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Author Topic: Shooting at Ft. Hood Texas 11/05/09 13 dead, 43 wounded-(Murder Charges)  (Read 730134 times)
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« Reply #800 on: December 02, 2009, 04:36:21 PM »

Colo. feds look at Fort Hood connection to cleric

(AP) – 21 hours ago

DENVER — Federal authorities in Colorado are reviewing a 2002 file on a Muslim cleric who communicated with the shooting suspect at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver confirmed Tuesday that it has some record of Anwar al-Awlaki.

An official won't confirm a report by ABC News that the file is about a felony warrant issued on a passport fraud charge but then revoked by the Colorado U.S. Attorney's Office.

Al-Awlaki is a New Mexico native who graduated from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo., in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering. In 2002, he moved to Yemen, where he is at large.

The imam was reportedly corresponding by e-mail with Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who is charged with killing 13 people at Fort Hood last month.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h1OYVG8YZEW7YWCMLv3YZZuhyR9gD9CAQVVG1

Warrant withdrawn in 2002 for radical cleric who praised Fort Hood suspect
By Karen E. Crummy
The Denver Post
Posted: 12/01/2009 01:00:00 AM MST

Anwar al-Awlaki has preached on the Net and applauded suicide bombers.

An arrest warrant for a radical Islamic cleric who has become an important figure in the Fort Hood shooting investigation was withdrawn in 2002 by the Colorado U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver — possibly preventing his prosecution years before one of his followers killed 13.

An arrest warrant was issued for Anwar al-Awlaki in 2002 on charges from Denver's federal court of making a false statement and passport fraud, court documents show. Those charges were withdrawn before al-Awlaki, who was living in Yemen, was served the arrest warrant.

When al-Awlaki passed through JFK airport in New York City in October 2002, he was briefly detained. But after authorities there saw that the federal warrant from Colorado had been withdrawn, they released him, according to ABC News.

After that, Awlaki eventually returned to Yemen, where he has advocated for jihad against the West and is now considered by law enforcement to be an inspiration for al-Qaeda. One of his followers, according to federal authorities, was Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 at Fort Hood, Texas. Numerous e-mail exchanges between Hasan and al-Awlaki were found on Hasan's computer, authorities have said, and al-Awlaki, now in Yemen, has praised Hasan's actions.

The Colorado U.S. Attorney's Office is in the process of pulling the seven-year-old case they once built against al-Awlaki out of the archive warehouse and expects to get it today, said spokesman Jeff Dorschner. Specific details of the case were not immediately clear, he said, since the office handles about 500 cases a year and often prosecutes passport-fraud crimes. The prosecutor of the al-Awlaki case, Joe Mackey, was out of the office for an emergency.

Al-Awlaki has been known in federal law-enforcement circles for years. He spent part of his childhood in Yemen and graduated from Colorado State University in 1991. Afterward, he became a mosque leader, according to The Washington Post. He also served as vice president of a Yemeni charity that was later described by federal prosecutors as a "front organization" to support al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.

After 9/11, authorities learned that three of the hijackers visited al-Awlaki's California and Virginia mosques, but the FBI did not have enough evidence to arrest or detain him. In early 2002, he left the U.S. and started preaching on the Internet and applauding Palestinian suicide bombers.

It was while he was away that the U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver sought the arrest warrant. ABC News said it was based on the fact that al-Awlaki had attended CSU on a foreign-student visa, claiming he was born in Yemen, not in New Mexico, where he was actually born.

Soon after he was briefly detained at JFK, he returned to Europe, and then Yemen. He was arrested there in 2006 with a group of suspected al-Qaeda militants but was released a year later.

Last year, al-Awlaki on his website encouraged Muslims across the world to kill U.S. troops in Iraq, and he has often advocated for jihad against the West.

Hasan contacted al-Awlaki about a year ago, and the two exchanged between 10 and 20 e-mails.

In an interview published in The Washington Post, al-Awlaki said he did not pressure Hasan to carry out the shooting.

http://**/technology/ci_13897548
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« Reply #801 on: December 02, 2009, 04:52:11 PM »

From Yemen, Anwar Awlaki Helped Inspire Fort Dix, Toronto Plots
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/anwar-awlakis-terrror-ties/story?id=9055322

Al Qaeda Recruiter New Focus in Fort Hood Killings Investigation

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/al-qaeda-recruiter-focus-fort-hood-killings-investigation/story?id=9045492

Muslim Leader: Anwar al Awlaki Admired by 'Gangster Youth' Including Toronto 18
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/anwar-al-awlaki-admired-gangster-youth-including-toronto/story?id=9078179

How Anwar Awlaki Got Away
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/FtHoodInvestigation/anwar-awlaki/story?id=9200720
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« Reply #802 on: December 02, 2009, 04:59:48 PM »

Alleged Fort Hood Shooter Facing 32 Counts
Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan Accused Of Attempted Premeditated Murder

CBS News Interactive: Military 101
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) ―

An Army psychiatrist was charged Wednesday with 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the deadly mass shooting at Fort Hood that also injured more than two dozen soldiers and two civilian police officers, military officials said.

Maj. Nidal Hasan has already been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder after the Nov. 5 shooting in a building at the Texas base where soldiers must go before being deployed. Witnesses said he jumped on a desk and shouted "Allahu Akbar!" -- Arabic for "God is great!" Army officials have said he was armed with two pistols, one a semiautomatic capable of firing up to 20 rounds without reloading.

