Hasan Reportedly Felt U.S. Attacked Islam

More Details Emerge on Suspected Fort Hood Gumnan; Former Classmate Remembers Him Railing Against War on Terror

(CBS/ AP)  A classmate of the Fort Hood shooting suspect says Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was an outspoken opponent of the U.S. war on terror and called it a "war against Islam."

Dr. Val Finnell was a classmate of Hasan's at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. Both attended a master's in public health program in 2007 and 2008.

Finnell says he got to know Hasan in an environmental health class. At the end of the class, students gave presentations. Finnell says other classmates wrote on subjects such as dry cleaning chemicals and mold in homes, but Hasan's topic was whether the war against terror was "a war against Islam." Finnell described Hasan as a "vociferous opponent" of the terror war.

Finnell says Hasan told classmates he was "a Muslim first and an American second."

Special Section: Tragedy at Fort Hood

Thursday's shooting left 13 dead and 34 wounded. Hasan survived a gunshot wound and was in stable condition, under guard, in a local hospital as investigators try to piece together what motivated the rampage.

Investigators have located a shooting range near Fort Hood where Hasan practiced in his spare time as well as the gun store where a few weeks ago he bought the murder weapon, a semi automatic pistol which carries a clip of 20 rounds and is known on the street as a "cop killer," CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports.

A cousin of Hasan's in the West Bank said the military psychiatrist had little contact with his Palestinian relatives but had told family there that he suffered discrimination in the U.S. Army because he is a Muslim.

Mohammed Malik Hasan told the AP he had not heard from his cousin since a visit to the West Bank 15 years ago but that he heard from other relatives in the U.S. that he was distressed on learning he was to be deployed to Afghanistan. Hasan said his cousin had hired a lawyer to seek a military discharge.

Speaking in Ramallah Friday, he described Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan as "religious and not very social but ... very normal."

More Coverage of the Tragedy at Fort Hood:

Hasan Likely "Lone Wolf," Officials Say
Hasan Reportedly Felt U.S. Attacked Islam
List of Fort Hood Dead, Wounded
Neighbor: Ft. Hood Suspect Packed Up Home
"Allahu Akbar": Hasan's Words as He Fired?
Mosques Up Security in Wake of Ft. Hood
Obama: Don't Jump to Conclusions
Hasan's Actions "Despicable," Family Says
Female Cop Hailed as Ft. Hood Hero
Store's Video May Show Ft. Hood Suspect
U.S. Army Base Violence Has Bloody History
Tragedy at Fort Hood

Accounts of Hasan's life paint a complex and, at times, contradictory picture. He was by turns caring and contentious, a man quick to say "I am blessed" in casual greeting yet one who seemed to stew in discontent that he could not always keep to himself.

His job as a military psychiatrist was to salve the emotional wounds of troops returning from war even as he objected to his own looming deployment to Afghanistan, where he was to counsel soldiers suffering from stress.

But Hasan argued with fellow soldiers who supported U.S. war policy, say those who know him professionally and personally. He was a counselor who once required counseling for himself because of trouble he had dealing with some patients, said a former boss.

Authorities on Friday seized Hasan's home computer, searched his apartment and took away a Dumpster as the 39-year-old Army major lay in a coma in the hospital, attached to a ventilator.

While it's early in the investigation, investigators are looking at the case as a "lone wolf" situation, senior law enforcement officials told CBS News correspondent Bob Orr.

The FBI is going through his computer records - looking for web sites visited, contacts and writings. Investigators are also going through cell phone records, reports Orr.

There are many unknowns about the man authorities say is responsible for the worst mass killing on a U.S. military base.

Most of all, his motive.

For six years before reporting for duty at Fort Hood, in July, Hasan worked at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center pursuing his career in psychiatry, as an intern, a resident and, last year, a fellow in disaster and preventive psychiatry. He received his medical degree from the military's Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., in 2001.

