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chitown

Army officer opens fire at Fort Hood, killing 12 - Yahoo! News

FORT HOOD, Texas – An Army officer opened fire Thursday with two handguns at the Fort Hood military base in an attack that left 12 people dead and 31 wounded. Authorities killed the gunman and apprehended two other soldiers in what appears to be the worst mass shooting at a U.S. military base.
There was no immediate word on a motive. The shooting began around 1:30 p.m., said Lt. Gen. Bob Cone at Fort Hood. He said all the casualties took place at the base's Soldier Readiness Center, where soldiers who are about to be deployed or who are returning undergo medical screening.
"It's a terrible tragedy. It's stunning," Cone said.
A law enforcement official identified the shooting suspect as Army Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan. The official said Hasan, believed to be in his late 30s, was killed after opening fire at the base. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.
A defense official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said Hasan was a mental health professional — an Army psychologist or psychiatrist. Officials say it was not clear what Hasan's religion was, but investigators are trying to determine if Hasan was his birth name or if he may have changed his name and converted to Islam at some point.
A graduation ceremony for soldiers who finished college courses while deployed was going on nearby at the time of the shooting, said Sgt. Rebekah Lampam, a Fort Hood spokeswoman.
Greg Schanepp, U.S. Rep. John Carter's regional director in Texas, was representing Carter at the graduation, said John Stone, a spokesman for Carter, whose district includes the Army post.
Schanepp was at the ceremony when a soldier who had been shot in the back came running toward him and alerted him of the shooting, Stone said. The soldier told Schanepp not to go in the direction of the shooter, he said.
The base was locked down after the shootings. The wounded were dispersed among hospitals in central Texas, Cone said. Nine were taken to Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple. A hospital spokeswoman says all had been shot and are adults. A Fort Hood spokesman said he could not immediately confirm any identities of the injured.
Lisa Pfund of Random Lake, Wis., says her daughter, 19-year-old Amber Bahr, was shot in the stomach but was in stable condition. "We know nothing, just that she was shot in the belly," Pfund told The Associated Press. She couldn't provide more details and only spoke with emergency personnel.
"I ask that all of you keep these families and these individuals in your prayers today," Texas Gov. Rick Perry said.
The shootings on the Texas military base stirred memories of other recent mass shootings in the United States, including 13 dead at a New York immigrant center in March, 10 killed during a gunman's rampage across Alabama in March and 32 killed in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history at Virginia Tech in 2007.
Around the country, some bases stepped up security precautions, but no others were locked down.
"The bottom line for us is that we are increasing security at our gates because the threat hasn't yet been defined, and we're reminding our Marines to be vigilant in their areas of responsibility," said Capt. Rob Dolan, public affairs officer for the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, Ariz.
In Washington, President Barack Obama called the shooting "a horrific outburst of violence." He said it's a tragedy to lose a soldier overseas and even more horrifying when they come under fire at an Army base on American soil.
"We will make sure that we get answers to every single question about this horrible incident," the commander in chief said. "We are going to stay on this."
Covering 339 square miles, Fort Hood is the largest active duty armored post in the United States. Home to about 52,000 troops as of earlier this year, the sprawling base is located halfway between Austin and Waco.
About a mile from Fort Hood's east gate, Cynthia Thomas, director of Under the Hood Cafe, a coffee house and outreach center, was calling soldiers and friends on the post to make sure they're OK.
"It's chaotic," Thomas said, as a SWAT team just drove by. "The phones are jammed. Everybody is calling family members and friends. Soldiers are running around with M-16s."
Fort Hood officially opened on Sept. 18, 1942, and was named in honor of Gen. John Bell Hood. It has been continuously used for armored training and is charged with maintaining readiness for combat missions.

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kingwilly

nice, I reported this news item with a thread about an hour ago, guess the mods prefer chitown's title.

