Fort Hood Shooter May Have Exhibited Signs of Radicalism

Update (November 6, 2009, 10:10AM): Someone claiming to be a contributor from salafimanhaj.com left me a comment stating that my article alleges Hasan wrote for their site. My article did not make such a claim anywhere. I have added a couple of words to my initial blog post. To clarify, commenting on a website or a document from a site does not make someone a contributor. I never used the word "contributor" in conjunction with Hasan's name even once, therefore it makes little sense to suggest I was alleging that he contributed to any website. I have not, in any place on this blog, alleged anything about salafimanhaj.com's political or religious stances and have no reason to do so.

Major Nidal Hasan, who murdered 13 of his colleagues on November 5, might have exhibited some signs of radicalism long before the attack at Fort Hood.

Earlier this year Hasan allegedly posted comments online praising suicide bombers. Scribd.com lists the source of the article on which Hasan is said to have posted comments as being from salafimanhaj.com. "If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off guard that would be considered a strategic victory," commented a user named "NidalHasan" on a document entitled "Martyrdom in Islam Versus Suicide Bombing." According to a colleague of the shooter, Hasan has expressed sympathy for the jihadist who murdered two military recruiters in June 2009.

Hasan's comments on the internet sparked the interest of federal law enforcement. However, an official investigation was not opened.

Hasan, who is 39-years-old, was never deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. Therefore arguments that he suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder make very little rational sense. The shooter is the son of Muslim parents from a town near Jerusalem. At first glance he seemed to be a level-headed individual from a good family. However, a very troubling portrait of the shooter is now emerging.

Here are some additional details from Fox News:

WASHINGTON — His name appears on radical Internet postings. A fellow officer says he fought his deployment to Iraq and argued with soldiers who supported U.S. wars. He required counseling as a medical student because of problems with patients.

There are many unknowns about Nidal Malik Hasan, the man authorities say is responsible for the worst mass killing on a U.S. military base. Most of all, his motive.

For six years before reporting for duty at Fort Hood, Texas, in July, the 39-year-old Army major worked at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center pursuing his career in psychiatry, as an intern, a resident and, last year, a fellow in disaster and preventive psychiatry. He received his medical degree from the military's Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., in 2001.

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.

Read the full Fox report here.

Also See:
- Horrific Shooting at Fort Hood
- Shootings carry echoes of 2003 grenade attack on 101st Airborne
- Fort Hood gunman reportedly shouted 'God is great' during rampage