"Allahu Akbar": Hasan's Words as He Fired?
Soldiers who witnessed the shooting rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead reported that the gunman shouted "Allahu Akbar!" as he fired on his fellow soldiers, the base commander said Friday.
Lt. Gen. Robert Cone told "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith said officials had not yet confirmed that the suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, made the comment, which is Arabic for "God is great!" during the rampage Thursday, which also left 30 people wounded, including the gunman.
"Did he say anything as he was carrying out this act?" Smith asked Cone.
"There are reports, unconfirmed, that he was saying, 'Allahu Akbar," ' Cone replied.
As he laid out what happened, Cone lauded the soldiers on-scene who struggled mightily to help others. "In talking to many of the soldiers in the hospital last night," Cone said to Smith, "they reported almost a very calm and measured approach by the gunman, who went around and, in some cases, talked to one young man who was shot four times, and by the same shooter. And then when he thought -- he said, 'I made the mistake of moving, and I was shot again.'
"And ... as the shooter would change directions, the soldiers would scramble on the ground and try to help each other to carry each other outside the building. And at one point, the gunman realized a lot of the soldiers had started to escape, walked and started shooting outside the building and struck some of the soldiers as they were trying to escape.
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"The stories from these young soldiers ... (they were) really remarkable in terms of their reaction. A young lady who realizes that her battle buddy is hurt takes her blouse off, ties a tourniquet, carries the guy outside, gets him to safety and then realizes she herself is shot. Talking to most of these kids, I said, "Did it hurt, etc.,' and they said, 'All we could think of is getting out of there.' So, pretty good reaction, I think."
Cone also discussed what's ahead for the base now, and how the gunman was shot and captured:
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CBS/ AP Lt. Gen. Robert Cone told "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith said officials had not yet confirmed that the suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, made the comment, which is Arabic for "God is great!" during the rampage Thursday, which also left 30 people wounded, including the gunman.
"Did he say anything as he was carrying out this act?" Smith asked Cone.
"There are reports, unconfirmed, that he was saying, 'Allahu Akbar," ' Cone replied.
As he laid out what happened, Cone lauded the soldiers on-scene who struggled mightily to help others. "In talking to many of the soldiers in the hospital last night," Cone said to Smith, "they reported almost a very calm and measured approach by the gunman, who went around and, in some cases, talked to one young man who was shot four times, and by the same shooter. And then when he thought -- he said, 'I made the mistake of moving, and I was shot again.'
"And ... as the shooter would change directions, the soldiers would scramble on the ground and try to help each other to carry each other outside the building. And at one point, the gunman realized a lot of the soldiers had started to escape, walked and started shooting outside the building and struck some of the soldiers as they were trying to escape.
More Coverage of the Tragedy at Fort Hood:
What Might Have Set Off Fort Hood Gunman?
Fort Hood Suspect's Home Searched
Answers Sought in Ft. Hood Shooter Rampage
Radical Ties Not Ruled Out at Ft. Hood
Store's Video May Show Ft. Hood Suspect
Anti-Muslim Backlash Immediate
Fort Hood Rampage Suspect Sill Alive
What Was Shooter's Motive?
Soldier Opens Fire at Ft. Hood; 13 Dead
U.S. Army Base Violence Has Bloody History
Obama: Fort Hood Shooting "Horrific"
Fast Facts: Fort Hood
Tragedy at Fort Hood
"The stories from these young soldiers ... (they were) really remarkable in terms of their reaction. A young lady who realizes that her battle buddy is hurt takes her blouse off, ties a tourniquet, carries the guy outside, gets him to safety and then realizes she herself is shot. Talking to most of these kids, I said, "Did it hurt, etc.,' and they said, 'All we could think of is getting out of there.' So, pretty good reaction, I think."
Cone also discussed what's ahead for the base now, and how the gunman was shot and captured:
Watch CBS News Videos Online
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When are you going to give shout out for cleaning all the racist behaviour of white culture ? Iraq war was nothing but a racist war, a blood lust of American right wingers to kill as many Muslims as possible ,
as according to Ann Coulter Quote -> Attack their countries, kill their leaders, convert them to Christianity.
1. Attack happened .
2. They killed leaders.
3. Convert them to Christianity ( This is done 50% by demonizing muslims so much that , they can't defend their faith).
I am definitely sure that there will be many soldiers in American army with this mentality. Other why would some one will tear the "All is love" Sticker from Major Hasan's car ? First you will have to get rid of those soldiers if you want any cooperation from Muslims. No body is going to help you in war against Islam.
Then we went to war. Never had he considered that we might go to war against people from a similar ethnic and religious background, people who essentially believed what he believed, who were living in the area his parents came from. Now what to do? He didn't want to shoot people like himself, but he had his duty. He didn't want to face the dangers of the battlefield that he thought he would never face.
