Archbishop of the U.S. military says Catholic soldiers should not serve on firing squad

The Associated Press

Updated Mon, October 12, 2026 at 2:04 PM EDT

FILE - Military Services Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, speaks during a press conference at a plenary assembly in Baltimore on Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File)

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who oversees the Catholic Church's pastoral services to Catholics in the U.S. military, is condemning the proposed livestream of the firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan.

Broglio, in a statement Monday, also stipulated that any Catholic soldier assigned to the U.S. Army firing squad should ask to be excused from that duty, which he described as contrary to the teachings of the church. He joins other Catholic leaders in speaking out against the death penalty and the livestream plans.

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people in 2009 at Fort Hood in Texas, is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on Dec. 3.

Broglio recalled that he presided over the funeral of Michael Grant Cahill, the only civilian killed in that attack.

The crime committed by Hasan "was heinous, but does exposing the public to his execution serve any purpose?" Broglio asked.

"The US military generally enjoys a good reputation in the world," Broglio added. "Is there really a value to throwing them in the same boat with terrorists by broadcasting the image of the execution of a man in a wheelchair to the whole world?"

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Source 

Trump Touts Pastor’s Support for Hasan Execution Livestream as Pope Objects

Trump Touts Pastor’s Support for Hasan Execution Livestream as Pope Objects


PUBLISHED

OCT 10, 2026 AT 05:27 PM EDT

UPDATED

OCT 11, 2026 AT 09:39 AM EDT

By Steve Mollman

News Editor

President Donald Trump promoted a pastor’s biblical defense of livestreaming Fort Hood mass shooter Nidal Hasan’s execution on Saturday, even as the president said he would personally decide whether the controversial broadcast goes ahead.

Trump reposted a report featuring Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Dallas and a longtime Trump ally, who argued that the public execution would demonstrate the sanctity of human life.

The post sharpened a divide among religious leaders after Pope Leo XIV reiterated the Catholic Church’s opposition to capital punishment and the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops directly condemned the proposed livestream.

It also came as opposition widened among Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans who support executing Hasan but oppose livestreaming it.

Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment on Saturday.

Source

Trump approves firing-squad execution for Fort Hood shooter WRAL WRAL

Fort Hood shooter was Iraq vet being treated for mental health issues

By Ray Sanchez and Ben Brumfield, CNN
updated 11:57 AM EDT, Thu April 3, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Lopez was in treatment for several conditions
He received treatment and medication for depression, anxiety
He was undergoing the diagnosis process for PTSD
He served in Iraq and said he sustained a traumatic brain injury

(CNN) -- [Breaking news alert, 11:53 a.m.]

Ivan Lopez passed a background check when he recently bought a .45-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun near Killeen, Texas, according to U.S. law enforcement officials. he was found to have no criminal history that would disqualify him from the purchase, and the gun store did what was required, according to law enforcement officials who reviewed the records.

[Previous story, 11:34 a.m.]

Ivan Lopez's friendly smile apparently gave no hint of a history of depression, anxiety and other psychiatric disorders.

The Iraq war veteran was being evaluated for post-traumatic stress disorder before he opened fire at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas on Wednesday. He took his own .45-caliber handgun onto the sprawling base and killed three people and wounded 16 more before taking his own life -- leaving authorities to piece together what in his background and medical treatment could have triggered a new round of bloodshed at the same Killeen base where an officer killed 13 people in 2009.

Lopez, a 34-year-old specialist, served four months in Iraq and was undergoing treatment for mental health issues.

A native of Puerto Rico, he was married with a young child and moved to the post in Killeen in February from another military installation. He moved into an apartment there with his wife and their daughter a little more than a week before the shooting.




Fort Hood shooting



Fort Hood's families

They appeared to be a normal couple, said neighbor Xanderia Morris. "They would smile whenever they'd see someone," she said.



Lt. General: Don't know shooter's motive



Fort Hood's families



Life inside Fort Hood

There aren't indications that this was a terrorist act, but officials said they won't rule anything out until the investigation is over.

Lt. Gen. Mark Milley, the post's commanding general, told reporters late Wednesday there were reports of an argument.

"Obviously, we are digging deep into his background, any criminal or psychiatric history, his experiences in combat," he said. "All of the things you would expect us to do are being done right now."

Based on publicly released details, interviews with neighbors and conversations with law enforcement and other sources, here's what is known so far about Lopez:

Combat history:

He served for four months as a truck driver in Iraq in 2011, Army Secretary John McHugh told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, without naming Lopez. His records "show no wounds, no direct involvement in combat ... or any injury that might lead us to further investigate battle-related TBI (traumatic brain injury)," McHugh said. Lopez enlisted in the Army in June 2008 as an infantry soldier, later becoming a truck driver, McHugh said.

Milley said, "He was not wounded, according to our records." However, Lopez "self-reported" suffering a traumatic brain injury while deployed, he said.

Medical history:

Lopez was undergoing a variety of treatments for conditions including depression, anxiety and sleep disturbances, McHugh said. He was prescribed drugs that included Ambien, a sleep aid. Lopez was fully examined last month by a psychiatrist.

