An Army soldier killed 12 people and wounded 31 in a rampage at Fort Hood, Texas. The assailant has been identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army mental health professional.
Most of those killed were also soldiers, according to the briefing by Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone, post commander. Cone said that a gunman entered a facility known as the Soldier Readiness Facility, where soldiers who are preparing to deploy go for last minute medical check ups and dental treatment. Sources told ABC News that the soldiers gathered there were getting ready to deploy to Iraq.
Initial reports said the shooter was killed and there were “eyewitness accounts of more than one shooter,” and the others were tracked to an adjacent facility and apprehended. They were taken into custody, questioned and cleared of involvement in the shootings. Hasan is, at the time of this writing, alive and in stable condition.
Federal law enforcement officials reportedly told the AP that Hasan had come to their attention at least six months ago because of Internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats. The officials say the postings appeared to have been made by Hasan, but are still trying to confirm that he was the author. They say an official investigation was not opened.
One of the Web postings that authorities reviewed is a blog that equates suicide bombers with a soldier throwing himself on a grenade to save the lives of his comrades.
Cone did not speculate about a motive, but the Army released a statement saying it did not believe the shootings were an act of political terrorism.
Scott Stewart and Fred Burton of STRATFOR (www.stratfor.com) which is a leading online publisher of geopolitical intelligence, wrote an article released just today said that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) leader Nasir al-Wahayshi had written an article that called for jihadists to conduct simple attacks against a variety of targets was published in an online magazine which was released to jihadist Web sites last week.
That al-Wahayshi gave these instructions in an Internet magazine distributed via jihadist chat rooms, not in some secret meeting with his operational staff, demonstrates that they are clearly intended to reach what Stratfor calls “grassroots” jihadists and not intended for his own organization.
I’m not necessarily suggesting that the shootings at Fort Hood was an act of radical Islamic terrorism, but I’m not saying it isn’t. I would hope the authorities at least take a look at Hasan’s computers to see if he has accessed any sites that included al-Wahayshi’s message.
