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A cousin of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan said that he began a stricter practice of Islam after his mother died nine years ago, observing the five daily prayers and taking other aspects of the faith more seriously after a loss that affected him deeply. "He became religious after the death of his mother. Before that he was more secular," said Mohammed Mounif Hasan. But "the idea that because he was a Muslim and there was pressure on him and because of the harassment, I don't think that is enough of an excuse," for what happened, Hasan said. "People are deeply...

"..They are Americans of every race, faith, and station. They are Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and nonbelievers. They are descendents of immigrants and immigrants themselves. They reflect the diversity that makes this America. But what they share is a patriotism like no other. What they share is a commitment to country that has been tested and proved worthy. What they share is the same unflinching courage, unblinking compassion, and uncommon camaraderie that the soldiers and civilians of Ft. Hood showed America and showed the world..." I’d like to speak with you for a few minutes today about the...

Often when there is a mass shooting, people who knew the gunman find themselves wondering what warning signs they might have missed. So it is in the case of Maj. Nidal Hasan, a 12-year veteran in the U.S. Army, a native-born American, a trained and practicing psychiatrist — and the man authorities say opened fire on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood. Those who look for a ready explanation for the murderous rampage at Fort Hood can choose between two broad narratives: Maybe it had to do with the travails of an Army psychiatrist, dealing with soldiers who had been traumatized,...

AL-BIREH, West Bank, Nov 7 (Reuters) - The grandfather of a U.S. Army psychiatrist accused of shooting dead 13 people and wounding 30 others at a base in Texas said on Saturday he found it impossible to believe his grandson had committed the act. "He is a doctor and loves the U.S." Ismail Mustafa Hamad told Reuters in an interview at his home in the Palestinian town of al-Bireh. "America made him what he is." "Whether he became angry or something else, I don't know... What I do know is that it is impossible that he would do something like...

The uncle says Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was a sensitive man haunted by the wartime disabilities of soldiers he treated. The Army psychiatrist was not political, his relatives in the West Bank say. Hamad described his nephew as a gentle soul who once, as a young adult, mourned for three months after rolling over during a nap and crushing his pet parakeet. During medical school, the uncle said, Hasan switched his major to psychiatry after fainting at the sight of blood while delivering a baby. The young man became more religious after the death of his parents, who were Muslims...

In 2008 The George Washington University Homeland Security Institute (HSPI) initiated a transition task force to help craft homeland security policies during Obama’s transition period. In May of 2009 HSPI finished its report titled, “Thinking Anew-Security Priorities for the Next Administration.” One of the members of this Obama transition project was none other than the Muslim murderer Nidal Hassan...

After Sgt. Kimberly Munley stopped the Fort Hood massacre by shooting Major Nidal Malik Hasan several times, she collapsed from her wounds and doctors who treated her were afraid she wouldn't survive. Munley, a 34-year-old former soldier who became a civilian cop on the Fort Hood base, was shot twice in both legs during Thursday's confrontation. Two powerful "cop killer" rounds allegedly fired by Hasan tore through her left thigh, exited and blasted through her right thigh as well. She was also struck in the wrist. Munley, the mother of two girls, was sped to Metroplex Hospital several miles away...

One thing not being mentioned openly about the Fort Hood massacre of 13 American soldiers and the wounding of 30 others, is whether this was a version of suicide bombing. That is, was the suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, something of a Jihadist "sleeper" intent on replicating a suicide bomber to maximize his opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? We don't know ... yet ... but it's a spectre so alarming one hardly dares contemplate its possibility. All that is acknowledged about Maj. Hasan (he was promoted last spring) is that he's a Muslim whose parents are Palestinian...

Disturbing new details surfaced yesterday about the deranged Fort Hood gunman and his methodical mass murder plot, which survivors say began with him screaming "Allahu akbar," before he fired more than 100 rounds at his fellow soldiers. The mystery of how Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, failed to draw concern from military brass before the attack -- despite trying to leave the Army for months, denouncing the war on terror and saying he was "a Muslim first and an American second" -- deepened as families prepared to bury his 13 victims. Some of the 23 people still hospitalized...

