'Jihad' Eyed in Ft. Hood Slays ; Army Muslim Major Massacres 12 After Feds Probed 'Suicide Bomb' Talk

By ANDY SOLTIS; LEONARD GREENE; DAREH GREGORIAN

The Army psychiatrist who went on a shooting rampage that left 12 people dead and 31 wounded at a Texas Army base yesterday had been eyed by the feds recently for demented Internet postings about suicide bombings, officials said. Maj. Malik Nidal Hasan, who was shot at least four times during the massacre at Fort Hood, was upset about his impending deployment to Iraq, a mission he'd turned against in recent years, relatives said. Officials are investigating whether he was the author of several Internet postings that caught their eye about six months ago, discussing suicide bombings and other threats. In one posting, the author compared Islamic suicide bombers to soldiers who throw themselves on grenades to save their colleagues. "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," the Internet posting said. "Scholars have paralled (sic) this to suicide bombers whose intention, by sacrificing their lives, is to help save Muslims by killing enemy soldiers." Born in Arlington, Va., Hasan is a devout Muslim of Palestinian descent who attended Virginia Tech - scene of a 2007 campus massacre. In recent years, he expressed his opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he became angry that President Obama had not withdrawn troops from the region. "He would make comments to other individuals about how we should not be in the war in the first place," Col. Terry Lee told Fox News. He said Hasan would often make "outlandish" comments. "He said maybe Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor," Lee said. "At first, we thought he meant help the armed forces, but apparently, that wasn't the case." Hasan's cousin Nader Hasan told Fox that the shrink, a disaster and trauma specialist, wanted to be released from the Army before he was deployed overseas, and had hired a military lawyer to assist his efforts. "We are trying to make sense of all this," he said. "He wasn't even someone who enjoyed going to the firing range." But Texas US Rep. Michael McCaul told the Statesman newspaper that Hasan "took a lot of advanced training in shooting" - training he allegedly put to use when he walked in to the installation's sprawling Soldier Readiness Processing Center at around 1:30 p.m. Armed with two handguns - one a semiautomatic - he started blasting away at his fellow soldiers, many of whom were GIs undergoing last-minute medical tests and other preparation for shipping out to Afghanistan and Iraq, officials said. He was able to get off numerous rounds at once, sending soldiers scrambling for cover as their comrades fell around them, officials said. "I was confused and just shocked," said Spc. Jerry Richard, 27, who works at the center but was not on duty during the shooting. "Overseas, you are ready for it. But here, you can't even defend yourself." Quick-thinking GIs helped shuffle their injured colleagues out of the main rooms, and tore up their own uniforms to make makeshift bandages. They also secured a nearby auditorium, where a crowd of 600 had gathered for a graduation ceremony. "As horrible as this was, I'm sure it could have been much worse," base commander Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said last night. Base and military police responded within minutes, and Hasan was shot by a female officer who was wounded herself, Cone said. In the confusing aftermath of the attack, there were initial reports that Hasan had been killed. Officials said he'd been shot "at least" four times, but Cone said his death "was not imminent." He was reported in stable condition. Two other people were initially held as suspects and then released. A third was reported to be in custody, but Cone said evidence was pointing to Hasan as having acted alone. Obama decried the "horrific outburst of violence," and said his "prayers are with the wounded and the families of the fallen." It's "difficult enough to lose" soldiers in battles abroad, he said, but "it's horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil." The president promised a sweeping investigation of the worst soldier-on-soldier attack ever to take place on US soil. "We will make sure that we get answers to every single question about this horrible incident," he said. Hasan was an eight-year veteran who was transferred to Fort Hood after getting a poor review at his previous post, the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC His cousin said Hasan was taunted by his colleagues after the 9/11 attacks. While living in Virginia, he was a fixture at the Muslim Community Center in nearby Silver Spring, Md., The Washington Post reported. He was "very devout," a former imam there, Faizul Khan, told the paper. He said Hasan attended prayers every day, often in his Army fatigues. He'd also applied to a matrimonial seminar, where he had problems finding a love match. "I don't think he ever had a match, because he had too many conditions," Khan said. "We never got into details of worldly affairs or politics," he said of his talks with the officer. "But there was nothing extremist in his questions. He never showed any frustration . . . He never showed any . . . wish for vengeance on anybody." It's unclear if Hasan said anything before he opened fire at the base, the largest Army installation in the world. The shooting came fast and furious and ended when police from the nearby city of Killeen arrived. The base was locked down after the shootings, and the wounded were rushed by helicopters and ambulances to three hospitals in central Texas. At least two of the victims were described as being in very serious condition. Lisa Pfund, of Random Lake, Wis., said her daughter, 19- year-old soldier Amber Bahr, was shot in the stomach and was in stable condition. "We know nothing, just that she was shot in the belly," Pfund said. There have been other incidents of soldier-on- soldier violence since the Afghan and Iraq wars began, but none this bad. In 2005, Sgt. Hasan Akbar was convicted and sentenced to death for throwing grenades into troop tents during the early days of the Iraq invasion two years earlier. Two GIs were killed. Prosecutors said Akbar opposed US troops killing fellow Muslims in the fighting. Additional reporting by Charles Hurt and Wire Services

Originally published by ANDY SOLTIS, LEONARD GREENE and DAREH GREGORIAN.

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