Breaking: Alleged Fort Hood lone gunman -- U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan -- is alive and in custody, said Lt. Gen. Robert Cone.
And so while the news also was that there were two suspects in custody, another still on the run, and another dead, by Thursday evening, the military said "one shooter, still alive" and the earlier report of a dead law enforcement officer is wrong too. It's a female and she is still alive too.
Updated earlier.
Remember, remember the 5th of November: Today is Guy Fawkes Day!
The dead suspect has been identified as a mental health professional, Army psychiatrist Major Malik Nadal Hasan, who had voiced objections to being deployed to the Mideast. It is not known if Hasan was Muslim.
Hasan was born in Virginia and got a bachelor's degree in biochemistry at Virginia Tech, where he was a member of the ROTC, in 1997. He received his medical degree from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine in 2001.
He completed a residency in psychiatry at Walter Reed in 2007 and a fellowship in disaster and preventive psychiatry, also at Walter Reed, this year. He also did his internship there.
Ten years after Hasan's graduation, Virginia Tech was the scene of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho, a senior English major, killed 32 people and wounded dozens of others in two attacks before killing himself.
Fort Hood, located just 60 miles north from Austin, is the largest U.S. military installation in the world, and has suffered the greatest number of casualities of all American bases in the war on Iraq.
The base is a 340 sq. mile facility located in Killeen, Texas (Bell County) and is home to the 1st Cavalry Division, which was one of the first groups of soldiers deployed to Iraq.
On October 16, 1991, George Hennard murdered 23 people and then died by suicide in Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen (known as Luby's Massacre).
Earlier///
Latest figures are that 12 are dead (including one shooter), 31 wounded, one of the dead includes a civil law enforcement officer; one shooter was said to be a "major" with an "Arab-sounding name." Two other suspects are in custody.
Earlier///Earlier///
Breaking news out of Ft. Hood, Texas, is that upwards of 9 soldiers have been killed and about 30 others were injured by one, two, or three uniformed individuals shooting at post personnel.
One uniformed suspect (an "officer") was in custody, another "cornered" suspect may have also been arrested, and rumors of a third shooter are being heard.
Other locations on or near Ft. Hood are also reporting gunfire.
President Obama addressed these events at 5 pm Eastern.
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Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli'ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow;
By God's providence he was catch'd (or by God's mercy)
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!
And what should we do with him? Burn him!
Thanks for the background of the history of Kileen.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to reading your insights on this story. As yet, of course, we know very little, and despite the official reports, one wonders if Dr Hasan is really the shooter, or simply a someone killed. He is hardly in any position to give his version of events.
The name Malik means King, in Arabic. You would be aware of the associations of 'King' names with sacrificial victims.
V.A. TechConnection:
ReplyDelete"MSNBC reports that the gunman killed at Fort Hood is a graduate of Virginia Tech University." (.Breaking News twitter feed.)
Should guns be allowed on military bases?
ReplyDeleteThe most depressing thing is that, as a foreigner, I don't find this shocking at all —yet another mad gunman shooting innocents in America; let's check the horoscope section... :-/
ReplyDeleteThis was bound to happen sooner or later and comes as no surprise to anyone with any knowledge of Islam. Expect even worse to come, including spectacular acts of sabotage against military/industrial targets. See links under
ReplyDeleteDAR AL-HARB - THE WEST AS THE DOMAIN OF WAR
HARBI - TARGETS OF WAR
INFILTRATION, SUBVERSION AND SEDITION
SABOTAGE
SUDDEN JIHAD SYNDROME
TERRORISM - MOHAMMED VICTORIOUS WITH TERROR
UMMAH - THE MUSLIM 'TRIBE' - EVERY MUSLIM'S PRIMARY LOYALTY
at The Religion of Peace™ Subject Index
Loren, here's another Guy Fawkes' link.
ReplyDeleteThe remake of "V" is currently airing.
An iconic red V is used in the ad art.
The film version of Alan Moore's V for Vendetta also uses an iconic V in it's ad art. The main character dresses as Guy Fawkes and, at the film's climax, he destroys Parliament in an act of violent rebellion against the status quo of empire.
And, of course, V is the Roman numeral signifying five as in November 5.
Trust me i have a pretty good knowledge of Islam and the muslim world, and so i'm not sure what it has to do with this.
ReplyDeleteSo the guy is muslim. Is that supposed to tell me something about Islam? that it's savage and blood-thirsty and primitive and violent??