On Thursday afternoon, a radicalized Muslim US Army officer shouting, "Allahu akbar!" ("God is great!") committed the worst act of terror on American soil since 9/11. And no one wants to call it an act of terror or associate it with Islam. What cowards we are. Political correctness killed those patriotic Americans at Fort Hood as surely as the Islamist gunman did. And the media treat it like a case of nondenominational shoplifting. This was a terrorist act. When an extremist plans and executes a murderous plot against our unarmed soldiers to protest our efforts to counter Islamist fanatics, it's...

Zowie! AP says that there has been "immediate" anti-Muslim "backlash" following the mass murders by an Islamic jihadist at Fort Hood! Good gravy, what happened? Did armed bands of furious Islamophobes throw molotov cocktails at mosques? Did ferocious white supremacists maul fragile little girls in hijabs on their way to school? Did angry bigots spit at pious imams quietly going about their business? Has there been any report of any innocent, random Muslim being attacked in a "backlash" after the Fort Hood jihad? Nope. Not one. Americans are decent people. Americans believe people are innocent until proven guilty. But Ibrahim...

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was declared "not a terrorist" before the facts were out - even before officials were sure whether the attacker was alive or dead. Failing to honestly name a terrorist attack despite the evidence is as destructive and dishonest as leaping to call an attack terrorism without the facts to support that. Apparently, the claim was based largely on the fact that Maj. Hasan appears to have been a lone gunman. However, terrorism is defined not by the number of people involved, but by the motivations and intentions of the attacker. If reports about him are true,...

The Headline of the Day, from the BBC: "Shooting Raises Fears For Muslims In US Army" Really? Right now the body count stands at: Non-Muslims 13 Muslims 0 I was reading from some of this kind of coverage on the Rush Limbaugh show today. Even if you are concerned that it would be terribly unfair if all Muslims were to be tarred by Major Hasan's brush, it is, to put it at its mildest, the grossest bad taste to default every single time within minutes to the position that what's of most interest about an actual actrocity with real victims...

First, let me say that I have hated the media for some time now, but today was a new low. I was driving through Des Moines this afternoon, and heard an NPR story on the Ft Hood shooting. It started out surprisingly balanced - a little too much "one the one hand, on the other hand," but better than I expected from NPR. Something along the lines of, (paraphrasing, obviously) "this event may have happened because the shooter was stressed out from counseling PTSD soldiers, or it may be because he's a muslim." Then they played a clip of Gen...

First of all, let’s get something out in the open and into the light of day.  As Obama’s state-run media now refuses to tell the truth about virtually anything and will always protect the ’politically correct’ (that’s PC according to the Left) groups despite said groups committing extreme and extraordinarily brutal atrocities, they continue to support them.  Note:  Terrorism is the business arm of the Left.  We should all simply ignore those that try to bamboozle us with articles that say the perpetrators of the wholesale slaughter of humans, in order to perpetuate a dim and anti-life ideology, are “troubled...

“Welcome to the GREAT place,” reads the sign outside the main entrance of Fort Hood, Texas, set in rolling lawns just off US Route 190... It certainly looks like a pleasant spot to live. In fact, it is hard to believe this 340 square mile, self-contained city of 70,000 people, which resembles a vast, sleepy university campus, is actually the world’s largest military facility.*** There is a certain open-mindedness to Fort Hood as well, as evidenced by the closed-circuit television footage of Major Hasan, in Muslim dress, buying his morning coffee on Thursday about an hour before he allegedly opened...

Thirteen dead and 31 wounded would be a bad day for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, and a great victory for the Taliban. When it happens in Texas, in the heart of the biggest military base in the nation, at a processing center for soldiers either returning from or deploying to combat overseas, it is not merely a "tragedy" (as too many people called it), but a glimpse of a potentially fatal flaw at the heart of what we have called, since 9/11, the "war on terror." Brave soldiers trained to hunt down and kill America's enemy abroad were killed...

