7 people reported dead, 12 wounded at Ft. Hood, Texas, officials say

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When Soldiers’ Minds Snap



By ERICA GOODE
Published: November 7, 2009

“Every man has his breaking point,” said military doctors in World War II, believing that more than 90 days of continuous combat could turn any soldier into a psychiatric casualty.

For Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who military officials said gunned down dozens of soldiers at Ft. Hood, Tex. on Thursday, that point may have come even before he experienced the reality of war; he was bound for a combat zone but had not yet embarked.

Major Hasan was being sent not to fight, but to join those ranks of doctors who, over centuries of war, have worried about breaking points — how much fear and tedium soldiers can take; how long they can slog through deserts or over mountains; how much blood they can see, how many comrades they can lose — and have sought ways to salve the troops’ psychic wounds and keep them fighting.

Much is unknown about Major Hasan’s motives. He is said to have dreaded deployment, but what he feared is unclear. And officials have not ruled out the possibility that his actions were premeditated or political. One report had him shouting something like “Allahu Akhbar” — Arabic for “God is Great” — before the shooting.

But even in this absence of certainty, his case invites a look at the long history of psychiatric medicine in war, if only because of his status as a battlefield psychiatrist, and the chance that his own psyche was, on some level, undone by the kind of stress he treated.

Over the centuries, soldiers have often broken under such stress, and in modern times each generation of psychiatrists has felt it was closer to understanding what makes soldiers break. But each generation has also been confounded by the unpredictability with which aggressions sometimes explode, in a fury no one sees coming.

The current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have claimed more than their share of stress victims, with a rising number of suicides among soldiers and high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder. Such casualties often occur not on the battlefield but after it — or, sometimes, merely in its proximity.

In World War I, the disorder was known as shell shock, and the soldiers who fell victim were at first believed to have concussions from exploding munitions. Their symptoms appeared neurological: They included trembling, paralysis, a loss of sight or hearing.

Yet it turned out that some affected soldiers had been nowhere near an exploding shell, suggesting “that the syndrome could arise in anticipation of going into a stressful situation,” said Dr. Richard McNally, a professor of psychology at Harvard and an expert on traumatic stress.

Some doctors devised methods to treat shell shock victims — one German doctor tried electroshock to the limbs. But there was also widespread suspicions that the soldiers were malingering. Some soldiers were shot for cowardice.

Yet shell shock was simply the Great War’s version of a reaction to combat that has been detected even in the writings of antiquity. Achilles, Jonathan Shay maintains in “Achilles in Vietnam,” (Scribner, 1994) displayed a form of traumatic stress when in the Iliad he grieves over the death of his friend Patroclus.

Soldiers in the Civil War suffered from irritability, disturbed sleep, shortness of breath and depression, a syndrome Jacob Mendes Da Costa, an Army surgeon, described in 1871 as “irritable heart.”

In World War II, the paralysis and trembling of the early 1900s did not recur. But nightmares, startled reactions, anxiety and other symptoms persisted as “battle fatigue” or “war neurosis,” a condition whose treatment was heavily influenced by the rise of Freudian psychoanalysis.

Out of that war emerged a theory of battlefield treatment known as PIE, or proximity, immediacy and expectancy. The doctrine held that if a soldier broke down during combat, he should be treated close to the front, because if he was sent home, he would do poorly and seldom return to battle. Major Hasan, had he reached Iraq, would have practiced a similar approach: Soldiers are treated close to the forward lines and only removed to hospitals farther from the front in the most severe cases.

Today, the flashbacks, nightmares and other symptoms of soldiers are diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder or P.T.S.D., a term that replaced “post-Vietnam syndrome” and entered the official nomenclature in 1980, appearing in the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic manual. Like its predecessors, the disorder has been easier to diagnose than it has been to understand or to treat.

Research has yielded some treatments that studies show help soldiers, and the military — now acutely aware of the problem — has taken steps to make the methods widely available. Yet the history of treatments for combat stress has often been a circular one, with experts “remembering and forgetting and remembering and forgetting but never integrating and creating a lasting narrative that could be a blueprint for going forward,” as one psychiatrist put it.

Similarly, scientific views of what makes soldiers susceptible to stress disorders have waxed and waned. Some experts, in a modern echo of a view put forward in World War II, argue that soldiers who develop P.T.S.D. have longstanding vulnerabilities — psychological or physiological — that make them unable to withstand the pressures of combat. Others assert, in agreement with the military doctors of World War I, that every soldier simply has a breaking point, and that multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan have contributed to the numbers who return to a second, psychological war at home.

Yet no theory seems able to capture the unpredictable effects of sustained violence on human beings, the subtle pressures that years of killing and more killing exert on a soldier, a doctor or a society — or the reality that every war travels home with the soldiers who fight it.

“All these people have been under a tremendous amount of stress,” said Dr. Stephen Sonnenberg, a psychiatrist and adjunct professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, speaking of soldiers and those who treat them. “They are holding the stress for everybody.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/we...de.html?ref=us

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A palpable strain on mental-health system

Vows to boost care are falling short at Walter Reed, other military hospitals

By Anne Hull and Dana Priest

updated 1:11 a.m. PT, Sat., Nov . 7, 2009

WASHINGTON - The instructions were simple: Talk about your feelings on the morning after learning that an Army major in Texas was believed to have gunned down 13 people and wounded another 38 at Fort Hood.

But here at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in a group-therapy session for combat-stressed soldiers in the hospital's outpatient psychiatry unit, frustrations soon boiled over and Pfc. Sophia Taylor was out the door.

