Major Nadal Malik Hasan passed out Korans while dressed in traditional Muslim garb the morning of his cowardly attack on his fellow soldiers. He had been acting “strangely” for weeks according to reports.
From the Killeen Daily Herald:
In the morning, neighbors said Hasan handed Qurans and donated his furniture to anyone who would take it.
Neighbors described Hasan as a quiet man who began wearing “Arabic clothing” in recent weeks. Edward Windsor, a neighbor, never suspected Hasan was in the Army. Hasan’s rank surprised Windsor who would never have imagined an officer with a rank of major would have lived in an apartment that rents for $350 and houses soldiers ranked as private first class.
“For his rank structure, it’d be highly unlikely for him to live here,” Windsor said.
Maj. Hasan was known to make “outrageous” comments about American foreign policy including claiming that Muslims joining Al-Qaeda in Iraq were right to do so. He had made public his hopes that President Obama would surrender in Iraq and Afghanistan and pull the troops out as quickly as we pulled out of Vietnam. From The Houston Chronicle:
The psychiatrist once said “Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor†and that the U.S. shouldn’t be fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the first place, according to a Fox News interview with Col. Terry Lee, a former colleague.
[…]
Lee told Fox News Hasan “was hoping that President Obama would pull troops out. … When things weren’t going that way, he became more agitated, more frustrated with the conflicts over there … he made his views well known about how he felt about the U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.â€
And when he talked about fighting “the aggressor,†his fellow soldiers “should stand up and help the armed forces in Iraq and in Afghanistan,†Lee said.
Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, told reporters after a briefing on the shootings that Hasan was born in Virginia to parents who immigrated from Jordan.
The congressman said Hasan “took a lot of advanced training in shooting.â€
That same article points out that Maj. Hasan wouldn’t allow himself to be photographed with women and was unsuccessful in finding a wife in his Mosque because even other Muslims couldn’t meet his religious expectations.
Via Atlas Shrugs here’s video of Hasan the morning of the massacre that was run on CNN. He was wearing traditional Islamic garb:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOeXzamxSk8[/youtube]
As you can see in the video he was calm and collected the morning of the massacre, so all this psychobabble about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is just another deflection by a leftist media unwilling to unflinchingly look at the truth. You’ll also hear at around 2:56 that a week earlier he had told the owner of the store where the video was shot that he had a “religious conflict” with serving in Iraq.
It should be pointed out that high ranking doctors in the service are usually deployed in secure locations, so the theory that P.T.S.D. caused by his fear of the combat he never experienced caused his actions seems especially vapid.
He had been disciplined at one of his postings for proselytizing to patients and co-workers. From NPR:
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.
And most disturbingly of all Hasan had come to the attention of federal authorities at least six months ago for his postings on radical Muslim websites:
While an intern at Walter Reed, Hasan had some “difficulties” that required counseling and extra supervision, said Dr. Thomas Grieger, who was the training director at the time.
Grieger said privacy laws prevented him from going into details but noted that the problems had to do with Hasan’s interactions with patients. He recalled Hasan as a “mostly very quiet” person who never spoke ill of the military or his country.
“He swore an oath of loyalty to the military,” Grieger said. “I didn’t hear anything contrary to those oaths.”
But, more recently, federal agents grew suspicious.
At least six months ago, Hasan came to the attention of law enforcement officials because of Internet postings about suicide bombings and other threats, including posts that equated suicide bombers to soldiers who throw themselves on a grenade to save the lives of their comrades.
They had not determined for certain whether Hasan is the author of the posting, and a formal investigation had not been opened before the shooting, said law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the case.
[…]
A second military official said Hasan’s family has Palestinian roots. There have been reports that he was harassed for his Muslim religion, but the official says there is no indication Hasan filed a complaint within the military about that.
Also troubling, although Hasan’s family claims to be Jordanian and he was American, Hasan listed his nationality on his Palestinian on a marriage match making form at his Mosque:
On a form filled out by those seeking spouses through a program at the mosque, Hasan listed his birthplace as Arlington, Va., but his nationality as Palestinian, Khan said.
“I don’t know why he listed Palestinian,” Khan said, “He was not born in Palestine.”
He wasn’t born in Palestine because there is no such place, and there never has been. The mythical Palestine is something of a cause celebre among both anti-war activists and Jihadists. The Washington Post says his parents were born on the West Bank.
And lastly it is reported that he yelled “Allah Akbar!” while committing his murders.
But his motive for killing soldiers about to be deployed to fight radical Jihadists remains unclear.
Or should we just say unspoken?