Speaking from their home in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Hasan's relatives painted a picture of a man cornered into an act of "lunacy" by the repeated discrimination of his peers and an attempt by the army to force him to serve in Afghanistan. "They discriminated against him because he was a Muslim," Mohammed Mohammed, one of Hasan's cousins, told the Daily Telegraph. "We're not trying to make excuses for him but what we were told was that he was under a lot of pressure. "What we imagine is that he could not take this bad treatment and gave...

The Fort Hood attack is the third instance this year in which American military personnel in the United States have been targeted by people reportedly opposed to U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, terrorism experts said. Investigators are seeking to determine the motivations of the Fort Hood suspect, Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, in part to understand whether his alleged actions fit in with what experts see as an emerging pattern of plots developed by U.S. citizens or residents rather than foreign attackers. Federal prosecutors in September charged two North Carolina men for allegedly conspiring to kill personnel at...

Barack Obama cautioned a stunned public on Friday against drawing quick conclusions on a shooting rampage by an officer at a Texas military base that killed 13 people. The president made the comments as the commander of Fort Hood, the US’s largest base for deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, quoted witnesses as saying the suspected gunman, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, shouted the Muslim declaration “Allahu Akbar” – God is great – as he opened fire. Speaking at the White House, Mr Obama said: “We don’t know all the answers yet, and I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we...

War On Terror: The Fort Hood terrorist is being portrayed as an "anomaly," an "aberration," a "lone wolf." Sadly, he's just one of many examples of jihadist traitors in the ranks of the military. Together they form a dangerous Fifth Column, and the Pentagon — thanks to institutionalized political correctness — is doing next to nothing to root them out . Instead, brass are actively recruiting Muslim soldiers — whose ranks have swelled to more than 15,000 — and catering to their faith by erecting mosques even at Marine headquarters in Quantico, Va. More, they're hiring Muslim chaplains endorsed by...

More video of the Fort Hood attack. I am gate to the gate on blogging on this story. But if you are looking for a timeline, Allahpundit at Hot Air has the best including Shep Smith’s exclusive interviews with two soldiers who worked with Maj. Hasan. Here is the short hand version from last night’s O’Reilly show.

May this horrible act of terrorism be the begining of the end of "political correctness". Today’s interview with Col. Ralph Peters is below the fold. The colonel has always been a voice of reason when it comes to military matters, Iraq and Afghanistan. A noted soldier, author and columnist, I asked for clarity on the Fort Hood massacre when we set this up and he certainly gives it.

Former Chief of National Intelligence Says U.S. Unprepared for Such an Attack A series of power outages affecting millions of people in Brazil in 2005 and 2007 were the result of cyber attacks, 60 MINUTES has learned. The two-day event in Espirito Santo State affecting more than three million people in 2007 and another, smaller event in three cities north of Rio de Janeiro in January 2005 were perpetrated by hackers manipulating control systems. The revelation is part of a Steve Kroft investigation into how computers and the Internet can be used as weapons to be broadcast on 60 MINUTES...

A top Republican congressional recruit said on Friday that the shooting at Ft. Hood, Texas yesterday by a solider allegedly sympathetic to suicide bombers shows that the "enemy is infiltrating our military." Allen West (R-Fla.), a retired military colonel who served as a commander at the Texas base, said in a release that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's attack may indicate a broader effort by Islamic extremists to recruit downtrodden members of the military. "This enemy preys on downtrodden soldiers and teaches them extremism will lift them up," West said in a statement. "Our soldiers are being brainwashed." The release added...

Maj Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed 13 people at a Texas military base, had become increasingly devoted to Islam following the death of his parents but was no terrorist, his cousins in the West Bank said on Friday. Speaking from their home in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Hasan's relatives painted a picture of a man cornered into an act of "lunacy" by the repeated discrimination of his peers and an attempt by the army to force him to serve in Afghanistan. "They discriminated against him because he was a Muslim," Mohammed Mohammed, one of Hasan's cousins, told the...