There was no record of any sign he was likely to commit violence against himself or others, according to McHugh. "So the plan (going) forward was just to continue to monitor and treat him as deemed appropriate," he said.

He was going through the process required to diagnose post-traumatic stress disorder. "He was not diagnosed, as of today, with PTSD," Milley said. That process takes time.

Work history:

Lopez was transferred to Fort Hood from another unnamed base in February. He was assigned to the 13th Sustainment Command, which deals with the logistical responsibilities for the post. (It was one of two unit buildings where Lopez opened fire.)

Retired Army Maj. Gen. James "Spider" Marks expressed surprise at the transfer. Lopez should have remained at the other base for continuity of care, he said.

Lopez was not in the process of being transitioned out of the military, Milley said.

At one time, he was part of the National Guard in Puerto Rico, but he left the guard to join the Army, National Guard spokeswoman Ruth Diaz said Thursday.

Family history:

He was married and had a daughter, around 3 years old. Just over a week ago, the family moved into an apartment complex close to the base.

Neighbor Xanderia Morris described the Lopez family as a "typical, average family."

After the news of the shooting broke on television, the wife came out crying. "She said 'I'm just worried, I'm just worried,'" Morris said. "I tried to console her and comfort her, let her know everything was OK."

When television reports identified the shooter as Lopez, the wife was "hysterical," the neighbor said.

She was taken from the apartment by law enforcement officials, and was cooperating, an FBI source told CNN.

Gun used:

Lopez used a .45-caliber Smith & Wesson semiautomatic pistol that he recently purchased in the area, Milley said. He didn't know how much ammunition Lopez was carrying.

"If you have weapons and you're on base, it's supposed to be registered on base," Milley said. "This weapon was not registered on base."

Motive:

That's the big unknown.

"There's no indication that this incident is related to terrorism, although we are not ruling anything out and the investigation continues," Milley said.

Could it have been an argument? "There are initial reports there may have been an argument in one of the unit areas, but no indication of an argument at the WTU," Milley said. WTU is the acronym for the Warrior Transition Command, where wounded, ill and injured soldiers are taught resilience skills.

He also couldn't say whether Lopez knew his victims.

READ: 4 dead, including shooter, at Fort Hood

READ: Obama: 'We're going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened'

CNN's Evan Perez, Ed Lavandera, Pam Brown and Josh Rubin contributed to this report.



Source
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NBC Affiliate: Ft. Hood Shooter Still Drawing Paycheck, Victims Denied Benefits; When Will 'Nightly News' Cover?

By: Ken Shepherd | May 23, 2013 | 18:10

Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hassan is still drawing his military paycheck while the Defense Department has refused to deem Hassan's victims as suffering combat-related wounds, which would entitle them to Purple Hearts and additional pay and benefits to aid the cost of their rehabilitation, Scott Friedman of Dallas, Texas, NBC affiliate KXAS reported on Wednesday morning.[watch the original KXAS report below the page break]

Yesterday, native Texan and MSNBC anchor Tamron Hall aired Friedman's report on her NewsNation program in her "Gut Check" segment in which she asked her viewers to weigh in on her Facebook page, "Should the Pentagon designate the Fort Hood shooting a terrorist attack?" [For their part, 76 percent of her viewers agreed that it should.] Although this is a pretty compelling report, at time of publication, neither NBC's Nightly News nor Today programs have aired the story.

Read More

,

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Why is the Ft. Hood 'man-caused disaster' taking so long to come to trial?

ABC News

Nidal Hassan, Ft. Hood Shooting Suspect, May Plead Guilty And Describe Attack


Huffington Post ‎- by David Moye ‎- 2 days ago
FORT HOOD, Texas — More than three years after the deadly shootingrampage at Fort Hood, an Army psychiatrist may soon describe details ..

*****
'man-caused disaster'

How about the Fort Hood Shooting?

.

Obama: Shooting Should Lead To More Action 'Regardless Of The Politics'

Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan

On Nov 5, 2009, Nidal Hasan opened fire at Ft. Hood in Killeen, Texas and killed 13; he has still to be sentenced.  Talk about 'kick the can down the road'?  Nidal Hasan's trial has lingered for so long and wallowed for three years: Now they are debating whether he can sport a beard?  Nidal Hasan's defense appealed and got a new judge  appointed to preside over the Court Martial on the grounds that the killer's religious rights were violated.

Meaningful Action?

Arsenio

. 

No Dots To Connect This Time Around?

Following the Ft. Hood Massacre, 14 months ago, there was no attempt to make a connection between ISLAM and Major Hasan's shooting of 43 U.S. soldiers (13 dead and 30 injured) on an Army installation; They failed to connect the dots.
However, this past weekend in Tucson a crazed civilian gunman killed 6 and wounded 14; There was a prompt effort made by Law Enforcement, the media, politicians, and the Administration to spin the event as having been influenced by the lack of civility; The lack of unity, the inability to see things the way they do...

Discourse?

After ramrodding one restrictive legislation after another and flaunting it?