While an intern at Walter Reed, Hasan had some "difficulties" that required counseling and extra supervision, said Dr. Thomas Grieger, who was the training director at the time.

Grieger said privacy laws prevented him from going into details but noted that the problems had to do with Hasan's interactions with patients. He recalled Hasan as a "mostly very quiet" person who never spoke ill of the military or his country.

"He swore an oath of loyalty to the military," Grieger said. "I didn't hear anything contrary to those oaths."

But, more recently, federal agents grew suspicious.

At least six months ago, Hasan came to the attention of law enforcement officials because of Internet postings about suicide bombings and other threats, including posts that equated suicide bombers to soldiers who throw themselves on a grenade to save the lives of their comrades.

They had not confirmed Hasan is the author of the posting, and a formal investigation had not been opened before the shooting, said law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the case.

Federal authorities seized Hasan's computer Friday during a search of his apartment in Killeen, Texas, said a U.S. military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.

His anger was noted by a classmate, who said Hasan "viewed the war against terror" as a "war against Islam."

Dr. Val Finnell, a classmate of Hasan's at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, attended a master's in public health program in 2007-2008. Finnell says he got to know Hasan because the group of public health students took an environmental health class together. At the end of the class, everyone had to give a presentation. Classmates wrote on topics such as dry cleaning chemicals and mold in homes, but Finnell said Hasan chose the war against terror. Finnell described Hasan as a "vociferous opponent" of the terror war. Finnell said Hasan told classmates he was "a Muslim first and an American second."

Hasan recently was involved in a spat with another Fort Hood soldier residing in his apartment complex, apparently related to his Muslim beliefs.

The manager of the complex, John Thompson, said the other soldier, John Van de Walker, allegedly keyed Hasan's car and also removed and tore up a bumper sticker that read "Allah is Love." Thompson said Van de Walker had been in Iraq and was upset to learn that Hasan was Muslim.

A report filed with Killeen police on Aug. 16 indicates that Hasan's vehicle, a 2006 Honda Civic, had been scratched by an unknown object causing an estimated $1,000 worth of damage. The report indicates that Van de Walker, 30, was arrested on Oct. 21 and charged with criminal mischief. The matter has been referred for prosecution, according to the report.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Hasan's aunt, Noel Hasan of Falls Church, Va., said he had been harassed about being a Muslim in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and he wanted to get out of the Army. She said he had sought a discharge for several years, and even offered to repay the cost of his medical training.

Hasan was in the preparation stage of deployment, which can take months, though Army spokeswoman Col. Cathy Abbott was uncertain when Hasan was to leave. Abbott said Hasan was to deploy with an Army Reserve unit that provides what the military calls "behavioral health" counseling.

Another military official said Hasan had indicated he didn't want to go to Iraq but was willing to serve in Afghanistan. The official did not have authorization to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

A different military official said Hasan's family has Palestinian roots. There have been reports that he was harassed for his Muslim religion, but the official says there is no indication Hasan filed a complaint with military officials about that.

Alice Thompson, the manager at the apartment complex where Hasan lived, said he'd been living there since mid-August. Thompson said she didn't talk to him other than to say hello in passing. Thompson said he always answered her "How are you?" with "I am blessed."

Noel Hasan said her nephew "did not make many friends" and would say "the military was his life."

A cousin, Nader Hasan, told The New York Times that after counseling soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder, Hasan knew the scars of war well.

"He was mortified by the idea of having to deploy," Nader Hasan said. "He had people telling him on a daily basis the horrors they saw over there."

Retired Army Col. Terry Lee, who said he worked with Hasan, told Fox News that Hasan had hoped President Barack Obama would pull troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq. Lee said Hasan got into frequent arguments with others in the armed forces who supported the wars, and had tried hard to prevent his pending deployment.

Col. Kimberly Kesling, deputy commander of clinical services at Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, said she had known Hasan.

