24 replies to this topic

[Beer Chang]

Seven Dead and 20 Injured in Shootings at Texas Base
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 3:46 p.m. ET

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) -- The U.S. Army has closed its massive Army base at Fort Hood, Texas, amid reports that several people have been shot and killed at the post.

The Web site of the base in central Texas has posted an alert that says, ''Effective immediately Fort Hood is closed.'' The Web site said that units at the base have been ordered to account for all personnel.

The site says, ''This is not a Drill. It is an Emergency Situation.''

Several television stations in Texas say several people were both killed and wounded in the shooting. Officials at the base and in the nearby town of Killeen, Texas, have not confirmed those accounts.

Fort Hood is located halfway between Austin and Waco.

[Wino]

The latest report said that US Major Malik Nadal Hashan opened fire with two handguns at Fort Hood Readiness Center. Reports say there have been ten fellow soldiers, one civilian police officer killed and 31 additional soldiers wounded. Major Hashan has been shot and killed bringing the dead, at this time, to 12. Two additional soldiers may have been shooters. They have been apprehended and are being held and questioned. US Army Major Hashan is believed to be about 39 or 40 years old. No motive has been determined, yet.

[Wino]

The name of the US Army Major is Malik Nadel Hasan and was a psychiatrist. CNN reports that the two apprehended suspects have been questioned and released. The authorities are still questioning a third soldier that may be involved. The shooter was a mental health professional that may have been disturbed that he was about to be sent to Iraq.



This is a terrible tragedy and my heart goes out to the soldiers, their families and friends.

[eleothegreat]

And you would be surprised - Malik Nadel Hasan was a psychiatrist. Doesn't guarantee that if you're one you don't need help anymore. Now, if psychiatrists themselves need help - who do we turn to.

PS. Rip to those who were killed in this senseless act of tragedy, and love and thoughts to their loved ones.

[lvdkeyes]

When I was in college, my psychology professor said he went into the field because he had issues to deal with himself and he didn't know of any other therapist who went into the field for any other reason.

[Bob]

My sympathies to the victims and their friends and families. A real tragedy.

On a side note, the fact that the shooter was a psychiatrist might surprise some people but it doesn't surprise me. For a decade, I handled hearings in a state psychiatric hospital representing people who were being involuntarily confined. It was a great experience and I especially enjoyed the comraderie between prosecutors, defense staff, various judges, court staff and the hospital staff (nurses, social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists). But we all - including the psychiatrists themselves - used to repeatedly make comments that, based on our experiences, psychologists and psychiatrists sure seemed to have a very high percentage of rather psychologically-fragile people. I would have guessed that almost half of them were mentally ill themselves.

[WannaGo]

I'm wondering if this shooting has now inspired the guy in Orlando who walked into an office where he was fired two years ago and started shooting people. Looks like one dead, a half-dozen injured.

[Wino]

eleothegreat, on 06 November 2009 - 06:17 PM, said:

And you would be surprised - Malik Nadel Hasan was a psychiatrist. Doesn't guarantee that if you're one you don't need help anymore. Now, if psychiatrists themselves need help - who do we turn to.

Hopefully when a psychiatrist needs help, they will turn to another psychiatrist or psychologist for assistance. I know listening to the problems of other people for a living would depress me. My heart really goes out to the soldiers and families of these soldiers. Can you imagine coming back from a tour of duty overseas and then being killed or wounded at home in your Army base. What a tragedy.

[lvdkeyes]

Many doctors take the advice -"Physician heal thyself" too literally. When I was doing home care the worst patient I had to care for was a physician who would not follow his doctor's orders. He said, "I am a doctor." I told him that is is said that "a man who acts as his own lawyer has a fool for a client" and the same applies to physicians. I didn't score any points with him, but his wife and son told him to listen to what I had said.

[Wino]

Doctors are human too and it takes all kinds. I know a physician that knows enough to go to a specialist when needed. He is smart enough to seek the advice of more than one doctor. After a review of the findings, he adheres to the specialist's advice.