Unity?

They quickly blamed the usual vast right wing conspiracy, et al.

h

Ft. Hood Massacre

The 13 killed were:

Michael Grant Cahill[37] 62 Spokane, Washington Civilian Physician Assistant
Libardo Eduardo Caraveo[38] 52 Woodbridge, Virginia Major
Justin Michael DeCrow[39] 32 Plymouth, Indiana Staff Sergeant
John P. Gaffaney[40] 56 Serra Mesa, California Captain[41]
Frederick Greene[37] 29 Mountain City, Tennessee Specialist
Jason Dean Hunt[37] 22 Tipton, Oklahoma Specialist
Amy Sue Krueger[37] 29 Kiel, Wisconsin Staff Sergeant
Aaron Thomas Nemelka[37] 19 West Jordan, Utah Private First Class
Michael S. Pearson[42] 22 Bolingbrook, Illinois Private First Class
Russell Gilbert Seager[35] 51 Racine, Wisconsin Captain[43]
Francheska Velez ‡[44] 21 Chicago, Illinois Private First Class
Juanita L. Warman[35] 55 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Lieutenant Colonel[45]
Kham See Xiong[37] 23 Saint Paul, Minnesota Private First Class

The Fort Hood shooting was a mass shooting that took place on November 5, 2009,
at Fort Hood—the most populous US military installation in the world, located
just outside Killeen, Texas—in which a gunman killed 13 people and wounded 30
others.[2]

The sole suspect is Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army major serving as a psychiatrist. He was shot by Department of the Army Civilian Police officers,[3] and is now paralyzed from the chest down.[4] Hasan has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder under the Uniform Code of Military Justice; he may face additional charges at court-martial.[5][6]

Hasan is an American-born Muslim of Palestinian descent. Internal Army reports indicate officers within the Army were aware of Hasan's tendencies toward radical Islam since 2005. Additionally, investigations before and after the shooting discovered e-mail communications between Hasan and Yemen-based cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who quickly declared Hasan a hero, as "fighting against the U.S. army is an Islamic duty". After communications between the two were forwarded to FBI terrorism task forces in 2008, they determined that Hasan was not a threat prior to the shooting and that his questions to al-Awlaki were consistent with medical research.

In November 2009, after examining the e-mails and previous terrorism
investigations, the FBI had found no information to indicate he had any
co-conspirators or was part of a broader terrorist plot. The U.S. has since
classified Anwar al-Awlaki as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, and the
UN considers Awlaki to be associated with al-Qaeda.[7] Yet a year after the
attack, questions lingered of whether the incident was caused by mental health
issues or Hasan was a terrorist, as government agencies have still not
officially linked Major Hassan to any radical groups. [8]

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

Fort Hood Shooting Anniversary

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/45459/

Family members of Pfc. Aaron Nemelka recognize his service on the memorial stone during a memorial service recognizing victims and families of those fallen on the one year anniversary of the Ft. Hood attacks. (Ben Sklar/Getty Images)


The Fort Hood shooting anniversary is being marked at the Texas army base today. An awards presentation and Remembrance Ceremony are being held on the base where 13 people were killed last Nov. 5.

An editorial in the base newsletter honored the soldiers without mentioning their killer, a fellow soldier.

"This tragic event brought the surrounding communities and the Great Place together as one,"
Command Sgt. Maj. Archie L. Davis Jr. wrote.

"There was an outpouring of support from everywhere and everyone, and this is why we want to honor and remember our fallen heroes and celebrate their service and sacrifice Friday and Saturday as we observe the one-year anniversary of the tragic shootings at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center.”

Davis ended his editorial with a quote from doctor and author Rachel Naomi Remen: “Only other wounded people can understand what is needed, for the healing of suffering is compassion, not expertise.”

On Saturday, the remembrance will turn festive with “Rock the Hood,” races, children’s events as well as music for soldiers, veterans, and families.

.

.P

P.S.

Denial (The Nile) is not just a river in Egypt. Pirates, are the new bad guys. hah?

Would this be an appropriate time to go on vacation in rememberance of the event?

.

In Bomb Plot Probe, Spotlight Falls On Yemeni Cleric

by Dina Temple-Raston
December 30, 2009

Listen to the Story
All Things Considered
[4 min 30 sec]

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Transcript

December 30, 2009

Investigators have fanned out across the globe to piece together the life of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian student at the center of an alleged al-Qaida plot to blow up an American airliner on Christmas Day.

They know that Abdulmutallab went to an elite British boarding school in the African nation of Togo, studied engineering at the prestigious University College London, and was president of the student Islamic society there. They know he spent some time in Yemen and was enrolled at an Arabic language school in San'a from August until early December of this year.

After that, the details get fuzzier. Abdulmutallab allegedly claims he picked up the explosives used in the attack on the Northwest flight, bound from Amsterdam to Detroit, from an al-Qaida branch in Yemen. Investigators are trying to establish how he contacted them, and they are looking into his connection with a controversial U.S.-born imam, Anwar al-Awlaki, who, most recently, was linked to the November attack at Fort Hood, Texas.