Sadly for him, if the President and his commanders said that people with whom he felt such a bond were the enemy, he had to behave as if they were, and shoot them. If they said, "Go, even at the risk of your death." he had to obey his orders and go. He was getting older and wising up too, realizing that he himself could be wounded or die. He had heard the stories of people back from the very battlefields he was soon to head for.
So he tried to convince others that the war was wrong, but it made no difference. Once we are at war somewhere the military personnel have to obey their orders no matter what. The enemy is shooting at them and they have to shoot back, for survival at least. Then he learned that even his court case to try to stop his deployment would not save him.
But still he did not want to take responsibility for his decision to enter the service when it seemed like a cakewalk. Still he did not want to face the fact that he had signed papers giving someone else the right to tell him to kill.
Members of the military do not get to choose the conditions of their service. They cannot demand to not have to go to war against people who look like family or share their religion. They cannot demand safety for themselves in an unsafe profession. The only way not to deploy was to make himself such a criminal here that we'd lock him in a cell for the rest of his life. All he had to do was give up his freedom forever.
On top of that he could get revenge. He could choose to do the shooting in a place that had people who had been over there, to punish those he deemed guilty, and those who were going over there, to prevent them from doing the same.
So to avoid facing his cowardice and bad judgment in joining up, he walked into a medical center with two guns and lots of extra ammo and opened fire. He killed people he never knew to make their dead bodies into the perfect excuse for himself.
What garbage he is.
SUCH A SPECIAL LITTLE SAYING.
KILL "THEM" BEFORE THEY SAY IT TO YOU.
POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IS KILLING AMERICA.
WHEN WILL WE LEARN. THIS NEEDS TO STOP.
WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR???
I do, however, want to make a lot on the fact that Hasan was called derisively a "Camel Jockey!" This kind of language is extremely offensive to Muslims, and there have been other instances in history where Muslims have shot Westerners for similar offenses. Add to the offense of "Camel Jockey" Hasan's unsuccessful effort to get out of the army, and his pending deployment to Iraq, and Hasan probably felt offended to the hilt, and chained into a service that has taken control of his life, and which -probably- didn't have any respect or compassion for him and his faith. I believe this was the point that he snapped.
But we can learn something from this disproportionate tragedy, and that is: Offending and pushing people of other cultures and other faiths to the edge, is not only socially offensive and dangerous, but it can also be tragic. And I don't have the slightest doubt in my mind that the events in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the plight of Palestinians have most Muslims on the edge. And when a Muslim psychiatrist like Hasan snaps and begin shooting, that definitely tells us that there is something terribly wrong with our policy toward Muslims. It is easy for us to call them "terrorists" and "camel jockeys," as it is easy to see the war against them as our deliverance. And as we have cornered them, they seek their own deliverance!
Nikos Retsos, retired professor
I am one American that does not want to live in any other country but this one. I am proud of our diverse culture and the people in it. If someone is not THEN GET OUT.
Methinks the good General stepped into politics, there.
Since he included "unconfirmed", and since I would think that being a General is indicative of the base level of intelligence required to make one aware that those words were sure to be food for rightie hate and subsequent conversion into a justification for the abuse of America's and the world's Islamic population, he should NEVER have said that until it was confirmed.
Bad General.
By the way: I have heard lots of soldiers say "Jesus Christ!" or "God help us!" or some such under stress; a reference to the primary figure of your religion under stress is NOT indicative of a planned terroristic action carried out to further the goals of your religion.
Of course, the righties - being the psychic vampires that they are; both unable and unwilling to live unless they have hate to feed off of - will attempt to use religion to further divide America and justify genocide.
Righties are as bad as the terrorists, their current target of opportunity.
They almost - ALMOST - make me glad the terrorists exist. For after watching Fox, listening to Rushbo, and reading rightie comments across the web, I have no doubt that they'd turn on somebody else if the terrorists didn't exist, justifying - in their minds - and focusing their attacks upon Islam.
And that somebody else might be me, 'cuz I don't go to church.
"a reference to the primary figure of your religion under stress is NOT indicative of a planned terroristic action carried out to further YOUR INTERPRETATION OF the goals of your religion."
Religion is the stick humans beat each other to death with. Not surprisingly, the sicker segments of humanity bend, twist, and warp their religions until they have an interpretation that justifies - in their minds - their compulsion to dominate others and to inflict maximum pain upon or even destroy those they can't dominate.
lolll...I view those who so twist religion to be afflicted with a lack of self-control verging on bestiality; they're really using religion to express their reproductive drives, which evolution has ensured includes a compulsion to dominate and/or eliminate competition.
Of course, since those so afflicted also profess that there is no such thing as evolution, they handily side-step that possibility.