The additional charges come less than 24 hours after Hasan's civilian attorney was notified that the Army plans to evaluate Hasan to test his competency to stand trial as well as his mental state at the time of the shooting.

John Galligan, Hasan's attorney, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Army officials had not returned his calls so he did not know when or where the "mental responsibility" exam would take place. Galligan said he had filed an objection to the evaluation pointing out that Hasan was still in intensive care at a San Antonio military hospital recovering from gunshot wounds that left him paralyzed.

"I'm incensed at the way the military is handling this, serving additional charges on my client when he's in the hospital and defense attorneys are not present," Galligan told The AP by phone from his office near Fort Hood, about 150 miles southwest of Fort Worth. "And nobody will tell me what the plans are for the evaluation."

The results of the mental evaluation could prevent Hasan from being sent to death row or even being tried at all, although those scenarios are unlikely, experts say.

The exam is done by a board of mental health professionals to determine whether the suspect had a severe mental illness at the time of the crime; if so, his or her clinical psychological diagnosis; whether that prevented him from knowing at the time that his alleged actions were wrong; and if he is competent to stand trial, according to military law.

The evaluation usually takes several days and involves psychological testing and interviews by the board, said Richard Stevens, an attorney who specializes in defending military cases but is not involved in Hasan's case.

The board can review any evidence presented by prosecutors and defense attorneys, although the exam is closed to everyone except the doctors and Hasan, Stevens said.

"The government often requests a mental evaluation in cases where (insanity) may be the defense, because they want to know sooner rather than later what the doctors will determine about the defendant's mental status so they feel comfortable proceeding," he said.

If the board decides Hasan is not competent to stand trial, he would be hospitalized until he is found competent, Stevens said.

If it deems that Hasan had a severe mental illness but did not lack mental responsibility at the time of the crime, the military must decide whether to proceed with the case or drop the charges and have Hasan discharged from the Army based on his mental illness, Stevens said.

Prosecutors likely would dismiss the case if the board determined that Hasan lacked mental responsibility, because in a trial they would be faced with trying to discredit their own military health professionals, Stevens said.

If the case goes to trial, his defense attorneys can still use the insanity defense, which is rare, Stevens said.

A soldier being acquitted by reason of lacking mental responsibility also is rare and "can create great strains within the military behavioral health care system," according to a 2006 paper by three military doctors in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. The military didn't establish rules for what to do with such soldiers until 1996, according to the paper.

"He wouldn't remain in a military facility at that point because he would have been found not guilty, so the issue now is his mental state," Stevens said.

If a military jury were to acquit Hasan based on the insanity defense, he would be committed to a medical facility and evaluated to see if he poses a danger to society, Stevens said.

Then at a post-trial hearing, if the exam results revealed that he posed no danger, he could be released back to his Army unit, Stevens said. But the Army likely would have him discharged based on his mental illness and then he would be in the U.S. attorney general's custody, which would also happen if he was deemed a threat, Stevens said.

The attorney general usually asks the state to take over and place him in a mental facility, according to military law. If the state refuses, the attorney general would have him confined to a federal facility.

It's unclear if such a defendant would ever be released, but his case likely would be governed by the rules of the state or federal system on involuntary commitments.

Authorities have not said if they plan to seek the death penalty. If they do, and Hasan is convicted and receives that punishment, he would be sent to death row at the military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

There hasn't been a military execution since 1961, though five men sit on the military's death row at Fort Leavenworth.

Before a military execution can be carried out, the president must personally approve. George W. Bush signed an execution order last year for a former Army cook who was convicted of multiple rapes and murders in the 1980s, but a federal judge has stayed that order to allow for a new round of appeals in federal court.

http://cbs3.com/topstories/nidal.hasan.charged.2.1345804.html
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« Reply #803 on: December 02, 2009, 05:44:56 PM »

Pentagon targets inside threats

By Gregg Zoroya - USA Today
Posted : Tuesday Dec 1, 2009 21:18:01 EST

WASHINGTON — Since 2005, the Pentagon has studied ways to spot potentially dangerous personnel who may have divided loyalties or have been radicalized by outside influences — the types of threats at issue in the Fort Hood mass killings.

An obscure Pentagon research center produced the studies, Defense Department documents show. Air Force Lt. Col. Eric Butterbaugh, a Pentagon spokesman, declined to discuss the research or say whether the safeguards it proposed were in place at the time of the shooting.

Army Maj. Nidal Hasan has been charged with killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas. The military is investigating Hasan's contacts with a radical Muslim cleric in Yemen and what influence they may have had on the Army psychiatrist. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered a panel to review the incident to examine "internal weaknesses" that may have left the military vulnerable to the attack.

The Defense Personnel Security Research Center in Monterey, Calif., did the studies. Its efforts are intended to speed security clearances for military personnel and identify internal threats.

A 2006 study produced guidelines for finding potentially dangerous employees using a combination of behavioral and psychological profiling. Insiders who pose threats often act in ways that concern coworkers and are influenced by stress and "personal predispositions," the study said.

A 2005 study recommended that the Pentagon improve how investigators share information and update its policies concerning ways in which employees may communicate online with extremist groups. Both issues are factors in the Hasan investigation.

A Pentagon author of that report, Kelly Buck, did not respond to phone calls. But she referred a reporter to Amotz Brandes, a managing partner of Chameleon Associates, a Canoga Park, Calif., consulting firm that advises the Pentagon on internal security procedures.