"You people don't listen," the Iraqi war vet said, as two clinicians followed her down the hall to the elevators.

"Sophia," one of them said.

Taylor was trembling and wiping tears from her face.

"Stop talking to me," she said. "This ward ain't gonna change until everyone else in the freakin' Army dies. You people don't listen to me. I'm tired of talking."

Falling short of promises
This scene at Walter Reed on Friday underscores the ongoing tensions, frustrations and problems in the military health-care system for troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with psychiatric problems.

More than two years after the nation's political and military leaders pledged to improve mental-health care, their promises have fallen short at military hospitals around the country, according to mental-health professionals, Army officials, and wounded soldiers and their families.

Those hospitals include Walter Reed, where the man accused of the Fort Hood shootings, Nidal M. Hasan, spent four years as a psychiatric intern, resident and fellow.

What may have happenedto Hasan during those four years is one of the things being investigated. But it isn't only Walter Reed that is under fresh scrutiny: Evidence of an undermanned, overworked health-care system stretches all the way to the Pentagon, where all of the top health-policy positions remain unfilled, leaving a void on an issue long fraught with inefficiencies and entrenched bureaucracies.

Vacant positions
The top civilian health position of assistant secretary of defense for health affairs is vacant and is being temporarily filled by Ellen Embrey, a hard-working career administrator who colleagues say lacks the authority of a political appointee to push the military services and the health-care bureaucracy in the right direction.

Three other top positions -- the principal deputy, the deputy for clinical programs and policy, and the chief financial officer post -- are also unfilled.

The vacancies occur as the Army in particular struggles with a soaring suicide rate. In 2009 so far, 117 active-duty Army soldiers were reported to have committed suicide, with 81 of those cases confirmed -- up from 103 suicides a year earlier.

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said the administration "is actively looking for the appropriate people to man the health-affairs staff," but that health care for soldiers is not suffering in the meantime because the interim staff is competent and the military services "have been doing a heck of a job."

"Are they perfect? Absolutely not . . . but we are offering more for soldiers than ever before." He said many soldiers simply do not understand all that is available to them. "There is clearly a disconnect between all we now do and people availing themselves of it."

Some 34,000 soldiers have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder since 2003, according to the Army surgeon general's office. In the wake of the Walter Reed scandal, soldiers receive increased health screening once they deploy, once they return and months after they are back home, according to a surgeon general's office fact sheet. In 2006, the Army also began a more intensive training program, which it says helps mitigate combat-related mental-health problems. On average, 200 behavioral-health personnel are deployed in Iraq and 30 in Afghanistan.

The military has also hired 250 additional behavioral-health providers and more than 40 marriage and family therapists in recent months. The Army currently has 408 psychiatrists for its force of 545,000 people.

At Walter Reed, the Army has added six psychiatrists, seven psychologists, 11 social workers and eight clinical nurse specialists since 2007 for a total of 124 mental-health providers, an increase of 35 percent, according to figures provided by Walter Reed.

Sixty-five psychiatric residents are also included -- one of whom was Hasan.

Since the shooting, officials have been looking for warning signs in Hasan's career that could have tipped them off to his potential to carry out the attack. Some of his Walter Reed colleagues said patients complained that Hasan seemed uncomfortable talking about soldiers' emotional needs and was himself a loner. He was also not very productive but was gentle in nature and showed no signs of potential for violence, they said.

A former Walter Reed social worker, Joe Wilson, said problems in the mental-health department were usually not discussed openly. "Of course you miss the red flags, you can't talk openly about mental health," Wilson said. "You complain about it to each other, but not to anyone else." The opinion was shared by another mental-health worker who asked not to be named.

Switching a soldier who is unhappy with his psychiatrist to another doctor can backfire and delay the medical board process that determines whether the soldier remains in the service. "It's a complete disincentive to complain" about any particular health-care provider, Wilson said.

Shortages
At Walter Reed, some soldiers and health-care professionals complain that there are not enough mental-health providers, and senior Army officials have acknowledged that finding enough people to work with the military is a persistent problem. They say patients diagnosed with PTSD and other war-related emotional problems are far too likely to be treated with sleeping aids and mood-altering medications. Many still go without regular one-on-one therapy or meaningful group sessions.

The wife of an amputee soldier recovering at Walter Reed with traumatic brain injury and PTSD said that mental-health services are so uncoordinated and ineffective that the couple decided to pay for private psychotherapy sessions with a civilian provider at $130 an hour.

The couple sought private treatment elsewhere after spending a few minutes with a Walter Reed psychiatrist, who then referred the soldier to a social worker for treatment.

"It was a joke," said the wife, who asked not be identified because her husband, a sergeant, is still recovering at Walter Reed. "She was a lovely person, but we have a serious problem here and she just didn't get it . . .

She essentially directed me to a Web site."

Taylor, the soldier who abruptly left her group therapy session Friday morning, said mental-health patients still feel ignored or second-class compared with the more visibly wounded.

"The amputees get the great treatment," Taylor said. "Purple Hearts, money for losing their limbs. I have a lot of respect for them. But I lost my mind, and I couldn't even get a simple 'thank you for your service.' "

Taylor, whose father was a veteran and whose older sister also served in Iraq, said the Army has begun to process her for a dishonorable discharge, which she will fight.

Her mother, Vernelda Taylor-Harris of Bowie, said she recently met with her daughter's command at Walter Reed to argue for treatment over punishment.

"She's had so much medication, how can you remember meetings on all that medication?" Taylor-Harris asked the command.

The mother told the officers that she hoped her daughter could get help now, before it's too late. "I don't want your flag and your condolences," she said.

