Nidal Hasan

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, MD (born September 8, 1970) is a Palestinian-American military psychiatrist who is the sole suspect in the Fort Hood shooting, and is hospitalized at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. In that shooting, on November 5, 2009, a gunman shouting "Allahu Akbar!" opened fire in the Soldier Readiness Center of Fort Hood, located just outside Killeen, Texas, killing 13 people and wounding 30 others. Prior to the incident, Hassan told a local store owner that he was stressed about his imminent deployment to Afghanistan since he might then have to fight or kill fellow Muslims. He was charged with 13 counts of murder on November 12, 2009.

Early life
Hasan was born in Arlington, Virginia, to Palestinian parents who emigrated to the US from al-Bireh in the West Bank.

Hasan attended Wakefield High School for a year in Arlington, but primarily attended William Fleming High School in Roanoke.

Hasan, along with his two younger brothers, assisted his parents in operating the family's restaurant in Roanoke, Virginia.

Higher education, military service, and medical career
Hasan joined the Army immediately after high school, and served eight years as an enlisted soldier while attending college. He graduated from Virginia Tech in 1997 with a bachelor's degree in biochemistry, and went on to medical school at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences ("USUHS"). After earning his medical degree (M.D.) in 2001, Hasan completed his residency in psychiatry at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. While an intern at Walter Reed, he received counseling and extra supervision.

According to the Washington Post, Hasan made a presentation titled The Koranic World View As It Relates to Muslims in the U.S. Military during his senior year of residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The presentation, which was not well received by some of the attendees, recommended that the Department of Defense "should allow Muslims [sic] Soldiers the option of being released as "Conscientious objectors" to increase troop morale and decrease adverse events."

In 2009, he completed a fellowship in Disaster and Preventive Psychiatry at the Center for Traumatic Stress. Hasan was promoted from Captain to Major in May 2009. Before being transferred to Fort Hood in July 2009, Hasan received a poor performance evaluation.

A cousin of Hasan's claimed that Hasan had been harassed by his fellow soldiers because of his Middle Eastern ethnicity. Said the cousin, "He was dealing with some harassment from his military colleagues. I don’t think he’s ever been disenchanted with the military. It was the harassment. He hired a military attorney to try to have the issue resolved, pay back the government, to get out of the military. He was at the end of trying everything." Hasan's aunt corroborated his cousin's account, saying that Hasan sought discharge because of harassment relating to his Islamic faith. An army spokesman could not confirm the relatives' statements, and the deputy director of the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council released a statement calling the reported harassment "inconsistent" with their records.

In August 2009, according to a Killeen police report, someone vandalized Hasan's automobile with a key, for which repair was estimated at $1,000. Police charged another soldier for the incident, and a neighbor who knew both men said the soldier vandalized Hasan's vehicle because of Hasan's religion.

According to some sources, Hasan is single without any children. However, David Cook, a former neighbor, said two sons were living with Hasan around 1997, and attending local schools. Cook said, "As far as I know, he was a single father. I never saw a wife." According to military records, Hasan was unmarried.

Religious and ideological beliefs
According to one of his cousins, Hasan was a practicing Muslim who became more devout after his parents died in 1998 and 2001. His cousin did not recall him ever expressing any radical or anti-American views. His family also claimed that Hasan is a peaceful person, and a "good American". One of Hasan's cousins said Nidal Hasan turned against the wars after hearing stories of those who came back from Afghanistan and Iraq. His aunt said, however, that the family did not know he was being sent to Afghanistan. "He didn't tell us he was going to deploy," she said.

In 2001, Hasan attended the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Virginia. During this period, it is believed that Nawaf al-Hazmi and Hani Hanjour (two of the September 11 hijackers), and Ahmed Omar Abu Ali (who was convicted of providing material support to al Qaeda and conspiracy to assassinate President George W. Bush), attended the same mosque, but there is no immeditate evidence that Hasan met or conspired with them. Anwar al-Awlaki, now living in Yemen, was the imam there at the time. The imam was a spiritual adviser to the hijackers, and Hasan has been reported to have deep respect for Awlaki's teachings. Hasan sent Awlaqi approximately a dozen e-mail messages, apparently related to some research he was doing, and a counter-terrorism specialist determined the e-mails to be innocuous.