About three hours ago, the AP finally joined the Washington Post and some other national news organizations in reporting the “troubling portrait” of Nidal Malik Hasan, the man believed responsible for 13 deaths and dozens of wounded at the world’s largest army base.  In hearing these details, many people wonder why the Army had ordered Hasan into a war zone — and perhaps why Hasan remained in the military at all: 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...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6, 2009 – Afghan and international forces detained a group of suspected insurgents, including a Taliban leader, in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province yesterday, military officials reported. The Taliban leader is believed to be responsible for financing suicide bombings and planting roadside bombs in the area. He also is linked to Taliban leadership outside of Afghanistan, officials said. The combined force targeted a compound near the village of Spin Kalacheh, southwest of Kandahar City, after intelligence indicated militant activity there. The force searched the compound without incident and detained the five suspects, including the wanted man who identified himself as...

PAKTIKA PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Nov. 6, 2009 – Civil affairs members of the provincial reconstruction team hosted an Afghan-led agricultural training event in the Bermel district here. Afghan farmers gather around a garden while working a practical exercise during an agricultural training class in Bermel, Afghanistan, Nov. 1, 2009. Civil affairs members of the provincial reconstruction team in Afghanistan’s Paktika province hosted efforts in an Afghan-led agricultural training event. U.S. Army photo by Cpl. David Ferris  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The training offered instruction and discussion on agricultural topics for seven Bermel area farmers. “Most of the people in...

BAGHDAD, Nov. 6, 2009 – Iraqi security forces arrested five suspected terrorists today in two security operations. In northeastern Baghdad, the Iraqi soldiers, with U.S. advisors, searched two buildings looking for a Promise Day Brigade terrorist group leader who allegedly coordinates attacks against security forces in Iraq. The Iraqi soldiers questioned and then arrested three people suspected of being Promise Day Brigade associates without incident. Near Sharqat, about 50 miles northwest of Kirkuk, Iraqi police and U.S. advisors searched two buildings for a suspected al-Qaida in Iraq member who has ties to senior leaders of the terrorist group. Based on...

CONTINGENCY OPERATING SITE GARRYOWEN, Iraq, Nov. 6, 2009 – Iraqi army engineers put their training to good use Oct. 18 on a reconnaissance mission to evaluate a local bridge. Army Sgt. Ryan Loseby, an Iraqi soldier and their interpreter review measurements as Army Pfc. Garrett Childress, far left, looks on during a reconnaissance mission to evaluate a bridge near Contingency Operating Base Garryowen, Iraq, Oct. 18, 2009. U.S. Army photo by 2nd Lt. Benjamin Hann  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Engineers from the 10th Iraqi Army Field Engineer Regiment Detachment joined their trainers from Company E, 4th Battalion, 6th...

RICHMOND, Va., Nov. 6, 2009 – When he joined the Navy 15 years ago, Cmdr. Trent Kalp probably expected to serve six-month deployments to the middle of the ocean during his career. But at the time, it might have come as a surprise to learn he also would one day be packing his bags at his home in Midlothian, Va., for six months in Afghanistan. Navy Cmdr. Trent Kalp served six months as commander of Defense Logistics Agency’s support team in Afghanistan. His team worked to develop an aviation hub to provide food for U.S. forces in Regional Command South....

SILVER SPRING, Maryland (AFP) – Islam is "not responsible" for the bloodbath at an army base in Texas where Muslim-American army Major Nidal Malik Hasan allegedly gunned down 13 people, the prayer leader at the mosque where the officer regularly worshipped said Friday. "We offer our condolences and prayers to the families that have a person who died," said Imam Mohammed Abdullahi over loud-speakers that carried the weekly Muslim prayer to several hundred worshippers gathered at the mosque. "Islam is not responsible," he stressed. Many of the worshippers who had come to the mosque in this suburb of Washington knew...