Taylor returned to the outpatient ward Friday for the rest of her services. When she learned that President Obama will be visiting the nearby orthopedic ward, she asked a doctor, "What can we do to get him to see us?"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33746630...shington_post/

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Suspect Could Face Death Penalty in Fort Hood Shooting

Saturday, November 07, 2009

The Army psychiatrist suspected in Thursday's deadly Fort Hood rampage in Texas could get the death penalty if he is convicted of multiple counts of first-degree murder — and military law experts say the evidence against him will be substantial.

American-born Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan has yet to be charged but is expected to face at least 13 counts of murder, one for each of the victims who died, as well as numerous assault and weapons charges in a court-martial.

"Obviously, we're all guessing, but it's reasonable to believe that he will be convicted and sentenced to death," said retired Navy lawyer Philip Cave, now a military crimes defense attorney.

Cave estimated that Hasan, 39, would spend between five and 15 years in the military's court martial system.

"It will be a long charge sheet," military law scholar Richard Rosen told KCBD.com, "one longer than I've ever seen in my life time in the Army."

Though the number of wounded has fluctuated, at least 30, including Hasan, and possibly up to 38 were injured in the mass shooting at the Army base in Killeen.

Army Secretary John McHugh said Friday an investigation is proceeding but no charges have yet been filed against Hasan.

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Rosen, a retired colonel who was stationed at Fort Hood for 10 years, called the shooting "tragic and horrible."

"Legal advice is being given at all levels of command right now," Rosen told KCBD.com

Only 10 members of the American military have been put to death with approval from the president since 1951 under the Uniform Code of Military Justice — the armed services' legal system.

The last military execution was the 1961 hanging of Army Pvt. John Bennett for rape. Another defendant, Pvt. Ronald Gray, was scheduled to be executed in December 2008 for multiple murders and rape, but a stay was granted mere days before the execution.

But the massacre at Fort Hood has been called the worst mass shooting ever on an American military base.

"All things being equal, he may well be one of those executions," Cave told FoxNews.com.

Hasan is believed to have methodically and calmly opened fire on his fellow comrades as they filled out medical paperwork and underwent testing at a processing center that handles soldiers coming and going to war.

Around 1:30 p.m. Thursday, witnesses say a man later identified as Hasan jumped up on a desk and shouted the words "Allahu Akbar!" — Arabic for "God is great!" He was armed with at least one semiautomatic pistol capable of firing up to 20 rounds without reloading. He shot about 100 rounds before civilian police officer Kim Munley wounded him with four rounds.

Though his motive remains unclear, speculation has swirled that he was dreading his own imminent deployment to the battlefields in Afghanistan, where he was to continue his work counseling fellow soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress and other mental turmoil.

Relatives and associates say Hasan was critical of both the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and did everything he could to avoid being on the frontlines.

No one who knew him, however, expected him to be driven to kill.
The suspected gunman's Palestinian uncle told Fox News that the family was "shocked" by the allegations and had no indication Hasan was capable of such violence.

"He was very quiet, very nice, never been upset, always a smile," Rafiq Ismail told Fox News in Ramallah, the West Bank. "Till now, we did not believe he did it. ... Something happened, made him snap or something."

As a psychiatrist, Hasan had for years listened to other soldiers' tales of war horrors. Cave said if Hasan's lawyers can show that he himself was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) — which can happen to psychiatrists and can be a successful legal strategy — then they might use that in their defense in an attempt to land Hasan a lesser sentence.

But Cave doesn't think Hasan would be sentenced to anything less than life in prison.

Terror charges also could be filed, he said, but only if the government has hard evidence that Hasan was linked to and acting on behalf of an actual terrorist group.

In trying to prove premeditation, Cave expects prosecutors to point to the fact that Hasan had been saying goodbye to friends and giving away most of his belongings, including copies of the Koran, and left several messages for neighbors the morning of the killings.

"Nice knowing you, old friend," Hasan said in a 5 a.m. Thursday voicemail to neighbor Willie Bell. "I'm going to miss you."

Cave said the defense probably would counter that those actions were those of a man about to be sent overseas to war.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,572914,00.html

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Muslim Leader on Ft. Hood Suspect: 'Something Didn't Seem Right'

Sunday, November 08, 2009

FORT HOOD, Texas — In retrospect, the signs of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's growing anger over the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan seem unmistakable. But even people who worried his increasingly strident views were clouding his ability to serve the U.S. military could not predict the murderous rampage of which he now stands accused.

In the months leading to Thursday's shooting spree that left 13 people dead and 29 others wounded, Hasan raised eyebrows with comments that the war on terror was "a war on Islam" and wrestled with what to tell fellow Muslim solders who had their doubts about fighting in Islamic countries.

"The system is not doing what it's supposed to do," said Dr. Val Finnell, who complained to administrators at a military university about what he considered Hasan's "anti-American" rants. "He at least should have been confronted about these beliefs, told to cease and desist, and to shape up or ship out."

Finnell studied with Hasan from 2007-2008 in the master's program in public health at the military's Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., where Hasan persistently complained about perceived anti-Muslim sentiment in the military and injected his politics into courses where they had no place.

"In retrospect, I'm not surprised he did it," Finnell said of the shootings. "I had real questions about what his priorities were, what his beliefs were."

Hasan, who was shot by civilian police and taken into custody, was in intensive care but breathing on his own late Saturday at an Army hospital in San Antonio. Officials refused to say if he was talking to investigators.

At least 17 victims remained hospitalized with gunshot wounds, and nine were in intensive care late Saturday. On Sunday, numerous church services honoring the victims were planned both on the post and in neighboring Killeen.