"You wouldn't think that someone who works in your facility and provided excellent care for his patients, which he did, could do something like this," Kesling said. She described him as "a quiet man who wouldn't seek the limelight" and said she was shocked when she heard he was the suspect in the shootings.

Hasan attended prayers regularly when he lived outside Washington, often in his Army uniform, said Faizul Khan, a former imam at a mosque Hasan attended in Silver Spring, Md. He said Hasan was a lifelong Muslim.

"I got the impression that he was a committed soldier," Khan said. He spoke often with Hasan about Hasan's desire for a wife.

On a form filled out by those seeking spouses through a program at the mosque, Hasan listed his birthplace as Arlington, Va., but his nationality as Palestinian, Khan said.

"We hardly ever got to discussing politics," Khan said. "Mostly we were discussing religious matters, nothing too controversial, nothing like an extremist."

Hasan earned his rank of major in April 2008, according to a July 2008 Army Times article.

He served eight years as an enlisted soldier. Military records show he also served in the ROTC as an undergraduate at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and received a bachelor's degree in biochemistry there in 1997.

But college officials said Friday that Hasan graduated with honors in biochemistry in 1995 and there was no record of him serving in any ROTC program.

He previously had attended Barstow Community College in Barstow, Calif., and Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke, Va., according to Virginia Tech records.

[JosephCRProgram]

Andy,

An excellent in-depth analysis, I enjoyed reading your perspective. There is also another dynamic that the mainstream, at least in the West fails to conceptualize. You have to study Islam, such as I, as an academic to know the impact of Islam on a person, or on a society. Comparing Islam to Christianity is not an accurate assessment, it is simply not possible. There is no premise for such a comparison. Besides, a theological debate would be that both religions, Islam and Christianity adhere to the fact, that each one saw itself, as the bearer of the final revelation, for Islam the Prophet Muhammad, for Christianity, Jesus.
Besides Sharia (Islamic Law), and theoretically speaking, Islam does not distinguish between religion and State. Moreover, in Christianity, religion is viewed and seen as a single compartment of our daily life or lives. Contrary, in Islam, religion is your entire life, not a single compartment of a person's life. Other aspects of a person's life such as, social contact, jurisprudence, family law, military service, education are all secondary, they revolve around Islam and the Quran. The Quran and Islam are your entire life and if you practice a conservative form, it's even more influential.
I discuss this dynamic in more detail in my thesis which I am currently writing. My thesis problem statement, address this vary dilemma (between Muslims residing in Italy and Catholicism), what Major Nidal Hassan once said to a physician colleague at Walter Reed; "I am a Muslim first and a American second.." It's a conflict in religious identity, meaning, a conflict between Islam and its compatibility in living a Western form of secularism and with the premise of traditional Christian values.

[JosephCRProgram]

This is a conflict of inherent ideologies, he must of felt compelled between his beliefs in a extreme form of Islam and his duties as a military officer assigned in the Army.

Most people who read about the Quran, Islam and extremist viewpoints, which are greatly influenced by Wahhabism, fail to acknowledge that the Prophet Muhammad, the Quran, and the Kharijites were all from pre-modern times. These viewpoints originated in the 7th and 8th centuries, prior to modernity, prior to the formulation of the nation-state. Their world was divided simplistically, into the realms of belief, and non-belief, meaning Muslims (or those who follow God) and non-Muslim (enemies of God). The dynamics of the world are different today, especially in Western societies, where power and governance are influenced and determined by the Nation-state and secularism.

Major Hasan's recent shooting spree, obviously was motivated by a conflict between conservative Islam and a calling for military service -- and his subsequent deployment to Afghanistan or Iraq greatly amplified this contradiction. What a ideological dilemma! It's as if he was forced to choose between a life of strict-adherence to the Quran and loyalty for one's country, through military service, even if resulting in a controversial deployment to a Muslim country during a time of war. A conflict between religious ideology and duty for one's country -- This, exemplifies a true Islamic meaning of "jihad"; "a struggle within for faith...."
Given the circumstances, as it is released piece-meal by the media, I am not surprised that he reverted to violence.