Soon after the attack, a posting on Anwar al-Awlaki's website praised Hasan for the shooting, and encouraged other Muslims serving in the military to "follow in the footsteps of men like Nidal." The Los Angeles Times reported that the posting could not be confirmed immediately to have been authored by Awlaki.

Faizul Khan, the former imam of a Silver Spring, Maryland, mosque where Hasan prayed several times a week said he was "a reserved guy with a nice personality. We discussed religious matters. He was a fairly devout Muslim." Hasan often expressed his wish to get married, and Khan said "I got the impression that he was a committed soldier."

During a psychiatry fellowship at USUHS, Air Force Lt. Col. Dr. Val Finnell, a medical school classmate, said that while other students' projects focused on topics such as water contamination, Hasan's project dealt with "whether the war on terror is a war against Islam." According to retired Colonel Terry Lee, "He said 'maybe Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor'. At first we thought he meant help the armed forces, but apparently that wasn't the case. Other times he would make comments we shouldn't be in the war in the first place."

Hasan's business card describes him as a psychiatrist specializing in behavioral health, mental health, and life skills, and contains the acronyms SoA(SWT). According to investigators, the acronym "SoA" is believed to refer to the terms "Soldier of Allah" or "Servant of Allah" and SWT to "subhanahu wa ta'ala", an Arabic phrase mentioned after saying "Allah". The cards neglected to mention his military rank.

Fort Hood shooting
In the Fort Hood shooting, on November 5, 2009, a gunman allegedly shouting "Allahu Akbar!" (English - "God is greatest") opened fire in the Soldier Readiness Center of Fort Hood, located just outside Killeen, Texas, killing 13 people and wounding 30 others. Sergeant Kimberly D. Munley encountered Hasan exiting the building in pursuit of a wounded soldier. Munley and Hasan exchanged shots; Munley was hit three times: twice through her left leg and once in her right wrist, knocking her to the ground. In the meantime, civilian police officer Sergeant Mark Todd arrived and fired at Hasan. Hasan was hit and felled by shots from Todd and Munley. Todd approached Hasan, kicked a pistol out of his hand, and placed him in handcuffs as Hasan fell unconscious. The incident lasted about 10 minutes.

Prior to the incident, Hasan told a local store owner that he was stressed about his imminent deployment to Afghanistan since he might then have to fight or kill fellow Muslims.

Hasan gave away furniture from his home on the morning of the shooting, saying he was going to be deployed on Friday. He also handed out copies of the Quran. He was to be deployed to Afghanistan, contrary to earlier reports that he was to go to Iraq, on November 28. According to Jeff Sadoski, spokesperson of U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, "Hasan was upset about his deployment".

Kamran Pasha wrote about an account from a Muslim officer at Fort Hood who says that he prayed with Hasan on the day of the Fort Hood shooting, and that Hasan "appeared relaxed and not in any way troubled or nervous". This officer believed that the shootings may have been motivated by religious radicalism.

Post-shooting
Hasan was placed under guard in Brooke Army Medical Center's intensive care unit, and his condition described as "stable". News reports on the morning of November 7, 2009, indicated that Hasan was in a coma.

On November 9, Brooke Army Medical Center spokesman Dewey Mitchell announced that Hasan had regained consciousness, and been able to talk since he was taken off the ventilator on November 7. According to the Associated Press, officials plan to charge him in a military court. While Hasan is communicative, he refuses to talk to investigators.

On November 12, 2009, Hasan was officially charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder in the military's legal system, making him eligible for the death penalty if convicted. John P. Galligan, a retired United States Army colonel, is representing Hasan.

On November 13, 2009, it was announced that Hasan was paralyzed from the waist down, and is not likely to be able to walk again.