Military criminal investigators continue to refer to Hasan as the only suspect in the shootings but won't say when charges would be filed. "We have not established a motive for the shootings at this time," said Army Criminal Investigative Command spokesman Chris Grey.

A government official speaking on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the case said an initial review of Hasan's computer use has found no evidence of links to terror groups, or anyone who might have helped plan or push him toward the shooting attack. The review of Hasan's computer is continuing and more evidence could emerge, the source said.

Hasan likely would face military justice rather than federal criminal charges if investigators determine the violence was the work of just one person.

Hasan's family described a man incapable of the attack, calling him a devoted doctor and devout Muslim who showed no signs that he might lash out.

"I've known my brother Nidal to be a peaceful, loving and compassionate person who has shown great interest in the medical field and in helping others," said his brother, Eyad Hasan, of Sterling, Va., in a statement. "He has never committed an act of violence and was always known to be a good, law-abiding citizen."

Still, in the days since authorities believe Hasan fired more than 100 rounds in a soldier processing center at Fort Hood in the worst mass shooting on a military facility in the U.S., a picture has emerged of a man who was forcefully opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, was trying to elude his pending deployment to Afghanistan and had struggled professionally in his work as an Army psychiatrist.

"I told him, `There's something wrong with you,"' Osman Danquah, co-founder of the Islamic Community of Greater Killeen, told The Associated Press on Saturday. "I didn't get the feeling he was talking for himself, but something just didn't seem right."

Danquah assumed the military's chain of command knew about Hasan's doubts, which had been known for more than a year to classmates at the Maryland graduate military medical program. His fellow students complained to the faculty about Hasan's "anti-American propaganda," but said a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim student kept officers from filing a formal complaint.

Others recalled a pleasant neighbor who forgave a fellow soldier charged with tearing up his "Allah is Love" bumper sticker. A superior officer at Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, Col. Kimberly Kesling, has said Hasan was quiet with a strong work ethic who provided excellent care for his patients.

Twice this summer, Danquah said, Hasan asked him what to tell soldiers who expressed misgivings about fighting fellow Muslims. The retired Army first sergeant and Gulf War veteran said he reminded Hasan that these soldiers had volunteered to fight, and that Muslims were fighting each other in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Palestinian territories.

"But what if a person gets in and feels that it's just not right?" Danquah recalled Hasan asking him.

"I'd give him my response. It didn't seem settled, you know. It didn't seem to satisfy," he said. "It would be like a person playing the devil's advocate.

... I said, `Look. I'm not impressed by you."'

Danquah said he was disturbed by Hasan's persistent questioning but never told anyone at the sprawling Army post about the talks, because Hasan never expressed anger toward the Army or indicated any plans for violence.

"If I had an inkling that he had this type of inclination or intentions, definitely I would have brought it to their attention," he said.

Hasan was promoted from captain to major in 2008, the same year he graduated from the master's program. Bernard Rostker, a military personnel expert at the Rand Corp., said a shortage of officers and psychiatrists meant Hasan's advancement was all but certain absent a serious blemish on his record, such as a DUI or a drug charge.

Hasan reportedly jumped up on a desk and shouted "Allahu akbar!" —

Arabic for "God is great!" — at the start of Thursday's attack.

"Hopefully, they can put together the pieces and find out what in the world was in his mind and why he went crazy," Danquah said. "Aaaaah, it's sad. Those soldiers could have been my soldiers."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,572986,00.html

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No evidence wounded hit by friendly fire at Fort Hood

November 8, 2009

Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- There is no evidence of "friendly fire" during this week's deadly shooting at Fort Hood, an Army spokesman said Saturday.

Army Criminal Investigation Command spokesman Chris Grey said authorities did not believe that any of those killed or wounded were shot by anyone other than the suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.

Furthermore, Grey reiterated that all evidence indicates that the suspect "acted alone." Grey said there was "no evidence to contradict that finding." He added that the investigation is continuing.

Thursday's mass shooting left 12 soldiers and one civilian dead and 42 people wounded, according to the post's public information office. It was unclear how many of those injured suffered bullet wounds.

By Saturday night, 17 people and the suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, remained hospitalized, Col. John Rossi told reporters. All had suffered gunshot wounds, he said. Rossi said Hasan is no longer on a ventilator, but is still in intensive care at Brooke Army Medical Center.

Earlier Saturday, W. Roy Smythe, chief of surgery at Scott & White Memorial Hospital, said "a lot of progress has been made" in treating patients wounded in the rampage and that "some of them are out of the woods."

But Smythe, flanked by Texas Gov. Rick Perry and two state representatives, told reporters there is a possibility some patients will be "physically impaired" for life. And, he said, there's "no doubt many" will be "psychologically impaired the rest of their lives."

The incident has sparked national outrage. In his Saturday address, President Obama said it was "an act of violence that would have been heartbreaking had it occurred anyplace in America." But the president said, "it's all the more heartbreaking and all the more despicable because of the place where it occurred and the patriots who were its victims."

The White House said President Obama and the first lady will be attending a memorial service on Tuesday and the president ordered flags flying over the White House and other federal buildings to be lowered to half-staff until Veterans Day on Wednesday.

In Texas on Saturday, Smythe told reporters that of the 10 patients admitted to that hospital after the Thursday massacre, four have gone home and one may go home later Saturday. He said of the six originally in the surgical intensive care unit, only two remained there Saturday morning, with the others moved to a regular in-patient floor.

The people in the intensive care unit "are no longer on the ventilator and quite stable." Despite improvements, he said the injuries to some "are so severe that only time will tell how they'll do in the long run."

