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From : larawbar
Added: Nov 6, 2009
By Viola Gienger and Anthony Capaccio http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aG3rk2qUfmM4&pos=8 Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- An army psychiatrist is under guard in a Texas hospital after allegedly killing 12 people and wounding 31 others in one of the worst mass shootings at a U.S. military base. Major Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire on fellow soldiers with two handguns at the Fort Hood Army Base yesterday afternoon before he was shot several times, Lieutenant General Robert Cone, the commander of III Corps at the base, told reporters. He is currently in custody and in a stable condition, said Cone, adding authorities initially believed the suspected shooter had been killed. As horrible as this was, I think it could have been much worse. Military officials and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are probing what triggered the attack by the licensed physician at a crowded medical processing center on the base. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Texas Republican, said she was told by Fort Hood authorities the shooter was about to be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan and had been very upset and angry in the past few days. President Barack Obama called it a horrific outburst of violence directed at soldiers who have dedicated their lives to protecting the nation. While the deaths of soldiers in battles overseas is tragic, it is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil, Obama said in Washington. Graduation Ceremony The shootings began at about 1:30 p.m. local time as soldiers were awaiting dental and medical treatment at the processing center, said Cone. At an auditorium about 50 meters away, 138 soldiers were graduating from college extension courses and officials were able to close the doors to protect participants, he said. Military police locked down the base after the shooting, lifting the restrictions hours later after determining there was no likelihood of a further threat. The Virginia Board of Medicine lists Hasan as a licensed physician who has a primary practice at the Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood. It says he received his medical degree from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, in 2003 and completed a residency in psychiatry at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington in 2007 and a fellowship in disaster and preventive psychiatry in 2009. Hasan, 39, transferred to Fort Hood in July, the Associated Press reported, citing unidentified military officials. Devout Muslim He was a devout Muslim and had sought for several years to be discharged from the military, the Washington Post reported, citing his aunt. Noel Hasan told the newspaper her nephew had endured name-calling and harassment about his faith for years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon. The Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the shootings and urged calm as investigators piece together what happened. No political or religious ideology could ever justify or excuse such wanton and indiscriminate violence, Nihad Awad, the groups executive director, said in a statement. Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a statement the Army should be allowed to complete its investigation before we speculate about the circumstances leading to this senseless violence. The suspected shooter came to the attention of authorities six months ago because of Internet postings discussing suicide bombings and other threats, AP reported, citing unidentified law enforcement officials. Suicide Bombers One of the Web postings equated suicide bombers with a soldier throwing himself on a grenade to save the lives of his comrades, according to the report. Officials are trying to confirm whether Hasan was the author of the postings and a federal search warrant is being drawn up to authorize the seizure of his computer, the news service said. Fort Hood, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) north of Austin, the Texas capital, houses about 45,000 U.S. troops and is home to the Armys 1st Calvary and 4th Infantry divisions. It is one of the three largest Army bases in the U.S. by population and acreage. The base has felt the strain of multiple combat deployments, with 10 suicides reported there this year and more than 75 since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Washington Post reported. The base is near Killeen, the site of one of the worst mass killings in U.S. history when a gunman drove his pickup truck through a cafeteria window in 1991 and shot 22 people dead with a handgun before killing himself, AP said. No other shooting at a military base in the U.S. has been anywhere near as deadly as yesterdays attack, the news service reported. In 1993, a gunman at Fort Knox shot five civilian co- workers, killing three, and then fatally shot himself, AP said.
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