Brandes said that a program of profiling military personnel who display questionable conduct such as that attributed to Hasan might have identified him as a risk. "I'm talking about (uncovering) intent," Brandes said. "At the end of the day, a lot of these people have to choose sides. And some of them choose sides to be with the U.S. military and some of them choose to go against it."

Butterbaugh declined requests to interview the studies' authors. "We prefer not to discuss specifics that may be addressed in the review" ordered by Gates, he said.

The FBI has acknowledged that an anti-terrorism task force had been monitoring e-mails between Hasan and radical Islamist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and did not share that information with the Army.

Most insiders in the military who pose threats will likely come "from active-duty persons being recruited or converting to radical ideologies out of religious conviction or after becoming recruited or converting to radical ideologies out of religious conviction or after becoming disaffected with a commander, a fellow soldier, an assignment or military service in general," the 2005 report said.

Hasan is a devout Muslim who became more outspoken about his beliefs and his opposition to being sent to war in Afghanistan against other Muslims, according to reports by National Public Radio and the Associated Press. He was slated to deploy there when the shootings occurred.

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/12/gns_threat_assessment_120109/
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« Reply #804 on: December 02, 2009, 05:50:56 PM »

Preliminary review in Fort Hood killings on way to White House

12:00 AM CST on Tuesday, December 1, 2009

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON – A preliminary review of the federal government's handling of intelligence before the shooting at Fort Hood is on its way to the White House, and sources said they expect the result to address the limits of the Pentagon's ability to monitor potential threats within the armed forces and information sharing by the FBI.

The deadline for various agencies involved in the case to submit reports to Obama homeland security and counterterrorism adviser John Brennan fell Monday, but administration officials said it would be a week or more before they offer recommendations for changes in the wake of the attack, which killed 13 people and wounded dozens at the Texas Army post.

Sources in contact with lawmakers and senior U.S. law enforcement officials said that the sharing of data between FBI-led terrorism task forces and with the military, as well as the aggressiveness of investigators operating under Justice Department guidelines, have been identified as concerns.

The Pentagon is also reviewing whether military procedures hinder the identification of internal threats and the communication of potentially negative information about service members.

The alleged gunman, Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan, had been the focus of complaints by colleagues at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The Washington Post

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-forthood_01tex.ART.State.Edition1.4b55167.html
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« Reply #805 on: December 02, 2009, 05:58:14 PM »



Sgt. Munley wants to "reach out to others who were hurt"

Posted: Dec 02, 2009 4:05 PM CST Updated: Dec 02, 2009 4:08 PM CST

WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) - Carolina Beach native Kim Munley is out of the hospital and recovering from her injuries at home.
 
She is one of the civilian police officers who responded to Fort Hood, Texas during last month's deadly shooting.
 
Sgt. Munley was shot four times while trying to stop the gunman who ended up killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 others.
 
Munley said she wants to reach out to others were hurt and has already met one man who helped save her life.
 
She will be having another surgery next month to replace her knee that was badly damaged in the shooting.
 
Listen to the full locally exclusive video by clicking the video thumbnail to the right.

http://www.wect.com/Global/story.asp?S=11609168
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« Reply #806 on: December 02, 2009, 06:03:50 PM »

Hasan charged in nonfatal shootings

By Scott Huddleston - Express-News

The Army has formally charged Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan with 32 specifications of attempted premeditated murder in the Nov. 5 shooting at Fort Hood.

Hasan, who already faces 13 counts of premeditated murder in the attack, was charged at about 2 p.m. under Article 80 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, officials of the post announced. The investigation of the shooting continues, and additional charges remain a possibility, according to the Army.

Hasan had been charged with murder on Nov. 12 in the shooting that killed 13 people at the Soldier Readiness Center at Fort Hood. The new charges relate to the shooting of 30 soldiers and two civilian Fort Hood police officers who survived the attack.

At a Nov. 21 hearing in Hasan's hospital room at Brooke Army Medical Center, Lt. Col. William R. Hintze, a military judge, found probable cause for the 13 charges of murder that are pending.

His lawyer, John P. Galligan, said he hadn't been officially notified of the latest charges, but had heard about them through the media. He said his primary focus now in representing Hasan, who is permanently paralyzed from the chest down, is to have him examined by mental health experts.

“The next thing probably would be the issue of addressing (Hasan's) mental responsibility,” Galligan said.

Gallian told the Associated Press on Wednesday that Army officials had not returned his calls so he did not know when or where the “mental responsibility” exam would take place. But Galligan said he filed an objection to the evaluation, saying Hasan was still in intensive care at a San Antonio military hospital recovering from gunshot wounds that left him paralyzed.

“I'm incensed at the way the military is handling this, serving additional charges on my client when he's in the hospital and defense attorneys are not present,” Galligan told the AP by phone from his office near Fort Hood. “And nobody will tell me what the plans are for the evaluation.”

http://www.mysanantonio.com/military/78350777.html
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« Reply #807 on: December 02, 2009, 06:08:39 PM »

Possible Ft. Hood threat deterred by Dallas police

Posted: Dec 02, 2009 2:54 PM CST Updated: Dec 02, 2009 2:54 PM CST


DALLAS (AP) - Dallas police have detained a Fort Hood soldier a police spokesman says was absent without leave after making threatening comments.

Police spokesman Andy Harvey says that officers picked up the 21-year-old private in his vehicle Tuesday at the direction of military personnel and are holding him for military police.

Police say an unloaded shotgun was found in the vehicle. They're declining to release the soldier's identity because he hasn't been charged with a crime.