He said "some of these patients are young and sometimes young patients will surprise you in regards to their rehabilitation."

And at Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, Jeri Chappelle, a representative of that facility, said eight patients are currently being treated there -- five in the hospital's intensive care unit and three others in a regular unit who are in fair condition.

Perry -- speaking outside the Scott & White hospital -- lauded the hospital's quality and professionalism and praised the patriotism of the soldiers.

"What I heard time after time in those hospital rooms that it's their honor to be able to serve our country, and that is a very humbling thing to watch a young man or woman whose life has been irreparably harmed in a violent act, yet their concern and their interest is in continuing to be able to serve this country," Perry said.

Also, he praised the first responders, and mentioned Fort Hood Police Sgt. Kimberly Munley, the civilian officer who confronted and disabled Hasan in a shootout.

Munley has drawn praise from the military and from citizens across the nations for her quick and bold actions.

Perry called her a "true professional" and a "selfless public servant."

"She's very understated," said Perry, who spoke with Munley on Friday. "A person who understands the gravity of what occurred, but also a classic public servant who is not interested in anything but getting on with her life and hopefully never having an event like this ever occur again."

Citing other reports, Perry said, "this is not the first time that she's been called to action" and said "we all should be thankful that we have people like that in America."

Perry said he is in contact military and state law enforcement officials and that the Texas Rangers are helping federal officials in their probe. The governor also said the Department of State Health Services to send crisis counseling teams to the area. Share memories of victims

As for the investigation, Obama said he met with FBI Director Robert Mueller and representatives of other relevant agencies to discuss their probe.

"I'll continue to be in close contact with them as new information comes in," he said in his Saturday radio address.

Obama, a Democrat, and Perry, a Republican, both said that the situation brought out the best in people, citing the efforts of soldiers and civilians to aid others. "Even as we saw the worst of human nature on full display," the president said, "we also saw the best of America."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/07/...ngs/index.html

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Alleged Fort Hood Shooter Frequented Local Strip Club

Sunday, November 08, 2009

By Jana Winter

Killeen, Texas — The Army psychiatrist authorities say killed 13 people and wounded 29 others at the Fort Hood Army Base Thursday was a recent and frequent customer at a local strip club, employees of the club told FoxNews.com exclusively.

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan came into the Starz strip club not far from the base at least three times in the past month, the club's general manager, Matthew Jones, told FoxNews.com. Army investigators building their case against Hasan plan to interview Jones soon.

"The last time he was here, I remember checking his military ID at the door, and he paid his $15 cover and stayed for six or seven hours," Jones, 37, said.

Hasan's presence at the club paints a starkly different portrait of the alleged killer from that offered by his imam and family members, who have described him as a devout Muslim, and one who had difficulty finding a wife who would wear a head scarf and would pray five times a day.

Starz is a strip club located just down the road from the main gate entrance to the Fort Hood Base. It does not serve alcohol, but customers bring their own beer and liquor and buy ice buckets and mixers at the club.

Hasan sat at a table in the back corner of the club, to the left of the stage on which strippers dance around a pole, employees said.

Jennifer Jenner, who works at Starz using the stage name Paige, said Hasan bought a lap dance from her two nights in a row. She said he paid $50 for a dance lasting three songs in one of the club's private rooms on Oct. 29 and Oct. 30.

"I remembered his face because it was the first lap dance I [gave] to a customer while working here," she said. "When I saw his face [Friday] on TV, I jumped out of bed, I knew it was him."

Jenner, 31, said Hasan was dressed casually both nights he came to the club - in jeans and a T-shirt the first night and then wearing a baseball cap the next. She recalled that he arrived at about 6:30 p.m. and stayed until 2 a.m. She said he brought in a six pack of light beer, took only a few sips from one can and gave the rest to the strippers.

"He preferred the blondes," said Jenner, whose hair was dyed blond at the time. "He said he was a medic and that he was being deployed soon, but mostly he wanted to ask us questions."

"He asked us why we were working at the strip club, if we liked the lifestyle, if we had any kids," she said. "It was right before Halloween so he asked what our kids were dressing up as. He just wanted to know a lot about us."

Jenner said she asked Hasan why he liked coming to Starz instead of another of the roughly half a dozen other clubs nearby, all about an 8-minute drive from the Army base.

"I like it here because no one I work with is here," she said Hasan replied.

Starz is smaller than most of the other clubs, has only about 10 dancers and caters to a louder crowd. Jenner said Army medics generally don't hang out at the club.

"He wasnt too loud like some of our other customers, or sleazy. He didn't try to take any of us home and he was respectful," she said. "I think he mostly came here to kill some time and just relax. He stood out here because he was much more reserved than our other customers.

"I just can't believe that he's the one who killed all those people. You know, he tipped every girl as she came off the stage after her dance. He was a really good tipper."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,573052,00.html

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Obama Honors Fort Hood Victims as Heroes, Says 'Justice' Awaits Killer

The president said the memory of those who died in the Fort Hood massacre 'will be honored in the places they lived and by the people they touched.'

FOXNews.com
- November 10, 2009



In his first address during a time of national mourning, President Obama on Tuesday hailed the victims of the deadly Fort Hood shooting as heroes, saying "no words can fill the void that has been left."

Obama, who traveled to Texas to console survivors and family members of victims of the deadly massacre that killed 13 and wounded 29 last week, said, "We come together filled with sorrow for the 13 Americans that we have lost, with gratitude for the lives that they led, and with a determination to honor them through the work we carry on."

