(Informative!) Soldier suspected of deadly grenade attack had California ties

RENO ^ | 3/23/2003 11:30 pm | Associated Press

[dennisw]

The soldier being held in a deadly grenade attack on a 101st Airborne Division command center in Kuwait spent much of his youth in California and was described by family and friends Sunday as a brilliant student and mild-mannered practicing Muslim.

[boxerblues]

this piece of garbage, was in my sons unit but not his camp. Not only do they have to worry about the known enemy but someone who has trained with them and sleeps in there tent. I have one word for you....piss off

[Tijeras_Slim]

This guy is practically sprouting red-flags out his ears. Shame he made it through the recruiting process.

[Crowcreek]

I wish they'd save it for the eulogy.

[sd-joe]

"Akbar, who spelled his name Hasan but was identified by the military as Asan"

I spell it a-h*le.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Someone in the Army ought to have their head examined. Any recruit who changes his name from Cool to Akbar needs to be watched very carefully.

[dennisw]

 

http://www.wbir.com/News/news.asp?ID=11794

 

MOTHER DOESN'T BELIEVE SOLDIER WOULD TURN ON HIS PEERS

The mother of a soldier being held for an attack on his own commanders in Kuwait told The Tennessean newspaper she doesn't believe he'd kill anyone.

Sergeant Asa Akbar hasn't been charged yet, but Army authorities have identified him as the suspect in grenade attacks on the 101st Airborne Division.

Captain Christopher Seifert of Easton, Pennsylvania was killed and at least 15 injured after grenades were thrown into three tents.

Quran Bilal of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, told the newspaper in a story published today on its Web site that Akbar had expressed concern about being a Muslim in the Army. And she fears that he is being accused now because of his faith.

Akbar was born Mark Kools, but his mother changed his name when he was a boy after she remarried. He apparently has used both names in the Army.

 

 

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http://www.suntimes.com/output/iraq/cst-nws-101st24.html  (EXCERPT ONLY!!!)

 

Mom defends GI son suspected in Kuwait attack
March 24, 2003

BY IAN DEMSKY AND LEON ALLIGOOD

Quran Bilal (yep, that's his mama's name) said Sunday that no one in the military had informed her of the accusations against her son. In a phone interview from her home in Baton Rouge, La., she said she thinks her son has been accused simply because he is a Muslim.

Akbar was born Mark Fidel Kools. His mother changed his name to Hasan Akbar after she remarried, when he was a boy. Akbar began using his original name when he entered the Army. His mother said Akbar was not accepted into the Army with his Muslim name because he could not produce a birth certificate.

Public records showed listings for Akbar under the name Kools as well.

Bilal said she was very proud of her son and couldn't understand how the reports could possibly pertain to him. ''He wouldn't try to take nobody's life," she said.

He expressed his concerns about being a Muslim in the Army to his mother in the past.

''He said, 'Mama, when I get over there, I have the feeling they are going to arrest me just because of the name that I have carried.'"

Akbar did not participate in the first Persian Gulf War because his religion created a ''conflict of interest,'' she said.

Abdul Karim Hasan, the imam at the Bilal Islamic Center in Los Angeles that Akbar and his family used to attend, described Akbar as a ''quiet, mild-type person."

The imam said he had known Akbar from his youth through his college days.

''I would have to see him do that in order to believe it,'' Abdul Karim Hasan said of the man he hadn't seen in about a decade. ''I don't see it in his character. A guy's character follows him throughout his life. I don't see how he could change that drastically.

 

 

[dennisw]

Some accounts say his mother went Muslim and changed his name to Assan Akbar.

[MacDorcha]

how ironic... seeing as he joined the military and all. shows how well he let his (woman) mother know him, and how ignorant the islamic fundamentalists want women.

[Darnright]

"Quran Bilal (yep, that's his mama's name) said Sunday that no one in the military had informed her of the accusations against her son. In a phone interview from her home in Baton Rouge, La., she said she thinks her son has been accused simply because he is a Muslim.

Akbar was born Mark Fidel Kools. His mother changed his name to Hasan Akbar after she remarried, when he was a boy."

This poor guy should sue his mama. What kind of American names her kid, "Fidel"???

[Spruce]

HANG the son of a bit*h from his neck until he is DEAD!

[nfldgirl]

Have there been any reports or information about just WHEN he joined the military? If information is accurate as to what he said after being arrested, it doesn't sound like your typical "resentment" a subordinate might have for his superior. It sounds more like "resentment" based on "religious grounds."

Ah yes, Islam...."Religion of Peace."

[ought-six]

"This guy is practically sprouting red-flags out his ears. Shame he made it through the recruiting process."

You can thank Political Correctness and its demand for "diversity." That philosophy has sown the seeds for more strife and tragedy than almost anything else in America's history. Cataloguing Americans into specific interest groups, with special favors and preferences (which is what PC and the "diversity" movement are all about), makes a mockey of the American credo "E Pluribus Unum (From Many, One)." Rather, it has tortured that credo to one stating the exact opposite: "E Unum Pluribus (From One, Many)." America's greatness has been its unity as ONE people, made up of many individuals of wide and varied heritage whose common bond was their desire to BE an American. Political Correctness and its "diversity" abomination insists on just the opposite.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Well let's see, act bizarre for days fussing about what the attacking force is going to do to "his fellow Muslims," then turn up wounded and the only one missing (cowering in a bunker) after the grenade incident... doesn't take a rocket scientist to put this one together.

[livius]

Any more information on this "Bilal Mosque" that Akbar belonged to? It seems to be mostly black American converts, or at any rate, it appears to be so based upon the "pre-Muslim" names of some of the members who have been interviewed in various sources. Is it al Fuqra?

[HIDEK6]

Actually, "E Unum Pluribus," means the same thing as "E Pluribus Unum."

Latin uses the case of the noun to indicate its relationship to the preposition.

Pluribus is the ablative case of the adjective that means "many". "E" is a preposition that takes the ablative case. "Unum" is the accusative (objective)case of the noun that means "one". A transitive verb (in this case the understood verb meaning "comes") takes the accusative case.

Therefore, you can say, "Pluribus Unum E," and it will mean "Out of many comes one." This might not be pretty Latin, but I think you get my point.

All you Latin scholars out there, please don't nitpick this. It has been 35 years since I have tried to translate Latin. That's why I can't remember the root of "pluribus."

[Hildy]

"He said, Mama, when I get over there I have the feeling they are going to arrest me just because of the name that I have carried."

They're trying the make HIM the victim.

[MinorityRepublican]

Akbar has been identified as the suspect in the attack, but has not been charged. The grenade and automatic weapon attack early Sunday left one soldier dead and 15 wounded.

The military need to try him and hang him immediately. Does anyone know the procedure with this?

[holdmuhbeer]

If there had not been reporters there this guy would have been shot, no doubt.

[Future Snake Eater]

I can't believe that hippy paradise UC Davis has one of the largest ROTC programs in the country. Whodathunkit?