Road Map For Jihadists

The FBI has been tracking Awlaki for some time. Born in New Mexico, he was an imam at several different mosques in the U.S. before he moved to Yemen. He emerged as a prominent figure last month when agents discovered that the accused shooter in the Fort Hood attack, Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, e-mailed the imam in Yemen 18 times to ask his advice. Not long after that, Hasan allegedly went on the rampage that killed 13 people.

At first blush, listening to Awlaki's sermons on the Internet, one could be forgiven for thinking there must be some mistake. The speeches don't sound all that fiery. He speaks unaccented English and is soft-spoken. In fact, his tone of voice is actually rather sweet. But his demeanor belies a violent message. His most influential lecture is called "Constants on the Path to Jihad," or "44 Ways to Jihad," and it has become a road map for lone wolf jihadists.

"Wherever you see the word terrorist, replace it with the word jihad," he says in one of his Internet sermons. "Wherever you see the word terrorism, replace it with the word jihad."

What Awlaki is intonating is that attacks and killings that the rest of the world considers terrorism, he sees as perfectly legitimate.

Typically, in his Internet sermons, Awlaki reads from the Quran in Arabic, and because many of his followers don't speak Arabic, he interprets passages for them. The favored passages tend to be about fighting.

"When the forbidden months are passed, then fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them," he says in one. "Seize them, beleaguer them and lie and wait for them in every stratagem of war."

Targeting Young Men

Sam Rascoff, formerly in charge of terrorism intelligence analysis at the New York Police Department, says Awlaki "has an unusual ability to interlace an appealing, familiar American preacher style with a fairly vitriolic message.

"And Awlaki is targeting young men searching for guidance."

Young men like bombing suspect Abdulmutallab.

"To listen to Awlaki is to feel like one is in the company of someone who understands you, understands your social predicament and literally and figuratively speaks your language," Rascoff says.

Law enforcement officials won't say definitively and on the record that the two men met, but they will say privately that the two were in contact.

NPR has learned that just before Abdulmutallab cut off all ties to his family in Nigeria, he apparently asked his father if he could go to Yemen to study Shariah (law). His father said no. Officials say Awlaki runs study sessions in Yemen that focus on Shariah. The question is whether Abdulmutallab decided to go to Yemen in August to see Awlaki.

Investigators are looking for clues in Nigeria, London and Yemen. They are also poring through hundreds of Internet postings that they believe were written by Abdulmutallab over the past four years. The postings are from a young man who had the username Farouk1986. That matches Abdulmutallab's middle name and birth year. And investigators say that some of the timing and details in the writings track Abdulmutallab's movements at the time.

The Internet postings begin in 2005 and are clearly written by a lonely young man. One post in 2005 read: "I am in a situation where I do not have a friend, I have no one to speak to ... I do not know what to do." That would have been about the time Abdulmutallab was alone at boarding school in Togo. Investigators say Abdulmutallab was young, didn't speak Arabic very well and was looking for religious guidance on the Internet. In other words, he was Awlaki's target audience.

Linked To Other Plots

"His facility with English has given him the kind of link that he's become the favored source" for English-speaking would-be jihadists, says Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University. Partly because of that, Awlaki's list of followers reads like a who's who in the jihadist world.

He is linked to two of the Sept. 11 hijackers; a group of Canadian Muslims who were charged with plotting attacks on the Parliament building in Ottawa; the six men convicted of planning an attack on Fort Dix, N.J.; and the London subway bombers, just to name a few. Hoffman says it is still unclear whether Awlaki was "doing this on his own or following the direction or guidance of others."

The sense among intelligence officials has been that Awlaki talks a big game and is not as closely affiliated to al-Qaida as he would like his followers to believe. That said, he is thought to be part of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the same group that claimed responsibility for the failed Christmas Day attack.

In Web postings, the group claimed to have trained Abdulmutallab and provided him with the explosives he carried onto the plane. Abdulmutallab allegedly told police that when he was arrested.

Awlaki moved to Yemen in 2002, and from his post there, he has sent out laudatory messages on his Facebook and YouTube sites after attacks. He called the alleged Fort Hood shooter a "hero." After the Somali Islamist militia group al-Shabab launched suicide attacks against the United Nations in Somalia, Awlaki also put out a congratulatory e-mail to the group.

Now investigators are trying to determine just how closely Awlaki is tied to this latest incident. They are trying to figure out if Abdulmutallab went to Yemen specifically to visit the cleric — and whether Awlaki played any role in introducing him to the people who may have provided the explosives for Northwest Flight 253.

..

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122062942

P.S.

NPR's experts on geopolitical issues (Go to guys) are frequently from Georgetown University.

I wonder why?.

..

Obama asks Congress to wait on Fort Hood

Let investigators wrap up, he urges as some lawmakers seek hearings

Video

'Obama: Avoid 'political theater'

Nov. 14: In his weekly address, President Obama urges lawmakers to "resist the temptation" to turn the Fort Hood tragedy "into political theater."
NBC News Channel

updated 11:29 a.m. ET, Sat., Nov . 14, 2009

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Saturday urged Congress to hold off on any investigation of the Fort Hood rampage until federal law enforcement and military authorities have completed their probes into the shootings at the Texas Army post, which left 13 people dead.