Obama said the memory of those who died "will be honored in the places they lived and by the people they touched."

"It may be hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy.

But this much we do know -- no faith justifies these murderous and craven acts, no just and loving God looks upon them with favor. And for what he has done, we know that the killer will be met with justice -- in this world, and the next," Obama said.

The president met privately with the families of those killed before addressing a memorial service watched by American troops around the world.

Nearly 15,000 people, many of them soldiers dressed in their camouflage uniforms, gathered to pay respects and hear the president. At the front of the platform stage stood a row of battlefield crosses and the traditional tribute to a fallen soldier: pairs of boots, with a rifle protruding from them and a combat helmet resting atop the weapon. In front of each pair of boots was a photo of each victim.

"Their life’s work is our security, and the freedom that we too often take for granted. Every evening that the sun sets on a tranquil town, every dawn that a flag is unfurled, every moment that an American enjoys life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness -- that is their legacy," Obama said, before mentioning each of the 13 victims by name.

Obama, with the first lady at his side, laid his presidential coin before each victim's photograph following his address -- upholding a long-standing military tradition.

Later, the president and first lady planned to go to a military hospital to meet with those still recovering from injuries incurred during the attack.
The visit marks Obama's first test at consoling Americans during a time of national tragedy -- a skill that can help shape a presidency.

Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, governed during the worst terrorist attack on American soil, the most crippling natural disaster in U.S. history, a space shuttle explosion, a shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, a tornado that wiped away a Kansas town, a bridge collapse in Minnesota, Midwestern flooding and California wildfires. Each response affected his standing, for better or worse, in a country that expects its president to be empathetic and clearly in charge.

Bush and his wife Laura secretly visited Fort Hood after t
he shooting and spent time consoling those who were wounded in the shooting spree. The Bushes, who have a 1,600-acre property known as Prairie Chapel Ranch less than 30 miles from Fort Hood in central Texas, spent between one and two hours visiting the wounded and their families.

History is full of other examples. Bill Clinton helped rebuild his troubled presidency with the way he reacted to the Oklahoma City bombings.
In this case, Obama has sought his own balance.

He has promised a full investigation of the Fort Hood shootings but has said little about it as police search for a motive. He has praised religious diversity in the military, trying to offer calm as questions loom about whether the alleged shooter had ties to extremist Islamic ideology. And he has delayed a trip to Asia to attend the memorial service.

"This is an ongoing joint investigation, and the president has asked every agency involved and everybody that would have come -- would have had some purview over this to investigate why this happened, how this happened, and to ensure that they can tell him that it won't happen again," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday.

The mass killing shook the nation even more because it happened in a presumed haven of U.S. security. The suspect himself is a soldier, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. Authorities say he fired off more than 100 rounds before a civilian police officer shot him. He survived and is in stable condition.

Among those killed at Fort Hood were 21-year-old Pvt. Francheska Velez, who was pregnant and preparing to return home after a recent deployment in Iraq. And Spc. Jason Hunt, a 22-year-old who served in Iraq and was married two months ago. And Maj. Libardo Caraveo, 52, who was headed to the war zone in Afghanistan.

Obama's presence alone will be meaningful to those hurting at Fort Hood, said Kevin Sullivan, who served as Bush's communications director.
"It sends a message that he understands this is a national moment,"

Sullivan said. "But what really matters is that the president is able to provide some comfort to the sons and daughters and husbands and wives of the victims. That's ultimately why he's going. He's saying, 'The whole country grieves for you."'

Click here to read the full transcript of Obama's remarks.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009...oting-victims/

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Police officer who shot Fort Hood suspect says she's 'doing well'

November 11, 2009


Defense Secretary Robert Gates meets with civilian police Sgt. Kimberly Munley at a Fort Hood hospital Tuesday.

Killeen, Texas (CNN) -- The civilian police officer hailed as a heroine for ending the shooting rampage at Fort Hood Army Post said Wednesday she was washing her patrol car just before she headed to the bloody scene.

Sgt. Kimberly Munley was cleaning the car and topping off the gas tank, routine duties at the end of her shift, when she heard the report last Thursday that shots had been fired at the Army post, she told Oprah Winfrey via teleconference.

The brief interview was taped to air later in the day on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

Police Senior Sgt. Mark Todd also responded to the scene, where he said they were directed to the Soldier Readiness Processing Center, where soldiers were preparing to deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Both Munley and Todd didn't know what they were about to face.

"The entire incident was very confusing and chaotic," Munley said. "There was many people outside pointing to the direction that this individual was apparently located, and as soon as I got out of my vehicle and ran up the hill was when things got pretty bad."

Once inside, Munley, who has been trained in active-response tactics, began exchanging fire with the alleged gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a military psychiatrist, authorities said. They said her shots disabled Hasan and halted the attacks.

Thirteen people -- 12 soldiers and one civilian -- were killed.

Munley suffered three gunshot wounds, in both thighs and a knuckle, and remains at Metroplex Adventist Hospital in good condition, authorities said.

"The training does take over," she said when asked about her quick reactions. "In that particular incident, we didn't have much time to think."

"When I got shot, it felt like a muscle being torn out of my leg," she told Winfrey, and added, "I'm doing well."

"Every day is a progress for me, and things are getting better day by day.

And emotionally, I'm just hoping that the rest of the officers and the injured and the families of the deceased are healing as well."

Winfrey showed a clip of Metroplex's Dr. Kelly Matlock saying that Munley's first words after the shooting were, "Did anybody die?"

The 34-year-old mother of two said she recalled asking that, and she never lost consciousness after being shot.

"I was very concerned as to who else had been injured," Munley said.