Maj. Chad Carroll is a spokesman for the First Calvary Division headquarters at Fort Hood. He said Dallas police were contacted about an AWOL soldier, but he said he was unaware of any threats.

He says the matter remains under investigation by Army personnel.

Fort Hood is located near Killeen, about 160 miles southwest of Dallas. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is charged with killing 13 people at the Army post last month.

http://www.ksla.com/Global/story.asp?S=11608508
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« Reply #808 on: December 02, 2009, 06:40:52 PM »


Kham Xiong of St. Paul


Mourners attend a visitation for Pfc. Kham Xiong in Maplewood, Minn. Saturday, Nov. 28, 2009. Xiong, 23, was killed in the shootings at Fort Hood. Xiong will be buried Monday with military honors at Fort Snelling National Cemetery. He is survived by his wife, Shoua Her, three children, his father and mother, and many other relatives. He was one of 13 people killed in the attack at the Army post in Texas. He was preparing to deploy to Afghanistan.
(AP Photo/The St. Paul Pioneer Press, John Autey) NO SALES


Family members watch as the casket for Pfc. Kham Xiong arrives at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis, Monday, Nov. 30, 2009. Xiong was killed in the Nov. 5 shooting at Ft. Hood, Texas. He was assigned to the 510th Engineer Company, 20th Engineer Battalion, at Ft. Hood.
(AP Photo/Andy King)


The casket of Pfc. Kham Xiong is carried to the burial site at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis on Monday, Nov. 30, 2009. Xiong was killed in the Nov. 5 shooting at Ft. Hood, Texas. He was assigned to the 510th Engineer Company, 20th Engineer Battalion, at Ft. Hood.
(AP Photo/Andy King)


Mourners watch the burial of Pfc. Kham Xiong at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis on Monday, Nov. 30, 2009. Xiong was killed in the Nov. 5 shooting at Ft. Hood, Texas. He was assigned to the 510th Engineer Company, 20th Engineer Battalion, at Ft. Hood.
(AP Photo/Andy King)




VIDEO:  Funeral Held For Pfc. Kham Xiong  http://www.keyc.com/node/30798
A 21 gun salute to honor a Minnesota soldier killed in the Fort Hood shootings in Texas.Private First Class Kham Xiong was shot and killed on November 5th.He was supposed to deploy to Afghanistan in January.Xiong came to the United States from Laos when he was young.He moved to Minnesota 10 years ago.On Saturday, his widow was given a citizenship certificate making him a citizen posthumously.Pastor Naoko Yang says, 'I'm sure his wife will take treasure to that for the days to come and show to his children.'Xiong was married and has three children ages 4, 2 and 10 months.Friends say they will remember his smile and that his legacy will live on through his kids.
http://www.keyc.com/node/30798


Pfc. Kham Xiong, 23

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Pfc. Kham Xiong, 23, came from a St. Paul, Minn., family with ties to military life that spanned hemispheres. His father, Chor Xiong, battled communist insurgents in Laos during the Vietnam War, according to Minnesota Public Radio, and a brother Nelson enlisted in the Marines.

In a phone interview, Xiong's eighth-grade teacher, Tim McGowan, recalled Xiong's positive energy and his commitment to supporting his family. Xiong and his wife had three young children.

"Kham was just a person of sound character, and his greatest attribute was his ability to make everybody smile," said McGowan, now a principal at Community of Peace Academy, a St. Paul charter school from which Xiong graduated in 2004. "He was a superb role model to his peers and siblings and children."

Xiong was among the first killed at Fort Hood as he waited in line to get a flu shot and a vision test, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported.

-- Dan Zak
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/06/AR2009110604346.html

Minn. soldier killed in Fort Hood attack laid to rest

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- For his service to his country, there was never any doubt Private First Class Kham Xiong would be buried with full-military honors.

For three days family, friends and people in the community mourned the loss of the young soldier who was just 23-years-old.

"We just came out to pay our respects to the family and support them any way we can," says Corky Olson, an Iraq War Veteran who didn't even know Xiong.

Xiong, one of 13 killed in the Fort Hood attack, was laid to rest at Fort Snelling National Cemetery Monday.

"We could never understand the grief in their hearts," says Pastor Naoko Yang.

Kham Xiong came to this country as a child. He served and died honorably in the military but never became a U.S. citizen. Senator Amy Klobuchar's office saw to it that he was.

"I'm sure his wife will take treasure to that for the days to come and show it to the children for days to come," says Pastor Yang.

So for his service to country, Private First Class Kham Xiong was buried Monday, with full-military honors, as a full-citizen of the United States.

Senator Amy Kloubuchar says the family asked that Xiong be granted citizenship posthumously. Kham Xiong was eligible to apply for citizenship but the circumstances made it easier for Senator Klobuchar's office to get the matter taken care of so quickly.

According to the Defense Department, there are roughly 31,000 non-citizens serving in all branches of the military. Since 2002, any non-citizen, serving during hostilities, is eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship even after one day of honorable active-duty service.
http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=829510&catid=391
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« Reply #809 on: December 02, 2009, 06:51:17 PM »

Trees From Our Region Headed to Fort Hood

For the past five years, the Mount Rogers Christmas Tree Growers Association has made sure that some of the trees get shipped to our men and women serving in the military, no matter where they are.  "We got some e-mails last year where some of the trees that had been shipped to Iraq, the soldiers were actually taking pieces of them and putting them in their pockets and taking them with them into battle and that's pretty special for everybody when they do that kind of thing," said Jackie Davis with the Mount Rogers Christmas Tree Growers Association.
 