[AndyMaxo]

Joseph; You have made a good summary of our dilemma. This is the exact discussion we need to get everybody involved in sooner or later and the sooner the better.
The problem is, no matter how we say the words, the discussion (or argument) eventually comes down to Islamic law versus constitutional law. Islam?s very core mandates that all governments abide by Islamic law as commanded by Allah in Mohammed?s Quran. The best example to date is the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Iran?s common laws such as traffic ticket fines and other civil violations, are the only ones allowed for people to make. Otherwise, Islamic law threads and spreads from the bottom of the shoes to the highest level of the government, the Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah.
This means that the Quran drives all forms of authority and is the only way of life allowed. Essentially, all other forms of government on earth not under Islamic law, are seen as ?un-sanctioned? by Allah and therefore are inherently shunned and ignored as ?sinful? in nature and illegal. Remember, to the devout Muslim, this was commanded by God and there is no arguing about that, allowed.

If you lay the Quran down next to the US Constitution and start going through each one, it becomes very clear, very quickly that the two are mutually exclusive. A society could not possibly follow both of these sets of rules at the same time. Islam demands total adherence to Islamic law while the US Constitution separates church and state right up front. The founders wrote it that way for a reason, so that we would no longer be ruled by religion or by a King. The founders must have known they were creating a new form of government which forbids the new country to operate based on religious beliefs, including Islamic beliefs. The founders also provided that the government cannot stop people from practicing their religion.

The US Constitution built a high wall of separation of church and state where Islam rejects that concept totally.

I don?t believe these two entirely different ways of life can be reconciled. Not now and not ever. What to do about that, I have no clue. Something will have to give everywhere this two ?Butt up? against each other. It?s similar to a fault line where two opposing forces are so embedded and dug in, that eventually something has to give. To the Muslims point of view I don?t see how they could disobey Allah and expect to stay alive. To the American point of view I don?t see us giving up our total free way of life.

As we do now in America, we can try living together but to do so, we have to leave each other alone.
The problem with that is that Islam cannot simply live together with non-believers and so it is always pressing against that ? it can?t be any different as that?s what Mohammed said that Allah told him and so he wrote it down as God?s law. Once he did that, the world was changed forever.

[mljohns00]

OF COURSE the U.S. attacked Islam. How could Hasan not think that? Why else would we kill thousands of people to "catch" one (or a hundred) people?

[JosephCRProgram]

Andy,

Excellent analysis, I enjoyed reading your perspective. There is also another dynamic that the mainstream, at least in the West fails to conceptualize. You have to study Islam, such as I, as an academic to know the impact of Islam on a person, or on a society. Comparing Islam to Christianity is not an accurate assessment, it is simply not possible. Besides Sharia, and theoretically theoretically Islam does not distinguish between Religion and State, moreover, in Christianity, religion as viewed and seen as one single compartment of our daily life or lives. In Islam, religion is your entire life, not a single compartment of a person's life. Other aspects of a person's life such as, social contact, sporting events, military service, education are all secondary, they revolve around Islam and the Quran. It is your entire life and if you practice a conservative form, it's even more influential. I discuss this dynamic in more detail in my thesis which I am currently writing.

[sean66x]

Arabs are angry that 85,000 Iraqis were killed since 2003. They want the fighting to stop. Hasan vented his frustration with murder. Why allow Barack Obama to incite blood lust? Many thousands of Arab Children were killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan over the last ten years. Obama's declaration of holy war is misconceived and avaricious.

[AndyMaxo]

Are you a Muslim or a Republican? It's hard to tell the two apart nowdays. Tens of thousands of the 85,000 Iraqis killed were by Muslim suicide bombers. The Pakistani body count is rising daily as the Muslim suicide bombers try to kill as many women and children as they can.