Health experts say they are hardly astonished that the suspect in the worst mass murder ever at a U.S. military base is an Army psychiatrist — the very person who is supposed to be helping soldiers deal with the traumatic stress of war. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, suspected of gunning down 13 and wounding 30 at the Fort Hood Army Post in Texas, treated soldiers at the Darnall Army Medical Center there after being transferred in July from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he had worked for six years. Dr. Robin Kerner, an attending psychologist who specializes in...

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) - As if going off to war, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan cleaned out his apartment, gave leftover frozen broccoli to one neighbor and called another to thank him for his friendship—common courtesies and routines of the departing soldier. Instead, authorities say, he went on the killing spree that left 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, dead. Investigators examined Hasan's computer, his home and his garbage Friday to learn what motivated the suspect, who lay in a coma, shot four times in the frantic bloodletting that also wounded 30. Hospital officials said some of the wounded had...

A picture of Nidal Malik Hasan is emerging from the slaughter he carried out Thursday during a ceremony at a Fort Hood readiness center, leaving 13 people dead and another 30 wounded. Born in Virginia, sent to medical school by the U.S. Army, the psychiatrist was chastised for proselytizing to his patients about Islam. Asked his nationality, he didn't identify himself as an American but as a Palestinian. He appeared pleased by the shooting death of a Little Rock Army recruiter in June and reportedly was heard saying "maybe people should strap bombs on themselves and go to Times Square."...

"Overseas, you are ready for it. But here, you can't even defend yourself," said Jerry Richard, a Fort Hood solider who was nearby when Major Nidal Hasan went on his shooting rampage. What do the Pentagon bureaucrats have to say about that? If soliders on this base had been allowed to carry the weapons they use overseas, the service weapons they train with, Hasan would have been able to shoot perhaps one or two people, not 41. (As of this writing, 13 are dead, 28 wounded.) "It's a tragedy to lose soldiers overseas and even more horrifying when they come...

U.S. President Barack Obama says new figures that show the nation's unemployment rate reached double digits in October are a reminder of the challenges that remain. The 10.2 percent jobless figure is the highest since 1983. President Obama stood in the White House Rose Garden shortly after the number was announced, and said the U.S. economy has more work to do on reducing unemployment. "Although we lost fewer jobs than we did last month, our unemployment rate climbed to over 10 percent, a sobering number that underscores the economic challenges that lie ahead," said President Obama. The Labor Department says...

The first video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuiCJ2hWTl0&feature=related , is of a woman telling Pres. Obama that he should be ashamed of his shout-out. A gold star for her. The second video here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyfq5b5ZZLU&feature=related , is of some maroon responding to the first's critic of Obama.

He gave a Grand Rounds presentation. . . You take turns giving a lecture on, you know, the correct treatment of schizophrenia, the right drugs to prescribe for personality disorder, you know, that sort of thing. But instead of giving an academic paper, he gave a lecture on the Koran, and they said it didn’t seem to be just an informational lecture, but it seemed to be his own beliefs. That’s what a lot of people thought. He talked about how if you’re a nonbeliever the Koran says you should have your head cut off, you should have oil poured...

A Muslim soldier, Nidal Hasan, shot dead 12 soldiers and a civilian at Fort Hood yesterday, shouting the Muslim expression "Allahu Akbar." But in an absurd display of political correctness, media reports barely mentioned the religion angle, choosing instead to highlight the fact that the killer was an "army psychiatrist" or the false claim that he was a veteran with PTSD (which he wasn't: he never even served overseas). Oh, those violent psychiatrists! Now, we read that he had previously said that Muslims should rise up against the military, "repeatedly expressed sympathy for suicide bombers," and engaged in hate-speech against...

A Muslim veteran affairs organization says it has not received reports of harassment from Islamic soldiers, contrary to claims by a relative of the man authorities say is responsible for the worst mass killing on a U.S. military base. Abdul-Rashid Abdullah, deputy director of the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council, told FoxNews.com that the nonprofit group has not received a single report recently of a U.S. soldier being harassed "simply because he was Muslim." "That kind of report is inconsistent with what we've heard," Abdullah said prior to a press conference in Washington to denounce Thursday's shooting...