On an eight-day Asia trip, Obama turned his attention home and pleaded for lawmakers to "resist the temptation to turn this tragic event into the political theater." He said those who died on the nation's largest Army post deserve justice, not political stagecraft.

"The stakes are far too high," Obama said in a video and Internet address released by the White House while the president he was flying from Tokyo to Singapore, where Pacific Rim countries were meeting.

Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, was charged on Thursday with the shooting spree at Fort Hood last week. Army investigators have said Hasan is the only suspect and could face additional charges.

Obama already had ordered a review of all intelligence related to Hasan and whether the information was properly shared and acted upon within government agencies. Several members of Congress, particularly Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, have also called for a full examination of what agencies knew about Hasan's contacts with a radical Muslim cleric in Yemen and others of concern to the U.S.

Hoekstra confirmed this week that government officials knew of about 10 to 20 e-mails between Hasan and the radical imam, beginning in December 2008.

A joint terrorism task force overseen by the FBI learned late last year of Hasan's repeated contact with the cleric, who encouraged Muslims to kill U.S. troops in Iraq. The FBI said the task force did not refer early information about Hasan to superiors because it concluded he wasn't linked to terrorism.

Lawmakers, however, already have announced they want their own investigations and were frustrated with what they view as a less-than-forthcoming administration.

Rep. Howard McKeon, R-Calif., said he wanted to go ahead with an investigation from the House Armed Services Committee, where he is the top Republican. He said he wanted an investigation that wouldn't compromise law enforcement or military investigations that were continuing on separate tracks.

In the Senate, Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, said his Homeland Security Committee was opening an investigation.

Obama said he was not opposed to hearings — eventually. But he strongly pressed lawmakers to hold off until the probes now under way are completed.

"There is an ongoing investigation into this terrible tragedy," Obama said. "That investigation will look at the motives of the alleged gunman, including his views and contacts."

"We must compile every piece of information that was known about the gunman, and we must learn what was done with that information. Once we have those facts, we must act upon them."

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33931367/ns/politics-white_house/

Political correctness holds reality hostage

Letter to the Editor
Saturday, November 14, 2009

Facts: One man stands accused of murdering 13 people and wounding 30 others. He is a U.S. Army officer and a Muslim. Tragic for the families -- but still murder.

After 9-11, did American Muslim leaders speak out against this destruction and murder of thousands by Muslims? Mostly silence.

The twisted rope of political correctness is unraveling when truth and facts enter into events and can no longer be ignored. In past wars with other nations, American Japanese and Germans fought gallantly alongside their compatriots -- for America.

Muslims are an exception. All facets and layers of the U.S. government have accommodated political correctness in eliminating "Islam" and "Muslim" from terrorist connections. Yet we all know they are Muslims.

Politically correct blindness may be involved in this case if the Army would send a Muslim Army officer, who resisted such assignment, to fight in a Muslim country. Should we be surprised by this Muslim's actions?

Fact: Some in the American Muslim community practice their own religious law -- Sharia -- which is not according to U.S. law. Two cases in point -- two Muslim families, two daughters. The fathers of both seek death for their daughters because they have besmirched the family honor by becoming "too Westernized." One father, in Peoria, Ariz., is accused of killing his daughter in a vehicular homicide. The other daughter, Rifqa Bary of Ohio, has so far avoided returning to her family and to her death. In America!

This is not the America we once thought of as a melting pot. We are now a multicultural and pluralistic society where the U.S. law and Constitution have been declared null and void. Islam's Sharia law may be America's future legal system.

I can't help but think that a time is coming when a letter stating facts will be considered hate speech and a crime. In America!

Bonnie Alba

Aiken, S.C.


From the Saturday, November 14, 2009 edition of the Augusta Chronicle

Source: http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2009/11/14/let_555705.shtml

U.S. knew of Fort Hood shooting suspect's ties to extremist

11:59 PM CST on Monday, November 9, 2009

By BROOKS EGERTON and JIM LANDERS / The Dallas Morning News

Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan sent repeated e-mails over the last year to a Muslim cleric known for extremist views, but federal terrorism investigators deemed the contact harmless and took no action.

The cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, praised the Fort Hood massacre suspect on Monday as "a hero."

"He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people," al-Awlaki's blog said.

Hasan, who is recovering from gunshot wounds in a San Antonio military hospital, is believed to have met al-Awlaki as early as 2001, when the cleric led a large northern Virginia mosque where Hasan sometimes worshipped. At the time, the U.S.-born imam styled himself as a moderate who condemned the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said U.S. intelligence agencies intercepted between 10 and 20 e-mails from Hasan to al-Awlaki beginning in late 2008. He said al-Awlaki – living in Yemen since 2002 – responded to Hasan at least twice.