[lvdkeyes]

Now it seems that this guy sent up many red flags, but no one did anything about it for fear of appearing racist.

[WannaGo]

lvdkeyes, on 09 November 2009 - 01:19 AM, said:

Now it seems that this guy sent up many red flags, but no one did anything about it for fear of appearing racist.

He's been taken off the ventilator, so it will be interesting to see what he says, if anything, when he's able to speak.

And, thank God for all of us that Joe Lieberman is getting involved. Otherwise, no one would ever bother to investigate why Hasan shot up the place. 'Cause you know nothing ever happens unless some grandstanding politician begins demanding action. (sarcasm intended)

[Wino]

lvdkeyes, on 09 November 2009 - 01:19 AM, said:

Now it seems that this guy sent up many red flags, but no one did anything about it for fear of appearing racist.

I am not sure the reason was for fear of appearing racist. According to this article, the FBI is looking into it.


WASHINGTON – Nearly a year before Maj. Nidal Hasan allegedly went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, terrorism investigators conducted an "assessment" of him before deciding he did not pose a threat. After the shooting, the FBI is doing a new assessment — of its own conduct.


The FBI will conduct an internal review to see whether it mishandled early information about the man accused in the bloody rampage that killed 13 people and wounded 29



FBI Director Robert Mueller</SPAN> ordered the inquiry into the bureau's handling of the case, including its response to potentially worrisome information gathered about Hasan beginning in December 2008 and continuing into early this year.



http://news.yahoo.co...mlyZWFzc2Vzc2k-

[lvdkeyes]

Can you think of another reason why the red flags and complaints to superiors were ignored?

[Wino]

lvdkeyes, on 10 November 2009 - 03:30 PM, said:

Can you think of another reason why the red flags and complaints to superiors were ignored?

I certainly do not have the details of the red flags, but I can think of a few reasons this guy's action slipped through the cracks. He was a major and a medical doctor and so he was well-respected. Bureaucracy in the armed forces is entrenched. I imagine the information had to make its way up the chain of command. Some people in that chain are lazy and some don't want to rock the boat. Perhaps none of his actions were against the law or rules of the army?

[lvdkeyes]

I read that there were several people who expressed concern over his behavior and comments. There are several articles online. Just Google Food Hood Shooting.

[WannaGo]

Apparently one of the shooting victims was a young Hmong man born in Thailand.


St. Paul, Minn. — A St. Paul soldier is among the 13 people killed in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood yesterday.

Kham Xiong, 23, had joined the Army earlier this year. He was following in the footsteps of his younger brother, Nelson, who had joined the Marines and was deployed to Afghanistan.

Xiong's family said he worked as a vehicle mechanic in the Army and that he was expecting to be shipped overseas for a deployment early next year.

On Thursday, Xiong was among about 300 soldiers in line, waiting for vaccinations and eye tests at the base's Soldier Readiness Center when he was shot and killed...

...Robert Xiong said his brother was one of 11 siblings, all children of Hmong refugees who settled in Minnesota. His father had fought the Communist insurgents in Laos during the Vietnam War, and the family eventually fled to Thailand where Kham Xiong was born.

The family immigrated to Santa Barbara in 1984, and his father came to Minnesota in 1998 to find work. The family has lived in Minnesota ever since.

More

[Wino]

Do most see this as another Jihadist terrorist act?

[Bob]

Wino, on 12 November 2009 - 06:52 PM, said:

Do most see this as another Jihadist terrorist act?

So far, I only see it as a mass murder. The signs of jihad are there but, given I don't trust the press that much, I couldn't conclude that as yet. And the prosecution, if they are doing their job properly, won't play this case out in the press but in court when the time is right. Then we'll likely know for sure.

[WannaGo]

Wino, on 12 November 2009 - 06:52 PM, said:

Do most see this as another Jihadist terrorist act?

So far, there's been nothing to indicate this guy was an extremist. Even DoD says the contact he had with a radical cleric -- which was intercepted and monitored -- was strictly for research purposes. Read something today from a profiler who says the whole thing plays out more like the crazed-loner mass murder scenario that we see in the news three or four times a year.