This year, an entire load of 300 trees is being shipped to Fort Hood -- a gift from our region after the recent deadly shooting spree there that left 13 dead and 38 injured.  The tree growers hope this gesture will provide some comfort by letting the Fort Hood community that people around the country are thinking of them.

http://www.wcyb.com/pages/5793629.php?contentType=4&contentId=5147862
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« Reply #810 on: December 02, 2009, 06:57:42 PM »

USO Plans Special Event At Fort Hood
By Lisa Baldwin

POSTED: Tuesday, December 1, 2009
UPDATED: 7:49 am CST December 1, 2009

HOUSTON -- Houston's United Service Organization and several local businesses are volunteering for a special event to help Fort Hood soldiers and their families heal, KPRC Local 2 reported Monday.


# WATCH IT:
USO To Help Fort Hood Heal  http://www.click2houston.com/news/21770588/detail.html


It's been nearly a month since 13 were killed and dozens others were wounded in the mass shooting at Fort Hood.

On Dec. 11, the tone will be much different on the base. About 50,000 soldiers and their families will be treated to concerts, a barbecue and a carnival for children.

It's also considered a day of celebration to honor the emergency responders who arrived first at the scene the day of the shootings.

The USO said it has plenty of volunteers for the event, but it still needs donations of cash and supplies.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/21770588/detail.html
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« Reply #811 on: December 02, 2009, 07:09:52 PM »

Mix-Up Denied Officials Info About Fort Hood Suspect

by Dina Temple-Raston

December 1, 2009

Accused gunman Maj. Nidal Hasan sent 18 e-mails to a radical imam in Yemen before the Fort Hood shootings, but law enforcement officials in Washington who were looking into his behavior saw only two of them.

Confusion between two FBI field offices kept law enforcement officials from reviewing all pertinent information about Hasan, investigators told NPR.

Officials familiar with the investigation say the FBI's Washington field office was given the alleged shooter's file in February. That file included Hasan's personnel records, as well as two intercepted e-mails Hasan had written to imam Anwar al-Awlaki.

Awlaki has been on the U.S. intelligence community's radar screen for some time. He spreads his views through a blog, lectures on YouTube and has thousands of fans on Facebook. Hasan attended a mosque in Northern Virginia where Awlaki once served.

It's known already that Hasan had e-mailed the imam — but original reports suggested that those e-mails didn't raise any suspicion. Hasan was working at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as a psychiatrist, and the communications were seen as consistent with research he was doing at the time.

However, it now seems that the FBI's conclusion — that the e-mails were benign — might have been based on an incomplete review.

Here's what apparently happened:

The FBI's Washington field office was asked to follow up any leads on Hasan for the San Diego FBI office, which was in charge of his case. Three months after he originally received Hasan's file, the agent in Washington did follow up. But he didn't ask for an updated file — and the San Diego field office didn't offer additional information they had picked up on Hasan after forwarding the original file.

Those e-mails were never forwarded from the FBI's San Diego office because they were awaiting the Washington office's assessment of Hasan. The additional e-mails, in the eyes of agents in San Diego, appeared to be more of the same — more questions from Hasan about Muslim soldiers in the U.S. military.

Had there not been this breakdown in communication, the FBI agent in Washington might have been able to review a broader array of information, including the 16 more recent e-mails Hasan had written to Awlaki, to make his assessment on whether the major was dangerous or not.

E-Mail Focused On Earlier Attack

One e-mail in particular is getting attention from investigators now.

In that e-mail — which the Washington FBI office didn't see — Hasan mentioned the case of Sgt. Hasan Akbar, the Muslim soldier who threw grenades at fellow troops in Kuwait at the beginning of the Iraq war. The attack killed two soldiers and wounded 14 others.

In the e-mail to the imam, Hasan asked whether Akbar would have been considered a shaheed — or hero — for his actions. Given what happened later at Fort Hood, investigators say this e-mail now appears suggestive. But at the time it was not conclusive. Investigators in San Diego weren't alarmed by the query because it appeared to be consistent with research Hasan was doing at Walter Reed. The Akbar case was thought to be at the center of his research.

Should it have set off alarm bells?

Juan Zarate, a deputy national security adviser in the Bush administration, said hindsight is always 20/20.

"It is very difficult in the moment, I think, for analysts and agents and his cohorts and co-workers to piece this together and see they had a ticking time bomb on their hands," Zarate said.

A New View Of How Shootings Unfolded

Investigators also tell NPR that they uncovered some evidence that offers a somewhat different picture of what happened at Fort Hood during the shooting.

Witnesses have told investigators that Hasan had the opportunity to kill the female police officer who had tried to stop him. Apparently, he aimed for her head and then changed his mind, shooting her in the leg instead. Investigators say that this was part of what they see as Hasan's deliberate effort not to shoot civilians. His focus appeared to be on soldiers in uniform.

There had also been a sense that Hasan might have been targeting colleagues in the mental health unit at Fort Hood. That, too, seems to have been disproved by discussions with witnesses. Investigators say that he had the opportunity to shoot people he knew and purposely trained his weapon elsewhere.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121002448&ft=1&f=1001
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« Reply #812 on: December 02, 2009, 07:21:26 PM »

Injured soldier out of the hospital after Fort Hood shooting

By: News 14 Carolina Staff




CHARLOTTE – Staff Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford, a soldier with family in Charlotte who was seriously injured during the Fort Hood shooting earlier this month, is out of the hospital and recovering at his Texas home.

