Fort Hood suspect said his goodbyes before rampage

[babylonsister]

Fort Hood suspect said his goodbyes before rampage

By MIKE BAKER and BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE
Associated Press Writers


FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) -- As if going off to war, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan cleaned out his apartment, gave leftover frozen broccoli to one neighbor and called another to thank him for his friendship - common courtesies and routines of the departing soldier. Instead, authorities say, he went on the killing spree that left 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, dead.

Investigators examined Hasan's computer, his home and his garbage Friday to learn what motivated the suspect, who lay in a coma, shot four times in the frantic bloodletting. Hospital officials said some of the wounded had extremely serious injuries and might not survive.

The 39-year-old Army psychiatrist emerged as a study in contradictions: a polite man who stewed with discontent, a counselor who needed to be counseled himself, a professional healer now suspected of cutting down the fellow soldiers he was sworn to help.

Relatives said he felt harassed because of his Muslim faith but did not embrace extremism. Others were not so sure. A recent classmate said Hasan once gave a jarring presentation to students in which he argued the war on terrorism was a war against Islam, and "made himself a lightning rod for things" when he felt his religious beliefs were challenged.

Investigators were trying to piece together how and why Hasan allegedly gunned down his comrades in the worst case of violence on a military base in the U.S. The rampage unfolded at a center where some 300 unarmed soldiers were lined up for vaccines and eye tests.

more...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_FORT_HOOD_SHOOTING?SITE=CONGRA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[madmax]

1. This guys head must have been so

fucked up. Hated by both sides. An Arab/American soldier in the US Army who may have been hated by some of his fellow soldiers being given orders for Iraq. To be hated and possibly killed by either side. I think I would have gone AWOL. Fuck that.

[geckosfeet]

2. I believe he had orders for Afghanistan.

[havocmom]

3. Yep. Put in no win situation, add lots of stress and desperation...

It isn't guns that kill. No way out of impossible situations kill. Leaving people with no hope, and only unmanageable stress kills.

Sadly, this won't be the last time such stress kills people.

[crim son]

4. He was leaving, right?

Is it possible he was preparing for deployment?

[babylonsister]

7. Makes me wonder why he bought such a deadly weapon. I don't

think he was bringing that on a deployment, but I don't know. Don't even know if that would be legal. :shrug:

[crim son]

8. I am very ignorant about all things military so

really shouldn't try to guess what he was thinking or doing.

[pinto]

5. What a sad, violent situation. And, a really good background article on it here.

Reporters put some work into this.

Thanks for the snag.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

6. "As if going off to war"

Isn't that what was about to happen? According to the reports I've heard, he was going to be deployed.

And according to this article, he's in a coma. The news reports yesterday said he wasn't talking with military investigators, suggesting that he refused to talk.

[ChicagoSuz219]

9. This man did everything but take out a full-page ad in the paper...

...how is it that everybody knew about him & nobody did anything to stop him?!?