BREAKING NEWS
NBC News and msnbc.com
updated 7:04 p.m. ET Nov. 5, 2009

An Army psychiatrist opened fire Thursday at Fort Hood, Texas, killing at least 11 people and wounding 31 others before being shot to death, officials told NBC News.
NBC News’ Pete Williams reported that U.S. officials identified the gunman as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who had been promoted to major in May. A defense official told NBC News that Hasan arrived at Fort Hood in July for his first assignment after completing his psychiatry residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, followed by a fellowship in disaster and preventive psychiatry.
Hasan, who was 39 or 40, was scheduled to be deployed to Iraq on Nov. 28, officials said. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said military officials had told her that Hasan was “pretty upset” about his deployment orders.
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Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone, commanding general of the Army’s III Corps, who briefed President Barack Obama on the shootings, said the gunman used two handguns.
Maj. Nidal Malik Hassan, an Army psychiatrist, was described as ‘upset’ about his pending deployment to Iraq later this month.

Two other soldiers were taken into custody after the shooting, but Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, said they later were released.
A senior administration official told NBC News that the shootings could have been a criminal matter rather than a terrorism-related attack and that there was no intelligence to suggest a plot against Fort Hood.
Military and local hospital officials said the victims were a mixture of men and women, military and civilian. At least one of those killed was a civilian police officer, Cone said. At least four local SWAT officers were among those wounded, NBC affiliate KCEN-TV of Waco reported.
Two of the victims remained in surgery late Thursday afternoon at Metroplex Hospital in Killeen. One of them, a woman, is an emergency medical worker the base, the hospital said.
Reminders of 1991 massacre
Fort Hood, one of the largest military complexes in the world, was on lockdown, as were schools in the area. Dozens of agents of the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives responded to the post, federal officials said.
The base is surrounded by the town of Killeen, where a man shot and killed 23 people in a Luby’s restaurant in October 1991.
“Unfortunately, this is a day we had dreaded,” said Hilary Shine, a spokeswoman for the city of Killeen. “Every time you hear of a mass casualty situation in Killeen, you think of Luby’s. ...
“Here in City Hall, it’s panic,” Shine said. “We all have friends and family members who work or have business on Fort Hood.”
Muslim group condemns shootings
Noting the Arabic nature of the gunman’s name, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington interest group, condemned “this cowardly attack in the strongest terms possible and ask that the perpetrators be punished to the full extent of the law.”
”No political or religious ideology could ever justify or excuse such wanton and indiscriminate violence,” the council said in a statement. “The attack was particularly heinous in that it targeted the all-volunteer army that protects our nation. American Muslims stand with our fellow citizens in offering both prayers for the victims and sincere condolences to the families of those killed or injured.”
Speaking in Washington, Obama called the shootings a “horrific incident.”
“It’s difficult enough when we lose these great Americans in battles overseas,” Obama said at the Interior Department. “It’s horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil.”
Shootings in deployment processing center
Emergency Services officials at Fort Hood said the incident began about 1:30 p.m. CT (2:30 p.m. ET) when the gunman opened fire in the Soldiers Readiness Processing Center on the west side of the base. A spokesman for the base, Sgt. Major Jamie Posten, said the processing center was where soldiers “cycle through as they prepare to deploy.”
Retired Army Col. Greg Schannep, an aide to Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, who was on the post to attend a graduation service, told the Fort Hood Sentinel that he heard “three or four volleys of shots, with eight to 12 shots in each volley.”
“Initially, I thought it was a training exercise,” he said. But then, “a soldier came running past me and said, ‘Sir, there is someone shooting.’
“As he ran past me, I saw blood on his back,” Schannep told the base paper. “I don’t think he even knew he had been shot.”
Fort Hood is adjacent to Killeen, about 60 miles northeast of Austin. The sprawling complex is home to at least 4,929 active-duty officers and 45,414 enlisted. Civilian employees total nearly 9,000.
A spokesman for the Army, Lt. Col. Lee M. Packnett, said he was unaware whether security measures were put in place at other military bases. Other U.S. military bases told local NBC stations that said the shootings were being treated as an isolated incident and that no special security measures were being implemented in response.
‘Shocked and saddened’
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, said in a statement: “I am shocked and saddened by today’s outburst of violence at Fort Hood that has cost seven of our brave service members their lives and has gravely injured others. My heart goes out to their loved ones.”
Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign spokesperson said the governor was in Denton, scheduled to attend a campaign event, when word of the shooting occurred. There was no word on whether he had left Denton or whether he was headed to Fort Hood.

