U.S. Army psychiatrist of Palestinian origin kills 12 at Texas post
U.S.-born Major Nidal Malik Hasan also wounded 31 people, apparently worked without accomplice.
By Reuters Tags: Israel newsA U.S. Army psychiatrist of Palestinian origin opened fire with two handguns at the Fort Hood Army post in Texas on Thursday, killing 12 and wounding 31 others.
Authorities identified the suspected gunman as Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who had treated soldiers wounded in foreign wars preparing for foreign deployment at the post. Army officials said late Thursday that the suspect had not been killed as previously believed, and had apparently worked alone.
"Our investigation is ongoing but preliminary reports indicate that there was a single shooter," Lieutenant-General Robert Cone, Fort Hood's commanding officer, told a news conference. "The shooter is not dead but in custody in stable condition."
Cone said the suspect had been shot multiple times. He previously said the suspect was killed by police officers during the attack at the biggest military facility in the world.
Asked whether the shootings were a terrorist act, Cone said, "I couldn't rule that out, but I'm telling you that right now the evidence does not suggest that."
The Army said the gunman opened fire at about 1:30 p.m. CST (1930 GMT) at the Soldiers Readiness Processing Center, a group of buildings where soldiers were getting medical check-ups before leaving for overseas deployments.
Cone said the gunman had two weapons, one of them a semi automatic. "There is no indication that they were military weapons," he said.
It was one of the worst killings ever reported on a U.S. military base. In May, a U.S. soldier at a base in Baghdad shot and killed five fellow soldiers.
A cousin of the suspected shooter, Nader Hasan, told Fox news that he had been ordered to serve a term in Iraq and had been resisting such a deployment.
Nader Hasan said his cousin was a U.S.-born Muslim who had joined the military from high school. He had served as a psychiatrist at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C., which treats many badly wounded troops.
"He was a psychiatrist at Walter Reed dealing with the people coming back and ... trying to help them with their trauma," he said.
He said his cousin had been transferred to Fort Hood in April months ago and was very reluctant to be deployed to Iraq. "We've known over the last five years that was probably his worst nightmare," he said.
The incident raised new questions about the toll that six years of continuous fighting in Iraq and nearly eight years of fighting in Afghanistan have taken on the U.S. military and on individual soldiers, many of whom have been on several combat tours.
U.S. President Barack Obama, speaking in Washington, called the event a "horrific outburst of violence" and promised "answers to every single question about this horrible incident."
Fort Hood is home to about 50,000 troops, although Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison said only about 35,000 were on base at the time. The fort, established in 1942, stretches across 339 square miles (878 square km) in central Texas and is the largest single employer in Texas.
It's the only military post in the United States capable of supporting two full armored divisions -- the 1st Cavalry Division and the 4th Infantry Division.
Base personnel have accounted for more suicides than any other Army post since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, with 75 tallied through July of this year. Nine of those occurred in 2009, counting two in overseas war zones.
A former FBI criminal profiler highlighted the irony of the gunman's reported expertise as a psychiatrist specializing in traumatic stress, which often affects combat soldiers.
"It may be that he succumbed to that which he was supposed to heal," Clint Van Zandt said on MSNBC.
Fort Hood is halfway between Austin and Waco, about 60 miles (97 km) from each city. Nearby Killeen, Texas, was site of one of worst U.S. shooting rampages when a gunman drove his truck into a Luby's cafeteria in 1991, killing 23 and wounding 20 before killing himself.
Why Facebook Connect?
Comment on Haaretz.com articles with your Facebook login, and share your thoughts on your own wall.
- Latest
- Most Viewed
- Most Rated
- Open all
Inshort, what[s the difference anyways, they're the same people except for 20% of the ~Jordanian~ people who happen to be Hashemite Arabs. This lunatic's family hails from the west bank of Jordan.
'Interesting' headline. Imagine 'of Israeli-Jewish origin' even if born in the US. Still, now you've raised the issue, maybe one of your journalists could investigate the circumstances in which the shooters' family ended up in the US. Warning: the resulting story may shed some light on some dark corners of Israeli history.
