Hospital: Ft. Hood shooting suspect awake, talking

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) - The man accused of killing 13 people and wounding 29 at Fort Hood is able to talk, a hospital spokesman said Monday, but it's unknown when investigators might take advantage of his improving health to press forward with their probe into the shooting spree.

Nidal Malik Hasan
Anonymous

The 2007 picture provided by the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences shows Nidal Malik Hasan when he entered the program for his Disaster and Military Psychiatry Fellowship. Authorities said he went on the killing spree at Fort Hood, Texas which left 13 people dead. (AP Photo/Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences)

Authorities say Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan fired off more than 100 rounds Thursday at a soldier processing center before civilian police shot him in the torso. He was taken into custody and eventually moved to an Army hospital in San Antonio, where he was in stable condition and able to talk, said Dewey Mitchell, a Brooke Army Medical Center spokesman.

Authorities continue to refer to Hasan, 39, as the only suspect in the shootings, but they won't say when charges would be filed and have said they have not determined a motive. A spokesman for Army investigators did not immediately respond to calls and e-mails seeking comment Monday.

Fifteen victims remained hospitalized with gunshot wounds, and eight were in intensive care.

The personal Web site for a radical American imam living in Yemen who had contact with two 9/11 hijackers praised Hasan as a hero.

The posting Monday on the Web site for Anwar al Awlaki, who was a spiritual leader at two mosques where three 9/11 hijackers worshipped, said American Muslims who condemned the Fort Hood attack are hypocrites who have committed treason against their religion.

Awlaki said the only way a Muslim can justify serving in the U.S. military is if he intends to "follow in the footsteps of men like Nidal."

"Nidal Hassan (sic) is a hero," Awlaki said. "He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people."

Two U.S. intelligence officials told The Associated Press the Web site was Awlaki's. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence collection. Awlaki did not immediately respond to an attempt to contact him through the Web site.

Hasan's family attended the Dar al Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va., where Awlaki was preaching in 2001. Hasan's mother's funeral was held at the mosque on May 31, 2001, according to her obituary in the Roanoke Times newspaper, around the same time two 9/11 hijackers worshipped at the mosque and while Awlaki was preaching.

Awlaki is a native-born U.S. citizen who left the United States in 2002, eventually traveling to Yemen. He was released from a Yemeni jail last year and has since gone missing. He is on Yemen's most wanted militant list, according to three Yemeni security officials.

The officials say Awlaki was arrested in 2006 with a small group of suspected al-Qaida militants in the capital San'a. They say he was released more than a year later after signing a pledge he will not break the law or leave the country. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The Falls Church mosque is one of the largest on the East Coast, and thousands of worshippers attend prayers and services there every week.

Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, outreach director at Dar al Hijrah, said he did not know whether Hasan ever attended the mosque but confirmed that the Hasan family participated in services there. Abdul-Malik said the Hasans were not leaders at the mosque and their attendance was normal.

The London Telegraph first reported the potential link between Hasan and the mosque.

Sen. Joe Lieberman said Sunday he wants Congress to determine whether the shootings constitute a terrorist attack and whether warning signs that Hasan was embracing an increasingly extremist view of Islamic ideology were missed.

Classmates who participated in a 2007-2008 master's program at a military college told The Associated Press that they complained to faculty during the program about what they considered to be Hasan's anti-American views, which included his giving a presentation that justified suicide bombing and telling classmates that Islamic law trumped the U.S. Constitution.

"If Hasan was showing signs, saying to people that he had become an Islamist extremist, the U.S. Army has to have zero tolerance," Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, said on "Fox News Sunday." ''He should have been gone."

Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey said Sunday it's important for the country not to get caught up in speculation about Hasan's Muslim faith, and he has instructed his commanders to be on the lookout for anti-Muslim reaction to the killings at the Texas post.

Casey, who appeared on ABC's "This Week" and CNN's "State of the Union," said evidence to this point shows that Hasan acted alone.

President Barack Obama is scheduled to attend a memorial service Tuesday honoring victims of the attack. Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the post commander, said the service will include a roll call of names of the dead and a 21-gun salute.

Fort Hood officials said the country's largest military installation was moving forward with the business of soldiering. The building where Hasan allegedly opened fire remains a crime scene, but a processing center is scheduled to reopen Thursday in a new, temporary location.

Command Sgt. Maj. Arthur L. Coleman Jr. said Monday that reopening the center is an important step in returning the Army post to normal. Cone said the post stepped up security, including suspending visits by the public, largely to reassure the population that the sprawling base is safe and won't "become a battlefield."

Sgt. 1st Class Frank Minnie was in the processing center last week getting some health tests and immunizations in preparation for his deployment. Minnie said that even after the shootings, Fort Hood soldiers have the attitude that "the mission still goes on."

"Everybody's going to grieve a little bit. It hurts a lot because it's one of your battle buddies, and someone lost a mom, dad, brother or sister," said Minnie, 37, who served in Iraq in 2006. "But it doesn't change my perspective of going to war. I've got a job to do."

___

Associated Press writers Allen Breed and Jeff Carlton at Fort Hood, Eileen Sulivan and Devlin Barrett in Washington, Ben Nuckols in Baltimore, Matthew Barakat in McLean, Va., and Ahmed al-Haj in San-a, Yamen, contributed to this report.

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Displaying comments, from newest to oldest

Gil's picture

Another member of the

Another member of the religion of peace.
An Imam is killed in a shootout with the cops. A muslim father runs his daughter down with a car for becoming too western. Another Muslim father shoots his daughters. A muslim shooter outside a recruiting station. I don't know how much more of this peaceful religion we can stand.
"Reasoning with a liberal is like trying to pick up a turd by the clean end. " Pirate

jchick's picture
verified

Gil, I know your comment was

Gil, I know your comment was basically "tongue in cheek",
Islam is NOT a peaceful religion. Never has been, never will be.
It makes the "crusades" and the "inquisition" look like childs play.

John A. Chick

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." -- Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Colonel Charles Yancey (January 6, 1816)

queenhoneeybee's picture
verified

Its comments like these and

Its comments like these and comments that I heard today on 'The View' that I fear affects people's views on people who practice the Muslim religion. On 'The View', they were talking about the Fort Hood gunman and they were discussing people reported that he would put his religion before his country. Joy then made a statement like wouldn't/shouldn't you question someone who puts muslim first before their country. Like THAT was the 'sign' for someone being a terrorist. It angered me because she didn't clarify that not all muslims are terrorist-it was made in a rather general statement. I mean, people who not well-informed look up to these people and some may already have a preconceived notion, a misconception of someone who is muslim. Not only that-this is sorta along the lines with racial-profiling that I whole-heartedly disagree with. Its NOT right. There are many, many, MANY people who put their beliefs before their country or even before their marriage and there is NOTHING wrong with that. Generalizing and stereotyping is just as bad as HATE. NOT all Muslims are bad people or terrorists.

Mac antSaior's picture
verified

They can't make an exception

They can't make an exception for sedition? I'm former Navy.. let me at him.

It is the undauntable thought, my friend. The one that says, "I'm right!" ~Bobby Sands

taxpayer's picture

Unfortunately the Army uses

Unfortunately the Army uses lethal injection and no longer uses the firing squad.

bar441's picture
verified

sounds good to me, Mac

sounds good to me, Mac

Mac antSaior's picture
verified

Glad he's talking... let him

Glad he's talking... let him give his final address to a firing squad.

It is the undauntable thought, my friend. The one that says, "I'm right!" ~Bobby Sands

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