President Obama said Friday he met with FBI chief Robert Mueller and other federal agencies to discuss what may have caused Nidal Malik Hasan to turn on his comrades in Thursday's shooting rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead and 28 wounded. In the wake of the deadliest mass shooting at a U.S. base, President Obama on Friday cautioned against jumping to conclusions on the motive of the suspect. "We don't know all the answers yet and I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts," Obama said on the White House lawn.

Major Malik Nadal Hasan, who opened fire on American troops at Fort Hood, was an Army psychiatrist who decried the U.S. invasion of Muslim lands, condemned the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and voiced his support of the global jihad. But he was never taken to task for his views by his commanding officers and never reprimanded for his anti-American tirades. Hasan was a devout Muslim who was born in Virginia and attended Virginia Tech. He despised Christians and Jews and the principles of American democracy. Why was a radical jihadist serving in the U.S. Army? Why was he granted...

Thirteen dead and 31 wounded would be a bad day for the US military in Afghanistan, and a great victory for the Taliban. When it happens in Texas, in the heart of the biggest military base in the nation, at a processing center for soldiers either returning from or deploying to combat overseas, it is not merely a “tragedy” (as too many people called it) but a glimpse of a potentially fatal flaw at the heart of what we have called, since 9/11, the “war on terror”. Brave soldiers trained to hunt down and kill America’s enemy abroad were killed...

Islamists in southern Somalia have stoned a man to death for adultery but spared his pregnant girlfriend until she gives birth. Abas Hussein Abdirahman, 33, was killed in front of a crowd of some 300 people in the port town of Merka. An official from the al-Shabab group said the woman would be killed after she has had her baby. Islamist groups run much of southern Somalia, while the UN-backed government only control parts of the capital. This is the third time Islamists have stoned a person to death for adultery in the past year. Al-Shabab official Sheikh Suldan Aala...

The Fort Hood killings, perpetrated by Major Malik Nadal Hasan, a psychiatric by training, no matter what the judiciary reports will conclude is for now the largest single Terror act in America since 9/11. This quantitative finding will take into consideration dramatic change in the data released by authorities. However, the most important matter now is not to fail in our analysis of the motives. This is not an issue of sheer frustration because of foreign policy or revenge for racist slurs, nor is this an issue of simply being a Muslim American or a member of any faith. This...

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army psychiatrist, murdered twelve people and wounded twenty-one inside Fort Hood in Texas yesterday, while, according to eyewitnesses, “shouting something in Arabic while he was shooting.” Investigators are scratching their heads and expressing puzzlement about why he did it. According to NPR, “the motive behind the shootings was not immediately clear, officials said.” The Washington Post agreed: “The motive remains unclear, although some sources reported the suspect is opposed to U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq and upset about an imminent deployment.” The Huffington Post spun faster, asserting that “there is no concrete...

...The top commander at Fort Hood is crediting a civilian police officer for stopping the shooting rampage that killed 13 people at the Texas post. Lt. Gen. Bob Cone also hailed a young Army nutritionist who helped wounded victims. Both women heroically intervened despite being shot. Cone said Friday that Fort Hood police Sgt. Kimberly Munley and her partner responded within three minutes of reported gunfire Thursday afternoon. Cone said Munley shot the gunman four times despite being shot herself. Officials said Munley was in stable condition. Cone said, "It was an amazing and an aggressive performance by this police...

ISLAMABAD – The Pakistani army entered the last of three militant strongholds targeted by a major offensive in the northwest on Friday, as gunmen wounded a senior army officer and a soldier in the capital. The operation in South Waziristan, the main Taliban and al-Qaida sanctuary in Pakistan, has sparked a wave of retaliatory attacks that have killed about 300 civilians and security forces in the past month. The shooting in Islamabad was the third such attack in about two weeks. The militants hope the attacks will weaken the army's resolve as it pushes deeper into the isolated, mountainous region...