Lunsford's mother said he underwent surgery for a fractured cheek bone, damage from one of four bullets that hit him during the shooting.

“[I'm] grateful that he has come this far, praying that he continues to go further,” Johnsye Lunsford said. “I've used the saying, he's not out of the forest, but still in the woods.”

The Richmond County mother says her son is eager to get back to work but still has a long recovery ahead.
http://news14.com/charlotte-news-104-content/local_news/618204/injured-soldier-out-of-the-hospital-after-fort-hood-shooting

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« Reply #813 on: December 02, 2009, 07:25:07 PM »

HEART, thank you.  an angelic monkey
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« Reply #814 on: December 02, 2009, 08:49:52 PM »

HEART, thank you.  an angelic monkey

Thank you Fanny.  Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
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« Reply #815 on: December 03, 2009, 07:56:33 PM »


FILE - This Nov. 10, 2009 file photo provided by the U.S. Department of Defense shows Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates meeting with Police Sgt. Kimberly Munley at a hospital in Ft. Hood, Texas. Munley, one of two civilian police officers who brought down the Army psychiatrist accused of going on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood said her wounds from the attack will cut short her career as a street police officer. (AP Photo/Department of Defense, Cherie Cullen, File)

Fort Hood cop says her career has been cut short

By ANGELA K. BROWN (AP) – 35 minutes ago

FORT WORTH, Texas — One of two civilian police officers who brought down the Army psychiatrist accused of going on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood said her wounds from the attack will cut short her career as street police officer.

Sgt. Kimberly Munley said doctors have told her she needs a total knee replacement, a surgery set for January, but that her new knee is likely to wear out sooner if she runs or carries the 15- to 25-pound gear pack required by her job.

"I do want to stay in law enforcement. I'm not going to be able to do what I did before, which is basically work the street," she told Wilmington, N.C., television station WECT on Wednesday. "It's going to give me another avenue to look in as far as possibly teaching and instructing."

Fort Hood officials said Thursday that Munley, 34, who was shot in the leg and hand, has not started the process to determine if she's physically able to do her former job.

Munley and Sgt. Mark Todd, another civilian officer in Fort Hood's police force, are credited with shooting Maj. Nidal Hasan to end the Nov. 5 shooting spree on the Texas Army post, about 150 miles southwest of Fort Worth. Todd, 42, was not injured and is already back at work.

Hasan remains hospitalized in a San Antonio military hospital but is paralyzed from his wounds, said his attorney John Galligan.

Hasan has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. Army officials have not said if they will seek the death penalty, but they plan an evaluation in the next 45 days to determine his mental state that day and whether he is competent to stand trial.

The Army Reserve unit that Hasan apparently was supposed to deploy with plans to leave for Afghanistan as scheduled early Friday, Fort Hood officials said Thursday. Three soldiers from the Madison, Wis.-based combat stress unit died in the shooting and others were injured.

In a posting on her blog, Munley said she was lucky that she did not lose her leg, where a bullet hit an artery. She said she now has to use a wheelchair and walker, but "cannot complain one bit" because she feels she was given a second chance at life.

"I have addressed more or less every thought and emotion about what's happened to everyone else — the injured and the ones that did not make it and their families," Munley told the television station. "I can't tell you if I have any thoughts towards what he's done to me because I've been too overwhelmed with trying to come to terms with how everyone else has suffered through this."

Munley, who previously was in the Army, worked as a police officer in Wrightsville Beach, N.C., from 2000-02.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iJDLqF_6F6psGrfV4MW5eYonOXzAD9CC59PO0
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« Reply #816 on: December 03, 2009, 08:10:22 PM »

Media outlets urge openness in Fort Hood proceedings

A coalition of news organizations wrote a letter to the Pentagon Wednesday emphasizing the importance of public access to any military court proceeding against the accused Fort Hood gunman Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, USA Today, The Washington Post, The New York Times and other media outlets reminded Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Army Secretary John McHugh that there is a well-established First Amendment right for the media to access any tribunal involving Hasan, who is charged with killing thirteen military personnel in Texas.

The letter asked the Department of Defense and Army to be proactive in its efforts to provide timely access to court filings. The media outlets pointed out that while the Army provides some docket information online, there is no well-established mechanism for finding out when documents have been filed with military tribunals.

http://www.rcfp.org/newsitems/index.php?i=11149
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« Reply #817 on: December 05, 2009, 02:55:57 PM »

Unit deploys in honor of fallen soldiers

Posted On: Saturday, Dec. 5 2009 05:18 AM   Bookmark and Share
By Amanda Kim Stairrett
Killeen Daily Herald

NORTH FORT HOOD – Soldiers of the 467th Medical Detachment packed their bags for Afghanistan exactly one month after three of their own were killed in a mass shooting at Fort Hood.

Maj. Libardo Caraveo, Capt. Russell Seager and Sgt. Amy Krueger weren't forgotten as their comrades prepared Thursday night for an early Friday morning flight that would carry them to an important mission.

The Madison, Wisc.-based unit has 43 soldiers who specialize in treating soldiers suffering from combat stress. They are a collection of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, psychiatric nurses and occupational and mental health specialists who will care for men and women who undergo the stresses of a deployment, whether they are induced by combat, family separation or work relationships.

Caraveo, Seager and Krueger were three of the 13 killed in the Nov. 5 shooting at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center. Six of the detachment's soldiers were wounded and did not deploy. One is still in the Fort Hood area receiving care and a few are at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, said Jay Adams, a First Army Division West spokesman.