We don't fight "Holy Wars" in the United States. Our constitution is based on law, not religion. We have seperation of church and state. Our Supreme court members are appointed by our President and confirmed by our Congress, not by Allah or some group of mullahs. Our government is divided into three equal branches. There is no "Preacher" in charge of anybody or anything.
However what does unite the US in a fighting mode is when our people are attacked as on Sept 11, 2001 and at Fort Hood the other day.
For your information, I'm pushing to GET OUT of Iraq and Afghanistan ASAP, RIGHT NOW TODAY, THE SOONER THE BETTER, OUT, OUT, OUT!
Why? Better question is WHY NOT? Because its not worth it anymore. I want Americans OUT of all Islamic countries on the double. Our sons and daughters and husbands and wives die for no good reasons? We fight to save the Muslims while they stand by and hate us for it.
I voted for Obama because he promised to get us out of these blood filled cess pools which are mired down in Tribal warfare and Islamic contradiction and confusion going back over a thousand years.
We can't fix that like some people believe we can. No, we can't ever fix that. We need to get out!

[Newster1]

but Hasan's topic was whether the war against terror was "a war against Islam."

No surprise there, in the 19th century we declared war on innocent natives and slaughtered thousands of them to steal their lands, then we declared war on any wildlife that interferred with livestock interests- wolves, coyotes, fox, bears, you name it.
No surprise to me.

[YrStillWrong]

I appreciate that for some of you this is another reason to obsess about GWB. Sure, he treated you wrong, Rihanna. But enough already.

[rwsmith29456]

Again, if the guy hates the U.S. so much, GO SOMEWHERE HE LIKES IT BETTER. Attacking Islam. Yeah right. He and his cronies are attacking democracy.

[formrusmcsgt]

His comments address US policy, not the US itself.

You appear incapable of distinguisheing between the two.

[JV1970]

I agree! If he hates the US so much I don't understand why he didn't just defect to Palestine or Jordan or wherever his ancestors came from? I think there is more to this than what we know now. I know that the news has been reporting that he has never been to the middle east but that still doesn't mean that he wasn't a member of a terrorist group. He could have been contacting them by computer by using public computers that are available in most coffee shops and public libraries. There would be no record of the activity in his own personal computer at home. Also prepaid cell phones that are available in most WalMarts and Kmarts are untracable because you don't sign a contract to get service with them and there is no record of the calls that you make or receive with them. I know this is a fact because I have one. You can call anywhere in the world with them and there is no record of the call. The service company simply deducts the minutes used from your phone and every few months you pay a service charge and they add 60, 90, 120, up to about 3 or 4 hundred minutes to your phone, depending on the amount of time that you buy. These phones are cheap and disposable and there's no record of the calls. You also don't need a credit card or good credit to buy one. You can walk in any WalMart and buy one for about $25.00 - $30.00 cash, service included. It's very possible that this guy had one.

[wdh3007]

Why was their no armed MP's on the base to take this terrorist out who disarmed the millitary police and when, why is their no media reporting outside his mosque and why did our president look even more confused on what to do or say in a time of urgent tradegy. Why was their no moment of silence at Congress for Fort Hood but instead for some little shooting in Florida which happens all the time. I let you be the juedge on this one I have my own opinions but know this beware of the government media complex.

[formrusmcsgt]

"Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was an outspoken opponent of the U.S. war on terror and called it a "war against Islam."
-----
I wonder why?

Just because we perpetually stack the deck for Israel in the "peace process" and invade and occupy Arab countries for years (decades?) on end trying to force our system on them, maybe?

[bubbadubba]

<<<THIS GUY IS A ILLUSTRATION OF THE MANY PROBLEMS OF IMMIGRATION.>>>

As part Native American I know just what you are saying, IMMIGRANT.
My ancestors should have closed the borders to all immigrants and then then 100 million of them would not have been murdered through 500 years of ethnic cleansing by the European immigrants and all for land and money.