The responses seemed "innocent," Hoekstra told The Washington Post. But "for me, the number of times that this guy tried to reach out to the imam was significant."

Hoekstra wrote FBI Director Robert Mueller and high-ranking government officials over the weekend to complain that "serious issues exist with respect to the performance of U.S. intelligence agencies in connection with what appears to have been a terrorism-related attack at Fort Hood."

The FBI acknowledged late Monday that Hasan came to the attention of one of its Joint Terrorism Task Forces in December as it pursued an unrelated investigation.

Agents who reviewed communications between Hasan and the unidentified subject of that investigation decided that they were "consistent with research being conducted by Maj. Hasan in his position as a psychiatrist" at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., an FBI statement said.

"Because the content of the communications was explainable by his research and nothing else derogatory was found, the JTTF concluded that Major Hasan was not involved in terrorist activities or terrorist planning," the FBI said. "Other communications of which the FBI was aware were similar to the ones reviewed by the JTTF."

An Internet posting in May, by someone using the name Nidal Hasan, seemed to equate a suicide bomber with a U.S. soldier who throws himself on a grenade to save comrades. The FBI would not elaborate on what it meant by "other communications."

"To say that this soldier committed suicide is inappropriate," the posting said. "It's more appropriate to say he is a brave hero that sacrificed his life for a more noble cause."

Under federal law, Hasan's purchase of the handgun used in last week's attack triggered a criminal background check. But counterterrorism officials were not alerted to the purchase – made in August, shortly after Hasan moved to Texas – because federal law bars such information-sharing, investigators said.

A motive has yet to be determined for the Fort Hood shootings, which left 13 people dead and 29 wounded. But the FBI said, "The investigation to date indicates that the alleged gunman acted alone and was not part of a broader terrorist plot."

The FBI director ordered a review of whether investigators overlooked signs that Hasan, 39, might be a threat. Members of Congress were briefed on the investigation late Monday.


Praising al-Qaeda

Al-Awlaki, who is in his late 30s, was born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents. He served at mosques in Denver and San Diego before going to Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Va., one of the nation's largest, where the Virginia-born Hasan sometimes worshipped.

Al-Awlaki – whose name is sometimes spelled al-Aulaqi in English – told The New York Times shortly after the 9/11 attacks that Muslim leaders in the U.S. had sometimes gone too far with their rhetoric.

"In the past we were oblivious," he was quoted as saying. "We didn't really care much because we never expected things to happen. Now I think things are different.

"There were some statements that were inflammatory, and were considered just talk, but now we realize that talk can be taken seriously and acted upon in a violent, radical way."

In spring 2002, al-Awlaki moved to his parents' Middle Eastern homeland, where he began praising al-Qaeda online.

He also blamed Israelis for the U.S. terror attacks and accused the FBI of fabricating evidence to implicate Muslims.


Detained, released

U.S. authorities ultimately concluded that three of the 9/11 hijackers had spent time at al-Awlaki's mosques. Yemeni authorities detained al-Awlaki in mid-2006 at the request of the U.S. government but released him in late 2007.

At the Falls Church mosque Monday, a spokesman condemned the Fort Hood massacre and al-Awlaki's blog comments.

"Mr. al-Awlaki has clearly set himself apart from this community," said Johari Abdul-Malik, who is an imam and outreach director.

He said al-Awlaki left the mosque because he felt the role of an American imam after 9/11 included too many extra duties, including dealing with the media. Al-Awlaki wanted to focus on teaching, Abdul-Malik said.

"To go from that individual we knew to one who is projecting these words from Yemen is a shock," Abdul-Malik said. "I don't think we read him wrong. I think something happened."

He said that to his staff's knowledge, Hasan worshipped at Dar Al-Hijrah only occasionally, when visiting relatives nearby, and was not close with al-Awlaki. After Hasan's mother died in 2001, Abdul-Malik said, the military psychiatrist "seemed more withdrawn, quiet, and to some staff members, disoriented."


Investigation begins

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman suggested that the attack on Fort Hood was part of a pattern of anti-military activity in the U.S.

Three men in North Carolina were accused in a September indictment of targeting the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Va. Five New Jersey men were convicted in December of conspiring to attack the Army's Fort Dix, in New Jersey. And in June, a recent Muslim convert was suspected of firing on two Army recruiters at a Little Rock, Ark., shopping mall, killing one and wounding the other.

Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, pointed to a bipartisan report the committee issued last year on the "homegrown terrorist threat."

It concluded, he noted, that "no longer is the threat just from abroad, as was the case with the attacks of September 11, 2001; the threat is now increasingly from within, from homegrown terrorists who are inspired by violent Islamist ideology to plan and execute attacks where they live."

The Fort Hood rampage "appears to be a further example of that threat," Lieberman said in a news release.

He said his committee would hold a public hearing next week to begin investigating Hasan's motives, "whether the government missed warning signs that should have led to expulsion, and what lessons we can learn to prevent such future attacks.

"As this investigation continues, we would do no favor to the thousands of Muslim Americans who are serving our military with honor and the millions of patriotic and law-abiding Muslim Americans by ignoring real evidence that an individual Muslim American soldier may have become a violent Islamist extremist."