The division's 120th Infantry Brigade facilitated the detachment's pre-deployment training and validation at North Fort Hood. The detachment's soldiers arrived at Fort Hood Nov. 4.

The nine fallen and wounded had to be replaced before the unit could deploy and officials said Thursday night that soldiers with the needed military occupational specialties from around the country volunteered to fill the slots.

The new soldiers' transition wasn't difficult, said 1st Sgt. James McLeod, the detachment's senior noncommissioned officer. Leaders didn't want them to feel they were mere replacements, but part of the family.

"We are all family," he said.

Even though the soldiers who filled the detachment are trained to deal with stress and impart that wisdom on those they serve, the deaths and injures weren't easy. Any loss is great, McLeod said.

Although the detachment's soldiers have the skills to deal with combat-related stress, "we weren't training ourselves," said Maj. Laura Suttinger, 467th commander. Others, including health care providers and chaplains, stepped in to help the detachment's soldiers cope with the Nov. 5 losses.

Coping was different for every person, Suttinger said, and she emphasized that the stigma that surrounds asking for help is lessening. A person is no less of a soldier if he asks for help, she added.

The detachment's job in Afghanistan is important because the care its soldiers provide help others "to stay in the fight," Suttinger said.

"We're needed there more than ever," she said.

Suttinger and McLeod also talked about how well the detachment's soldiers came together and completed their training, despite the tragedy they experienced.

While high-level Army officials discussed whether the detachment would deploy, leaders adjusted training and the soldiers continued with their preparations.

"Their strength moved us forward," McLeod said of the men and women of the 467th.

He also saw the detachment's progress and continuation as an honor to those who couldn't stand beside them. There's something to be said about soldiers' resiliency, McLeod said, and "no one is going to stop us form completing our mission."

The decision to deploy made the detachment's soldiers more determined than ever in their commitment to move forward. Each of the 43 wear metal bands on their wrists, engraved with the names of their fallen friends: Caraveo, Seager and Krueger.

"They were all very dedicated, caring soldiers and they will not be forgotten," Suttinger said. "And we're carrying on in their honor."

http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?s=37562



Video: Psychiatric unit heads to war after Fort Hood tragedy http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2009/12/04/VI2009120404566.html
The Wisconsin-based 467th Medical Detachment deploys for Afghanistan, where the 43 reservists will treat the combat stress of their fellow soldiers. Five of their colleagues were gunned down, allegedly by an Army psychiatrist who was to serve with the 467th in Afghanistan.

Healers head to war, bearing their own wounds
Mental-health specialists will face new battlegrounds after Fort Hood

By Ann Gerhart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 5, 2009

They are the combat medics of the mind, who joined the Army Reserve not to fight but to heal those who fight and sustain the incapacitating, invisible wounds of war.

There were about 90 of them, from two units, fresh arrivals from intensive training in the California desert. They had learned to man the turrets and handle the grenade launchers, to hike up rock-strewn hills at 90-degree inclines. So that morning of Nov. 5 at Fort Hood, Tex., was a break, a chance to read a book while waiting in line to do paperwork.

By the time the shooting stopped, their ranks were decimated. Five of them were dead, 17 wounded. And the man charged with gunning them down was one of their own, an Army psychiatrist.

Now, a month later and right on schedule, the 43 mental-health specialists of Wisconsin's 467th Medical Detachment deployed to Afghanistan without him, and without their major, staff sergeant and sergeant. They had saluted goodbye to the empty helmets, rifles and boots of the three at a wrenching memorial service last month. They left behind their wounded.

The 40-some members of Kansas's 1908th Medical Detachment are right behind them, set to deploy to Iraq as early as Saturday.

All of them are wearing black bracelets engraved with the names of their five slain colleagues.

"We are more than devastated by these losses, but are going forward with our missions in honor of our fallen comrades," wrote Col. Kathy Platoni, 57, a veteran clinical psychologist with two combat tours under her belt, in an automated e-mail reply. "This promises to be the most challenging year of our lives, though we have already faced our first battleground."

Some of the deploying psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, social workers and occupational therapists are seasoned veterans, and some are young adults with recent undergraduate psychology degrees. The work of these combat-stress-control teams is dangerous and delicate, conducted on the front lines of war. In bands of two and three, the members make house calls, of a sort, helicoptering into forlorn outposts to assess and treat fighters traumatized by the grisly business of combat and exhausted by repeated tours of duty.
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There are not nearly enough of these mental-health specialists.

The military has worked hard to erase the stigma of war's mental wounds and to urge soldiers to seek treatment. But the success of this effort and the surge of troops in Afghanistan have created a shortage of providers, Army officials have said. President Obama's decision to send an additional 30,000 troops there will create an even greater need.

So there was an urgency to get the two units mobilized. But now the experts themselves had invisible wounds and needed mental-health assessments. Other specialists had to be brought in to bolster the depleted ranks; two reservists from elsewhere were volunteered to immediately join up. Each soldier had to qualify again in combat skills. That meant firing the regulation weapons.

In an interview last month, Platoni said that on that Nov. 5 afternoon, she had left one building of the sprawling Soldier Readiness Processing Center, "gotten a quick, bad lunch" and was standing in another line, in another building, trying to persuade a colleague to sign a power-of-attorney form. Suddenly, "somebody screamed, 'There is shooting in the other building!' "

Platoni, who has served with combat-stress-control units at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Iraq, ran to the front door and saw victims being dragged from the building next door. "Right away, I knew it was the real thing, not a training exercise," she said.

