy to Iraq on Nov. 28.

It was not known whether he was treating people at the base. NBC News said he had been at the base for only a few months and previously worked at Walter Reed base in Washington, D.C.

...Hutchison's office told NBC News that he had been overheard making negative comments about his impending deployment.

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This is a creepy twist. Hasan was a graduate of Virginia Tech, the site of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Military officials say the suspected shooter at Fort Hood was a psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for six years before being transferred to the Texas base in July.

The officials had access to Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's military record. They said he received a poor performance evaluation while at Walter Reed.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because military records are confidential.

The Virginia-born soldier was single with no children. He was 39 years old.

He is a graduate of 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. At Walter Reed, he did his internship, residency and a fellowship.

Andy McCarthy writes on National Review's The Corner that Hasan was a Muslim convert and objected to U.S. foreign policy.

Major Nadal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old Muslim convert, was born and educated in Virginia. He is a psychiatrist who worked at Walter Reed for six years (and got a poor performance evaluation there). Hasan was transferred to Ft. Hood and worked at the psych ward there. He complained about deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Fox has interviewed someone who worked with him at Ft. Hood (Terry Lee) who says he was a harsh critic of U.S. foreign policy who said Muslims had a right to stand up and fight against the aggressor in Iraq and Afghanistan — i.e., us.

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CNN reports that Hasan is of Jordanian descent.