Staff writers Tom Benning, Todd J. Gillman and Dave Michaels contributed to this report.

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Source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/111009dnproshooter.407f86b.html

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Fort Hood triggerman aided team on Homeland Security task force

Posted: November 06, 20099:21 am Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi© 2009 WorldNetDaily

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan

NEW YORK – Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged shooter in yesterday's massacre at Fort Hood, played a homeland security advisory role in President Barack Obama's transition into the White House, according to a key university policy institute document.

The Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University
published a document May 19, entitled "Thinking Anew – Security Priorities for the Next Administration: Proceedings Report of the HSPI Presidential Transition Task Force, April 2008 – January 2009," in which Hasan of the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine is listed on page 29 of the document as a Task Force Event Participant.

Hasan received his medical degree from the military's Uniformed Services University School in Bethesda, Md., in 2001.

Noting that the Obama administration transition was proceeding, the GWU Homeland Security Policy Institute report described on the first page the role of the Presidential Transition Task Force as including "representatives from past Administrations, State government, Fortune 500 companies, academia, research institutions and non-governmental organizations with global reach."

While the GWU task force participants included several members of government, including representatives of the Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, there is no indication in the document that the group played any formal role in the official Obama transition, other than to serve in a university-based advisory capacity.

Daniel Kaniewski, deputy director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University, affirmed to WND in a telephone interview this morning that the Nidal Hasan listed as attending the meetings of the HSPI Presidential Transition Task Force was the same person as the alleged shooter in the Fort Hood massacre.

Video of Hasan at the event, carried originally by C-SPAN and reported by MSNBC, can be seen below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwHe-o9lPco&feature=player_embeddedhttp://

Kaniewski said Hasan attended the meetings in his capacity as a member of the faculty of the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine, not as a member of the HSPI Presidential Task Force.

Kaniewski believed Hasan applied on the institute's website to attend the meeting and was accepted because of his professional credentials.

Kaniewski could not tell WND whether or not Hasan made comments from the audience that influenced the task force recommendations or not.

He further confirmed Hasan had attended several meetings held by the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University and that the institute is currently searching conference records to see if it is possible to determine what additional institute conferences he attended.

According to the "About Us" section of the GWU Homeland Security Policy Institute, the group is a "nonpartisan 'think and do' tank whose mission is to build bridges between theory and practice to advance homeland security through an interdisciplinary approach."

The Homeland Security Policy Institute is led by Frank J. Cilluffo, who formerly served in the White House as special assistant to President Bush for homeland security, and by Kaniewski, who formerly served in the White House as special assistant to President Bush for homeland security and senior director for response policy.

"Muslims should stand up and fight the aggressor," Hasan said about America before he and possibly other Muslim soldiers at Fort Hood shot 43 fellow soldiers, killing 13.

"He said Muslims had a right to attack" the U.S., said Col. Terry Lee, who worked with Hasan at the Texas post, where the devout Sunni Muslim refused deployment. "He said Muslims shouldn't be fighting Muslims," he added. "He was very clear on that."

According to an explosive new book, "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America," Hasan is just the tip of a jihadist Fifth Column operating within the ranks of the U.S. military – which is too blinded by political correctness to see the threat.

Quoting from a classified military briefing, "Muslim Mafia" reveals that this Fifth Column has penetrated "every branch of the U.S. military." The Islamist enemy has even infiltrated the al-Qaida detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Shortly after this story was posted, the Huffington Post ran a piece claiming WND was attempting to "smear" President Obama by naming him "as the man who guided Nidal Malik Hasan to his murderous rampage at Ft. Hood yesterday."

However, Hasan is being reported as a participant in the GWU Homeland Security Policy Institute's Presidential Transition Task Force, not as a member, noting the group was a university think-tank, not part of the Obama administration official transition team.

Further, the institute's deputy director is quoted saying he is unable to say if Hasan made any input to the group's final recommendations.

Other participants in the task force included many members of congressional staff who work with both the House and Senate homeland security committees, as well as staff from the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice.

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Source: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=115230

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Nidal Hasan: Ft. Hood Shooter Participated in Homeland Security Disaster Preparation

Nidal Hasan: Ft. Hood Shooter Participated in Homeland Security Disaster Preparation
The gunman who killed 12 people today at Ft. Hood appears, based on current media reports, to be Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan who was listed as a participant in a Homeland Security Policy Institute's presidential transition task force last year

read more:http://gawker.com/5398253/nidal-hasan-ft-hood-shooter-participated-in-homeland-security-disaster-preparation

Rampage kills 13, wounds 30

SHOOTINGS AT FORT HOOD
Rampage kills 13, wounds 30
SUSPECT IS ARMY PSYCHIATRIST WHO WORKED AT WALTER REED

'Horrific outburst of violence'
An Army psychiatrist allegedly opened fire Thursday in a crowded medical building at Fort Hood, Tex., killing at least 13 people and wounding dozens more.
» LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY

By Peter Slevin and Debbi Wilgoren

ashington Post Staff Writer Friday, November 6, 2009; 10:04 AM

The Arlington-born Army psychiatrist suspected of killing 13 people and wounding 30 0thers in a shooting rampage on a military base remains hospitalized and on a ventilator, officials said Friday morning.