Todd was not injured in the rampage. He said he has been a police officer for 25 years and, before that, was in the Army. This was the first time he had been forced to fire his weapon on the job, he said.

He also said last Thursday began as a "typical day" for him, with only minor incidents.

At first, when he heard the shots from Fort Hood, he thought the soldiers were practicing the traditional rifle volleys they do at memorial services.

During the incident, Todd said he fired his gun over and over as he'd been trained to do.

Munley, whose husband is in the Army, is 5 feet, 2 inches tall and weighs 125 pounds.

Winfrey asked her where she got her nickname, "Mighty Mouse." Munley said her partner at a police department in North Carolina called her that after she was able to help when he was being wrestled for his weapon. The nickname stuck.

Todd said he was grateful that he was able to return safely home to his family at the end of that day.

"I just thank God he missed me," he said.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/11/for...ley/index.html

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Death penalty rare, executions rarer in military

By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer Mark Sherman, Associated Press Writer – November 11, 2009

WASHINGTON – Though the suspect in the shooting rampage at Fort Hood could face the death penalty, he will be prosecuted in a military justice system where no one has been executed in nearly a half-century.

Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist alleged to have killed 13 people at the massive Army installation in Texas last week, might also benefit from protections the military provides defendants that are greater than those offered in civilian federal courts.

"Our military justice system is not bloodthirsty. That's clear," said Eugene R. Fidell, who teaches military law at Yale.

Much about Hasan's case will be decided by a senior Army officer — perhaps Lt. General Robert Cone, Fort Hood's commander — including whether to seek the death penalty and, in the event Hasan is convicted of capital murder, whether to commute a possible death sentence to life in prison.

Before a military execution can be carried out, the president must personally approve.

George W. Bush signed an execution order last year for a former Army cook who was convicted of multiple rapes and murders in the 1980s, but a federal judge has stayed that order to allow for a new round of appeals in federal court. There hasn't been a military execution since 1961, though five men sit on the military's death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

Federal civilian executions also are rare. Three men, including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, have been killed by lethal injection in federal cases since 2001. Death penalties carried out by states are more common — Tuesday night's execution of John Allen Muhammad in the Washington, D.C., sniper case was Virginia's second of the year.

In the Fort Hood case, Hasan's family has hired a private attorney, John Galligan, although the military also will provide a lawyer at no charge.

Galligan said that he and Maj. Christopher E. Martin, Fort Hood's senior defense attorney, spoke with Hasan on Monday and that Hasan had requested a lawyer when first approached by investigators.

Experts in the military justice system said the decision to prosecute Hasan in military court, revealed Monday by officials involved in the investigation, appears clear cut.

The shootings took place on an Army base. The suspect is an Army officer and all but one of those killed also were officers or enlisted personnel. The other person who was killed worked at Fort Hood.

Authorities would have had more reason to take the case to federal court if they had found evidence Hasan acted with the support or training of a terrorist group, but investigators believe he acted alone, without outside direction.

The military system operates under rules that are similar to those in civilian courts. The differences generally give military defendants more rights than their civilian counterparts.

A defendant and his lawyer can be present at the military equivalent of a grand jury hearing, and the lawyer may present evidence and cross-examine witnesses. Lawyers for witnesses and potential defendants are barred from civilian grand juries.

Prosecutors in the military system also turn over many more documents to the defense before trial. "It's very rare that something in the prosecutor's file isn't in the defense file," said Charles Swift, a former Navy defense lawyer who represented Osama bin Laden's one-time driver. "What's taught to prosecutors in military death cases is be overly generous. You'll win on the facts. You don't need to play games. In fact, how you'll lose is to play games."

At trial, Hasan's jury would consist of at least 12 officers of higher rank or seniority than Hasan. "This is a very educated jury," said Duke University law professor Scott Silliman, consisting exclusively of college graduates and possibly including Army generals.

Galligan, Hasan's lawyer, already has suggested that it could be difficult to receive a fair trial at Fort Hood because of the glare of publicity surrounding the bloody attack, the raw emotions of those who work at the base and President Barack Obama's emotional visit to the base Tuesday.

But the military law experts said several factors could ease those concerns. The base's population turns over frequently. In fact, Hasan himself had been there only a short time. "Some of his jurors might be in Iraq or Afghanistan at the moment," Swift said.


If there were problems finding impartial jurors at Fort Hood, the Army could draw them from virtually any Army facility in the United States.

A military jury must be unanimous to convict and sentence a defendant to death. Imposing a life sentence, however, requires only three-fourths of the jury to agree.

Fifteen members of the military have been sentenced to death in the past 25 years. Commanding generals commuted two of those sentences to life in prison and eight others were overturned on appeal.

The president's involvement also sets military death-penalty cases apart.

The president can commute any federal death sentence, civilian or military but must personally approve each military execution and sign an order to carry it out.

"That's a political act," Silliman said. "The president of the United States personally approving a death penalty is a political act."

When President Bush signed Ronald Gray's execution order in July 2008, it was the first time a president had done so in 51 years.

In 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower approved the execution of John Bennett, an Army private convicted of raping and attempting to kill an 11-year-old Austrian girl. Bennett was hanged in 1961.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091111/...litary_justice

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Lawyer believes Hasan is paralyzed after attack

Defense attorney says accused shooter coherent during their first interview

msnbc.com staff and news service reports

November 13, 2009

FORT HOOD, Texas - The Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people in a shooting spree at Fort Hood made or accepted wire transfers with Pakistan, a country wracked by Muslim extremist violence, a Republican congressman said Friday.

Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, the ranking GOP member of the House Homeland Security Intelligence Subcommittee, said people outside the intelligence community with direct knowledge of the transfers also told him Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan also had communications with Pakistan.

“He may have friends or relatives or whatever and this could be totally (innocent),” McCaul said in a telephone interview. “But if he is wiring money to Pakistan, that could be terrorist financing. If he was receiving money from Pakistan, that is more significant.”

McCaul said he does not know the direction of the transfers and communications, only that they passed between Hasan and Pakistan. He said the lack of additional information is why Congress should launch an investigation.

Hasan, 39, was charged Thursday with 13 counts of premeditated murder in a military court, and Army investigators have said he could face additional charges. His attorney, John Galligan, has said prosecutors have not yet told him whether they plan to seek the death penalty.

Could be paralyzed
A pair of civilian police officers responding to last week’s attack, in which 43 people were also injured, including 34 with gunshot wounds, shot Hasan four times. Recovering in the intensive care unit at San Antonio’s Brooke Army Medical Center, Hasan has told his attorney he has no feeling in his legs and extreme pain in his hands.

Galligan said doctors have told Hasan he may be permanently paralyzed from the waist down. He called his client’s medical condition “extremely serious” and said Hasan didn’t flinch when Galligan touched his leg during a meeting Thursday, when one of Hasan’s relatives was able to see him for the first time since he was hospitalized.

Hospital spokesman Dewey Mitchell said he could not confirm whether Hasan was paralyzed, since Hasan has directed hospital officials not to release any information about his condition or injuries.

The question of how Hasan spent his Army salary stems from the apparently frugal lifestyle he lived both in the small city of Killeen, Texas, outside of Fort Hood, and in the Washington, D.C., suburbs when stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In Texas, he lived in a rundown apartment that cost $350 a month and drove a 2006 Honda.

As an Army major with more than 12 years of service, Hasan earns just over $92,000 a year in basic pay and housing and food allowances, according to pay tables from the Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Hasan’s gross monthly salary is $6,325.50 a month, or $75,906 annually. He also gets $1,128 a month for a housing allowance and $223 a month for meals, which adds up to another $16,212 a year.

Obama orders review of Hasan files
Military psychiatrists may also receive as much as $20,000 a year in incentive pay, according to the tables. But to get the bonus, they must meet certain requirements, such as agreeing to remain on active duty for at least one year after accepting the award. Hasan’s Army records are sealed due to the ongoing investigation, and it isn’t clear if he was eligible for the bonus or agreed to the conditions.

President Barack Obama has ordered a review of all intelligence related to Hasan and whether the information was properly shared and acted upon within government agencies. Several members of Congress, particularly Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, have also called for a full examination of what agencies knew about Hasan’s contacts with a radical Muslim cleric in Yemen and others of concern to the U.S.

Hoekstra confirmed this week that government officials knew about 10 to 20 e-mails between Hasan and the radical imam, beginning in December 2008.

A joint terrorism task force overseen by the FBI learned late last year of Hasan’s repeated contact with the cleric, who encouraged Muslims to kill U.S. troops in Iraq. The FBI said the task force did not refer early information about Hasan to superiors because it concluded he wasn’t linked to terrorism.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33907410..._at_fort_hood/

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Hasan Was Worried About Results of Recent HIV Test

Investigators Also Find Accused Fort Hood Shooter Sent $30,000 a Year Overseas to Islamic "Charities"

By JOSEPH RHEE, ANNA SCHECTER and BRIAN ROSS
Nov. 19, 2009

Major Nidal Hasan seemed worried about the results of an HIV blood test taken a week before the Fort Hood shooting rampage, according to federal investigators piecing together background details on Hasan's life.

The information came from a member of the Fort Hood medical staff who was in the building where Hasan is accused of opening fire on November 5 and killing 13 people.

The investigators said there was no indication that Hasan was HIV positive, although a bottle of medicine used to treat HIV-positive individuals, Combivir, was seen in Hasan's apartment by ABC News last week. Medical experts say many doctors also have Combivir on hand in case of an accidental needle stick. A second drug seen in the apartment, clarithromycin, is an antibiotic designed to treat respiratory infections.

However, it can also be used to treat specific opportunistic infections in patients with HIV.

Hasan, who is not married, was a regular at a Killeen, Texas strip club which features nude dancers, according to employees there.

Investigators also found that Hasan donated $20,000 to $30,000 a year to overseas Islamic "charities." As an Army major, his yearly salary, including housing and food allowances, was approximately $92,000. A number of Islamic charities have been identified by U.S. authorities as conduits to terror groups.

Investigators said Hasan followed his own strict interpretation of how a Muslim should live -- including driving without auto insurance or signing up for life insurance provided through the military.

His academic record is replete with serious concerns about his religious statements and his academic abilities, the investigators found.

One of Hasan's commanding officers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Lieutenant Colonel Melanie Guerrero, told investigators she had considered failing him as an intern but "decided to allow him to pass since he was going into psychiatry and would not be doing any real patient care."

Guerrero told ABC News his performance problems stemmed from his lack of competence in the intensive care unit, including problems with recommending the proper medications or coming up with the right kind of patient treatment plan.

The Investigation Continues

FBI agents returned yesterday to Hasan's Killeen apartment complex as they continue to unearth details of his personal life.

On the day of the shooting, military authorities thought Hasan was on leave in the Washington, D.C. area, according to the investigators. He had gone on leave on Nov. 2 and was not scheduled to return until after Thanksgiving, shortly before his scheduled Nov. 28 deployment to Afghanistan.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/hasan-...ory?id=9127299