Sorry but that's not the Islam or Muslims that i know. Extremists do not reflect the religion as a whole. The morally bankrupt Christian cruisaders who invaded Iraq and Afghanistan do not reflect christianity as a whole either.
This tragedy does not tell me anything about Islam, but it sure tells about how little it takes for people to lose all rationale.
How about the corporate terrorists who are hijacking us as we speak, have been hijcking for a long time, and will continue to do so because we are too busy the fireworks and pointing fingers elsewhere?
I had a remarkable week of twilight language synchs that revolved around Texas, Arabs, Guy Fawkes, Farrah Fawcett and the word Hood. Your post sort of put them all in perspective for me. Really amazing.
ReplyDeleteA Mess in Texas
Although I agree with a previous poster that this is NOT an indicment of ALL Islamic peoples, I DO agree that one should not ignore the fact that this guy became a "sympathizer" before he went on a rampage.
ReplyDeleteHe did a Powerpoint presentation on the "morality" of suicide bombings at an Environmental Science class he was enrolled in.
He also shouted "Allah is Great" shortly before he started shooting. Guess who shouts that before commiting an atrocity?
Ultimately this comes down to an indictment of the U.S. Army for not seeing the signs about this guy. People had raised alarms about Hassan for years yet nobody listened. He had expressed extreme views about the war and American society and had shown signs of becoming "radicalized" for everyone to see. Yet the Army dropped the ball.
Hassan was obviously a crazy guy who used the war on terror as a lynchpin to hang his frustrations on. He used it as a "crutch" to "Justify" his illogical, insane bhavior.
I oppose the war in Iraq and a lot of what passes for the "War On Terror."
But please, let's leave THAT out of this. One can be against the war and not for this. This is the case of a crazy person who fell through the cracks due to missteps on the part of the Army and people around him and that led to terroristic acts.
This man KILLED his own people. I guess he wasn't THAT concerned about "Lives lost."
So yeah, in that sense we cannot ignore the fact that let his religion get the better of him.
First, please let's all rid ourselves of the notion that mentral health professionals are any less screwed up than the rest of us. In fact, a few are in worse shape and it's why they gravitated to the field.
ReplyDeleteSecond, after watching an interview with a former neighbor of the shooter some of what she described gave hints of a sociopathic personality.
Third, America's mass murderers have come in all colors and creeds. They seem more the products of growing up in our prevailing (and I believe highly dysfunctional) culture than of their eithic or religious backgrounds.
And once again, the strongest link between a sociopatch and a mass shooting is the easy availability of guns.
Well one has to make up their mind on whether he killed his own people or killed for his own people.
ReplyDeletei"ll have to disagree that we should leave Iraq and Afghanistan out. If everyone believes what is being said about the guy in the media, then those wars have everything to do with it. Ultimately, he killed for revenge.
Personally, i find the initial conflicting reports, the timing, the location, the numbers, all slightly disturbing.
I know it's a terrible tragedy and i am not trying to diminish it, but knee-jerk reactions that spread hate and paranoia do not help.
First, please let's all rid ourselves of the notion that mentral health professionals are any less screwed up than the rest of us. In fact, a few are in worse shape and it's why they gravitated to the field.
ReplyDeleteSecond, after watching an interview with a former neighbor of the shooter some of what she described gave hints of a sociopathic personality.
VERY TRUE! Psychiatrists are well known to be as vulnerable to mental stress and mental illness. They have a high rate of suicide, as a profession. Some of them are also addicted to prescription drugs, to which they have such easy access.
You offer insightful observations about Hasan emerging from his neighbours descriptions as very odd, and possibly sociopathic.
I would add that he is unmarried. For an Arab Muslim man, of his age, to be never married raises the possibility that he has at least a personality disorder. It is highly unusual, and a pious Muslim OUGHT to be married. Normally, there would be plenty of strictly religious Muslim ladies who would want to marry a professional man on a good salary. Apparently he tried to find a wife, in the past, but it always fell through. They probably took a closer look at him, and noticed he was not right.
Look: once again, as an outsider, it's beginning to feel that someone is trying very hardto convince everybody that this indeed was a fundamentalist Islamist determined to perform a lone terrorist act.
ReplyDeleteBecause, if that's the case, then the American public should demand that the Military spend more money in psychiatry screenings of their personnel. They have people that are about to go off as a bomb right before their noses and they are the last to figure it out??
But, the paranoid little voice in my head is shouting right now that perhaps that's part of the intention: to allow a tighter surveillance of the personal lives of public servants and military personnel.