Within 15 minutes, Platoni said, five soldiers from her unit were brought into the building where she was. She raced around, got ice, held hands, "told people I wouldn't leave them," she said. A psychiatric nurse from the 1908th died in front of her. "It was pretty devastating."

A week later, the day after Obama eulogized their dead comrades, the reservists went back to work. One of their first assignments: Memorize 15 phrases in the Afghan Pashto language, including "Drop your weapon" and "Do you need help?"

"A lot of people are so filled with sorrow and anguish," Platoni said the day after the units returned to work. "But we are very driven to go forward. And we are not going to continue to wallow in the sorrow that has overtaken us. The best way to go on and honor the mission is to go into Afghanistan and help our brothers and sisters."

That decision was made Nov. 5, the unit's commander, Maj. Laura Suttinger, said late Thursday: "They are all very dedicated, caring soldiers, and they will not be forgotten. We're carrying on in their honor."

About 3 a.m. Friday, Platoni and her comrades were doing paperwork again, this time in a chapel, said Jay Adams, a spokesman at Fort Hood. They had their ID cards swiped to register that they were mobilizing. They had their dog-tag check.

Then, in their desert camouflage, with their helmets on, they lined up behind 1st Sgt. James McLeod, who carried the flag of the 467th, and marched off, headed for a bus, a 20-hour flight and Kandahar.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/04/AR2009120404600_2.html
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« Reply #818 on: December 05, 2009, 03:15:24 PM »


Capt. Dorothy Carskadon, who grew up in Portland's Eastmoreland neighborhood, was among those wounded in the mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas.


Fort Hood victim recovering from wounds

Army Reserve social worker faces months of physical therapy.

By Matt Williams
RRSTAR.COM
Posted Dec 04, 2009 @ 06:51 PM
Last update Dec 04, 2009 @ 11:10 PM
ROCKFORD —

Dorothy “Dorrie” Carskadon is upbeat and happy — a remarkable phenomenon considering the U.S. Army Reserve social worker and former Rockford resident took four bullets in the Nov. 5 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas.

Carskadon is recovering at her Madison, Wis., home and still faces several months of physical therapy.

She was set to be deployed to Afghanistan — as was accused shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan — shortly after the shooting occurred. Coincidentally, Carskadon specialized in anger management and nonviolent communications and enlisted with the Reserve so she could help those with post-traumatic stress disorder. She did not personally know the man whose killing spree, officials are saying, left 13 dead and more than 30 wounded.

Regardless, she’s not one to dwell on her misfortune, said her brother, Trey Carskadon, who lives in Portland, Ore. Family members consider her a hero, he said.

“Dorrie is a person of great purpose, and I think she can follow that purpose and continue to immerse herself in this field of work.”

Carskadon was shot twice in the hip and once in the stomach. A fourth bullet grazed her forehead.

She initially thought the spray of gunfire was just a training exercise, her brother said.

“She thought ‘those rubber bullets really hurt,’ ” Trey Carskadon said. “She did not realize the rounds were live.”

Dorrie has since been back in the Rockford area, attending church services on Thanksgiving at St. Episcopal Church in Loves Park, the Rev. K.J. Oh said.

“We didn’t even know she was coming,” Oh said. “She was very upbeat and happy to be home.”

Dorrie worked at the Rockford Vet Center Outstation from 1997 until she took a job at Madison Vet Center in 2006.

Dorrie also served in the Army from 1989 to 1994 and had a tour in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Shield/Operation Desert Storm.

“Her sense of duty and public service is really remarkable,” he said. “She is just one of those rare characters that doesn’t talk about what she’s doing. She just goes out and does it.”

http://www.rrstar.com/news/x1758554063/Fort-Hood-victim-recovering-from-her-wounds
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« Reply #819 on: December 05, 2009, 03:48:25 PM »

Alabama soldier wounded at Fort Hood has VIP visitors: the Bushes, then the Obamas

By Tom Gordon -- The Birmingham News
November 11, 2009, 5:25PM



  royerbushes.jpgU.S. Army Former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura pay a visit to Alabama Army Guard Maj. Randy Royer and his wife Trish in Royer's hospital room at Fort Hood, TexasAlabama Army National Guard Maj. Randy Royer is recovering from the wounds he sustained during last week's mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, and the well wishers who have visited his hospital room include former President George W. Bush and current President Barack Obama.

Bush and his wife Laura visited Royer on Friday. Obama and his wife Michelle stopped by Tuesday, the day the president spoke at a memorial service for the 12 soldiers and one civilian who were killed during Thursday's shooting incident.

Royer, 47, who lives in Dothan, is a member of the 135th Expeditionary Sustainment Command. About 270 members of the unit arrived at Fort Hood last week to do final training and preparations for a deployment to Afghanistan.

Sgt. James Burroughs, a spokesman for the 135th, said Royer is "continuing to improve.

"He'll be going back home when he's released from the hospital here," Burroughs added.

Two other Alabama soldiers, active duty members of the Army, were shot in Thursday's incident. Warrant Officer Christopher Royal, who grew up in Elmore County, was well enough to come back to Alabama over the weekend for a speaking engagement at a church in Kowaliga. Staff Sgt. Chad Davis, who has family in Eufaula, was slightly wounded.
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2009/11/alabama_soldier_wounded_at_for_1.html
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