His Imam told reporters that he claimed to be a Palestinian. This has appeared throughout the major news stations reporting on the event in the US. This is not the invention of "an Israeli newspaper". You can only imagine who will flood Israel, if Israel ever caved in to Palestinian demands for a "right to return".
Army: 7 dead in DUAL attacks at Fort Hood, Texas (AP) ? 19 hours ago WASHINGTON ? The Army says seven people were killed and 20 wounded in a PAIR of shootings at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas. An Army spokesman at the Pentagon says the shootings began about 1:30 p.m. Thursday at a personnel and medical processing center at Fort Hood. The spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Nathan Banks, says TWO shooters were apparently involved. There is no word yet on who they were, nor on identities of the dead. Banks says the SECOND incident took place at a theater on the sprawling base. He says it is too soon to tell whether there is any link to battle stress or repeated deployments. The Army is suffering a record high suicide rate and other signs of stress from fighting two wars. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ihGepAkECGoDagETVBMpPb3w7Y3gD9BPJO100
Texas Killer: Troubled and Impatient http://bit.ly/1ndOk1 Read this article. Please note there is no emphasis on his ethnic background.
How is it relevent to add his "Palestinian origins" in the headline? It was a military incident that had nothing to do with him being a Palestinian (if he is). Would you have written that he was a jew (had he been one) in the headline as well? Seriously unproffesional of haretz.
The Jaffa-based Palestinian newspaper "Filastin" referred to its readers as Palestinian in 1921. When Jordan annexed the Westbank, the Palestinians there were still referred to and seen as Palestinians both by Jordan and the Palestinians not only in the Westbank but in other parts of Palestine, the refugee camps and the entire arab world. There is clear diffirence between the Palestinian dialect and the Jordanian (bedouin) dialect allthough many jordanians speak with a Palestinian dialect in the cities today because of the large amount of Palestinians there.
He was not a terrorist. He was an American by birth of Arab ethnicity. His parents were from the west bank. He had been trying to get out of the army for some time for two reasons. His apparently had developed an aversion to war from the counseling of returned vets and also due to what he claims was harassment by others about his ethnicity. That is what has been reported. Nothing else supports the terrorist?s label, or a religious motive. Everything known so far supports the case of him becoming mentally unhinged. If anyone could be labeled a terrorists it would be Yaakov Teitel. However, I suspect that he is a garden variety sociopath more than anything else. His intent was evil.
My Deepest Sympathies go to the families and victims of this terrible event. I just hope that people of all races and religions see the shooter as a mad man, and do not try to link his racial origin or his religion with these crimes. I do however worry that some people may try to use this tragedy to create some level of 'backlash' against people of a certain race or certain religion. I hope my worries are unfounded.
at the time his parents left to come to the states the area was taken from Jordan in 47 and the name Palestinian had not yet been coined. Both names are correct as the "West Bank" and Jerusalem were in JOrdanian control...now they are Palestinian...
It is basically a Palestinian state.
he will be prosecuted for murdering 12 people at close range, including 2 civilians. 31 people wounded.
You obviously thought this and if you think the murder of 12 innocent people is good for Israel, then I suggest you need a psychiatrist.
He was born in the United States and spent his whole life there. How are his 'origins' Palestinian?
"Palestinian origin" and no other detail in the article, I see where Haaretz is going with this article, and you pretend to be a left wing paper.
future danger is all around.
This is his retaliation to the US condemnation of Goldstone Report. What will all the Pals living in the US do when the US chooses to Veto it?
The American news is reporting that he is of Jordanian descent. Not suprised an Israeli newspaper is trying to distort facts and taint Palestinians.
There are possibly more but having a psychosis doesn't discriminate. Really. I wouldn't make much of this guy being a Muslim aside from just noting it in passing. It's really self defeating to make a big deal about this guy's background because there are about one billion Muslims and we need to exist in the same World with those people. There are always the possibility of cells but one cannot control everything that happens in this World. I was watching the news and this guy was giving out signals about his political views to people all around him. Those people should have reported him and got him out of the Armed Services. Anyway, people go into studies that interest them. Why do you think this guy studied Psychiatry? He was probably interested in it because there were little bats flying around in his head!