This Story
Alleged Fort Hood shooter on surveillance camera
SHOOTINGS AT FORT HOOD: Rampage kills 13, wounds 30
Suspect, devout Muslim from Va., wanted Army discharge, aunt said
Fort Hood has felt the strain of repeated deployments
Suspect in Fort Hood shootings attended mosque in Silver Spring
Maj. Nidal M. Hasan
Fort Hood Shootings Twitter Aggregator
'Horrific outburst of violence'
A snapshot
Mass shootings in the past decade
Raw video: first images inside Fort Hood
President Obama addresses the Ft. Hood shootings
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Senator calls Ft. Hood shootings 'unthinkable'
Muslim group asks for 'common sense' in shooting
Washington mourns Fort Hood victims
Browser: Texas attack reverberates in D.C.
View All Items in This Story
View Only Top Items in This Story

Col. John Rossi declined at a news conference to speculate on possible motives for the attack inside a crowded medical building at Fort Hood, Tex., believed to be the largest mass shooting ever to occur on a U.S. military base.

As of 7:30 a.m. Friday, 28 people remain hospitalized, all in stable condition, Army officials said. About half had undergone surgery.

Nidal M. Hasan, 39, a major who had made a career in the military and was trained to treat soldiers under stress, allegedly fired a pair of pistols, one of them semiautomatic, in the soldier readiness facility, authorities said. All around him, soldiers who had been waiting to see doctors scattered or dropped to the floor. Hasan and a civilian policewoman exchanged fire, authorities said. Both were hit. Officials said they have not been able to interrogate Hasan -- a devout Muslim born to Palestinian immigrants and raised in the Arlington and Roanoke areas of Virginia -- because of his medical condition. They have not spoken to his relatives either, Rossi said.
Rossi said the rampage and response lasted about 30 minutes. The soldiers in the building were performing routine administrative tasks and were not armed, he said. Only police officers and the response team had weapons they could use to stop the shooter.

He said an investigation will determine how the shooter brought guns onto the base, where, like at all U.S. military installations, firearms are kept secured unless they are needed for training or security work. Soldiers, like civilians, are allowed to maintain privately owned weapons in accordance with local gun laws, Rossi said. But they must register those weapons on post. He said investigators are still clarifying the origin of the guns used in the shooting.

"Random checks" are performed on vehicles entering the Fort Hood, to check for weapons or other contraband, Rossi said. But, he acknowledged, it is possible that the shooter "could have just brought it onto the base."

Rossi said officials do not believe there were any additional people involved in planning or carrying out the rampage.

The attack erupted shortly after lunchtime on the sprawling complex northeast of Austin that has absorbed more than 500 fatalities in Iraq and Afghanistan, more than any other base. When the gunfire stopped, soldiers schooled in battlefield medicine ripped their clothes to make tourniquets and bandages.

Someone hustled to seal off an auditorium in the same building where 138 troops were marking their graduation from college. Sirens typically used to warn of tornados sweeping across the plains alerted residents, schools locked down and the Fort Hood community struggled to comprehend what had just happened.

In the aftermath, a string of unanswered questions remained about the accused shooter's motives, his background and whether the military had evidence that might have shown he posed a risk to his colleagues.

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12 Dead in Fort Hood Shooting Spree

12 Dead in Fort Hood Shooting SpreeAOL News
posted: 3 MINUTES AGO

(Nov. 5) -- A soldier opened fire Thursday at Fort Hood in Texas in a rampage that left 12 people dead, including the gunman, and more than 30 others injured, military officials said.

The gunman was killed and two other suspects were in custody, Army Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said.

He said all three were soldiers.

"We've had a terrible tragedy here at Fort Hood today," Cone told reporters.

Military officials said they did not know the motive for shooting spree.

In Washington, President Barack Obama called the rampage "a horrific outburst of violence."

The shooting occurred at 1:30 p.m. local time at the Soldier Readiness Center, where deploying soldiers are processed.

"There were two weapons that the primary shooter had and both were handguns," Cone said.

Local police shot the suspect dead. A civilian Fort Hood police officer was among those who died.

Earlier reports said another shooting incident may have occurred at the Howze Theater on the base where a graduation ceremony was taking place. It was not immediately clear whether the other two suspects were believed to have taken part in shootings or to suspected of having some other kind of involvement in a conspiracy.

The number of wounded totaled 31. They were being taken to three area hospital, including Darnall Army Medical Center and Scott & White Memorial Hospital.

The base, located halfway between Austin and Waco, was placed on lockdown. That includes nine schools located there. Fort Hood is home to 33,000 people. It is the largest military base in the country.

2009 AOL LLC. All Rights Reserved.

2009-11-05 15:26:26

Source: http://news.aol.com/article/soldiers-open-fire-at-fort-hood-in/755134