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Fort Hood has seen other violence in recent years. In September 2008, a 21-year-old 1st Cavalry Division soldier shot his lieutenant to death and then killed himself. Spc. Jody Michael Wirawan of Eagle River, Alaska, shot himself to death after shooting 1st Lt. Robert Bartlett Fletcher, 24, of Jensen Beach, Fla. to death.
This breaking news story will be updated with more details. You can also follow [at]msnbc_breaking on Twitter.
Pete Williams, Savannah Guthrie, Scott Foster, Kameko Jones and Joel Seidman of NBC News; Bill Dedman and Alex Johnson of msnbc.com; and NBC stations KCEN of Waco, Texas, and KXAS of Dallas contributed to this report.

superman

If the shooter never had his 'Sharpshooter' medal before, then it's only right they give it to him posthumously. He certainly deserves it.

Jools

The shooter has an "Arabic" name.....what a surprise.
Let's disarm the Army and these kinds of things won't happen.
In future, why not make sure all servicemen with "Arabic" names are first to be deployed, and placed right at the front. Deserving cannon fodder is so hard to find in this war.

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Dug

What kind of drivel is this?

chitown

They should not be allowed in the military. On that note, I think all of them should be rounded up and placed in internment camps awaiting deportation. They can enjoy a "better" life back in their former countries.

I keep hearing that there are peace loving Mussies and moderate Mussies, but they all go to the same Mosques.

crazy dog

A Muslim will always hold their crappy religion above any other loyalty, one reason why it is so dangerous. Belief in the koranic hate comes before country, family, friends or life itself. Islam is a mental illness.

Quote from top story in the daily Mail

'He was reacting with open glee at the death of some soldiers by a suicide bomber. I told him, "You might not agree with this but this is the army and we are here to serve the country.'
Mr Lee said Hasan repeatedly said: 'Muslims should rise up against the aggressors.

Read more: 12 killed in shooting rampage at U.S. army base | Mail Online

Muadib

Have we not learned anything...

Japanese American internment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rural Surin

Suprised? That's what soldiers do. Murder. It's written and woven into their indoctrination and conditioning.

Rural Surin

Never mind Muadib. Consider the author of the OP. Freakish, obsessive, and ill.

Jools

ENGLISH, MOTHERFUCKER......do you speak it???

sabang

According to the Daily Mail, the guy was a Muslim convert.
Early reports that there were three people involved would seem to be wrong- the other two 'suspects' were released. Maybe they just had Arab names or ethnicity.
Absolutely tragic.

crazy dog

He was a psychiatrist though, and a mad one at that. Not the first Muslim to murder his fellow soldiers in the US army. Sane soldiers normally kill the enemy and follow orders.

helge

No, they do not. Muslims are about as diverse as Christians are

Bung

MODS!

Can we merge these threads? There is already another one running

The_Ghost_Of_The_Moog

this is KingWilly, war correspondent (copy and paste unit), Basra, for News at Ten.

Rural Surin

Just to keep the balance, as good Christians have been known to go beserk as well.

crazy dog

Nonsense there are only about 50 Islamic sects whereas there are thousands of Christian ones

crazy dog

But not I think while serving in an Islamic army, bit of a difference.

Rural Surin

Sane soldier. Might this not be a term of contradiction?