Retrospective analyses
A military activist, Selena Coppa, said: "This man was a psychiatrist and was working with other psychiatrists every day and they failed to notice how deeply disturbed someone right in their midst was."

Hasan's alleged beliefs were apparently a cause for concern among some of his peers. According to an unnamed source, Hasan was disciplined for "proselytizing about his Muslim faith with patients and colleagues" while at USUHS; The Telegraph also reported an incident in which a lecture, expected to be of a medical nature, became a diatribe against "infidels." Air Force doctor Val Finnell, a former medical school classmate who had complained to superiors about Hasan's "anti-American rants", stated the following: "The system is not doing what it's supposed to do. He at least should have been confronted about these beliefs, told to cease and desist, and to shape up or ship out."

Prior investigations
Hasan had come to the attention of federal authorities at least six months before the attacks, because of internet postings he appeared to have made discussing suicide bombings and other threats, though authorities at the time had not definitively tied the postings to him. The postings, made in the name "NidalHasan," likened a suicide bomber to a soldier who throws himself on a grenade to save his colleagues, and sacrifices his life for a "more noble cause." No official investigation was opened.

ABC News reported that officials were aware that Hasan had attempted to contact Al Qaeda. Also according to ABC News Hasan had "more unexplained connections to people being tracked by the FBI" than just Anwar al-Awlaki.

Hasan was investigated by the FBI after intelligence agencies intercepted 10 to 20 emails over several months starting in December 2008 until early 2009 with Awlaki, who was under surveillance. Army employees were informed of the contacts, but there was no threat was perceived from the general questions about spiritual guidance regarding conflicts between Islam and military service, which were judged to be consistent with mental health research about Muslims in the armed services.

A DC-based joint terrorism task force that operates under the FBI was notified, and the information reviewed by one of its Defense Criminal Investigative Service employees. The assessment concluded there was not sufficient information for a larger investigation.

Despite two Defense Department investigators on two joint task forces having looked into Hasan's communications, higher-ups at the Department of Defense stated they were not notified before the incident of such investigations.

Reaction to statements and overseas contacts
On the November 9, 2009 Fox News Sunday show, U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman called for a probe by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which he chairs. Lieberman said, "if the reports that we're receiving of various statements he made, acts he took, are valid, he had turned to Islamist extremism ... if that is true, the murder of these 13 people was a terrorist act ... I think it's very important to let the Army and the FBI go forward with this investigation before we reach any conclusions."

The November 23, 2009 cover of both the European and U.S. editions of Time Magazine had a picture of Hasan with the title "Terrorist?" over his eyes. Terrorism scholar and Georgetown University professor Bruce Hoffman told the magazine that "I used to argue it was only terrorism if it were part of some identifiable, organized conspiracy...the nature of terrorism is changing, and Major Hasan may be an example of that". The same article also stated that "Hasan's motives were mixed enough that everyone with an agenda could find markers in the trail he left," and acknowledged the opinion that "Hasan matched the classic model of the lone, strange, crazy killer: the quiet and gentle man who formed few close human attachments."

The Christian Science Monitor raised the question of terrorism in its November 9, 2009 story "Fort Hood suspect: Portrait of a terrorist?". A Rasmussen poll has found that sixty-percent of likely American voters believe Hasan's shootings at Fort Hood should be investigated by military authorities as a terrorist act.

An analyst of terror investigations, Carl Tobias, said that the attack did not fit the profile of terrorism: "Terrorist attacks are undertaken by people who typically ... have some agenda they want to forward politically, and from what I see in the news, this is just a person acting individually because he doesn't want to deploy overseas".

On November 14, 2009 The New York Times also asked whether "Was Major Hasan a terrorist, driven by religious extremism to attack fellow soldiers he had come to see as the enemy? Was he a troubled loner, a misfit who cracked when ordered sent to a war zone whose gruesome casualties he had spent the last six years caring for? Or was he both?". The article goes on to say that "Major Hasan may be the latest example of an increasingly common type of terrorist, one who has been self-radicalized with the help of the Internet and who wreaks havoc without support from overseas networks and without having to cross a border to reach his target."