Terrorist Attack at Fort Hood? (Updated – shooter not a Baptist)

November 5, 2009 by Hyscience
Filed under Idiot Ideas, Total Nonsense

5:28 PM Update: On MSNBC just now – one shooter identified as 29 or 40 year-old Major whose name is Maliq Nadal Hasan (sp). It’s a sure bet he’s not a Baptist, and it’s looking more like it has an “ideological” basis. We’ll have a better idea when we learn the names of the two soldiers in custody.

5:41 PM update – Ace says a local radio reporter just said the major is a MUSLIM convert. But with an Arabic-sounding name it seems that the major was either born a Muslim or changed his name later when he converted (turns out he is a born Muslim and is still alive and in stable condition).

9:46 PM update: A source tells NPR’s Joseph Shapiro that Hasan was put on probation early in his postgraduate work at the Uniformed Service University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. He was disciplined for proselytizing about his Muslim faith with patients and colleagues, according to the source, who worked with him at the time. Also, it it turns out that Hasan had made at least one web positing expressing admiration for sucide bombers:

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

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

Fox News spoke with Col. Terry Lee (ret) who worked with Major Hasan at Ft. Hood. Lee says Hasan was critical of US policy and was critical about Muslims being killed by Americans and that Muslims be defending Muslims (H/t Ace – who reminds those who say Hasan has some sort of PTSD, he has never deployed to a war zone):

There is one eye-witness report of Hasan yelling in Arabic during the shooting:

James Hunt, 27, serving with the 510th Combat Engineers, was with his platoon at the base’s Soldier Readiness Center where soldiers who are about to be deployed undergo medical screening. He is scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan in January.

But because James had broken his foot several weeks ago, he was sent outside and told to get some extra paperwork that would clear him for deployment. James was waiting in the parking lot of the center when the shooting started, his father said.

“Everybody started running and shouting, and he saw the wounded come out,” Tom Hunt said. “He didn’t hear the shooting, but he said it was ‘a bloody mess.’”

Hunt said his son told him he loaded up many of the wounded and drove them to the hospital. The wounded relayed what they saw inside when the shooting happened.

“They were telling him that one guy was shouting something in Arabic while he was shooting,” Tom Hunt said. “He couldn’t say much more than that.”

Original post: Just heard on Fox that there are as many as 30 wounded, 7 confirmed dead, base and local schools are on lockdown. Not wanting to sound like an alarmist, but with 1 shooter it could be a disgruntled or disturbed soldier, 2 shooters makes it at the least a conspiracy to commit murder, but 3 or more shooters makes it, at least in my mind, a terrorist attack. The only question that remains then is the why and if the attackers are civilian or military – i.e. Islamic extremists or hard-line anti-government militia.

Via NBC: 7 dead, 20 injured in Fort Hood shooting.

At least seven people were killed and 20 wounded in a mass shooting Thursday at Fort Hood, Texas, one of the largest military complexes in the world, NBC News and affiliate KCEN reported.

Two suspects were captured and four swat officers were wounded, NBC News and KCEN, based in Waco, Texas, reported. The station had earlier said that one of the shooters had been holed up in a building on the base and had opened fire on SWAT team members. KCEN quoted a source as saying the shooter had a high-powered rifle.

KCEN reported that a policeman was among those shot. The shootings took place in two locations on the base — at the Soldiers Readiness Processing Center and Howze Theater, according to a military spokesman.

More to come, but we shouldn’t be surprised to find out that this is terrorism-related.

Update: Fox is reporting that 12 are now dead and 31 confirmed wounded.

Update: Ace has it that MSNBC is saying that the captured man is an Army major “with an Arabic sounding name“.

Update: Military spokesman confirms that the shooters were U.S, soldiers.

Pure speculation: Could they be “al-Qaeda moles”? At least one commenter on Fox posited the possibility. And just now, an FBI profiler said on MSNBC that he had never heard of multiple PTSD cases getting together for such an attack and says the profile of the attack points more to “political or religious” reasons.”

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