'Native' Islamic Terrorist Gunman In Ft. Hood Attack Identified as Major Malik Nadal Hasan

A sergeant shot five times during last year's rampage at Fort Hood said Wednesday he recalled lying on the floor and locking eyes with Maj. Nidal Hasan after the Army psychiatrist cried out "Allahu Akbar" and unleashed a burst of gunfire into a crowd of soldiers preparing for deployment.

Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford said the light from a laser-guided weapon soon trained on him, and he closed his eyes before being shot in the head. He made his way outside, not realizing he'd been shot four more times, and heard a woman screaming about the gunman: "He's one of ours! He's one of ours!"

Lunsford, who lost most of the sight in his left eye in the attack, was the first in a string of victims who came face-to-face with Hasan at a military hearing to determine whether he should stand trial on 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.

Hasan, 40, wore his Army combat uniform and looked on intently as fellow soldiers described diving wounded to the ground, crawling through pools of blood and struggling to pull friends to safety. He showed no emotion as several identified him in the courtroom as the gunman in the worst mass shooting ever at an American military base.

Staff Sgt. Alvin Bernard Howard said he was playing solitaire on a computer when he heard yelling and gunshots he thought were part of a training exercise. He realized it wasn't when a bullet casing landed on his laptop, and then turned around.

"We looked eye to eye and he just shot me," the now-retired Howard testified, later standing up and pointing at Hasan. "I will never forget his face."

Hasan sat in a wheelchair just a few feet away from where eight witnesses took the stand Wednesday. He has been paralyzed from the chest down since Fort Hood police officers fired on him during the Nov. 5 attack.

Lunsford testified he saw Hasan earlier that day in Fort Hood's Soldier Readiness Processing Center, where soldiers go for medical screening immediately before and after deploying. Lunsford said Hasan that morning received vaccines and other routine tests ahead of a deployment to Afghanistan scheduled for the next month.

But after lunch, Lunsford saw Hasan in the building again - this time standing near the front doors, pulling a weapon from his Army combat uniform and shouting "God is Great" in Arabic. As the shots rang out, a civilian physician assistant, Michael Grant Cahill, tried to knock Hasan down with a chair but was shot, Lunsford said. Cahill was one of the 13 killed that day.

Spc. James Armstrong, who was shot twice, said he was in a large seating area when he heard shooting and turned around to see soldiers being shot and a chair thrown amid rapid gunfire before Hasan reloaded.

The scene was "the worst horror movie," with wounded soldiers leaving bloody handprints on walls as they tried to get up and blood pooled on the floor where they lay dead, Armstrong said.

The court earlier heard a recording of a contract worker's 911 call soon after she hid under a desk when the gunfire began. Medical technician Michelle Harper testified she could only see the shooter's feet as he walked slowly and deliberately through the building.

"Oh my God! Everybody's shot!" a frantic Harper told the 911 operator as gunshots and groans for help resounded around her.

"Are you safe?" the unidentified 911 operator asked at one point.

"No," Harper replied.

Immediately after the shooting spree, some witnesses had reported the gunman used two personal pistols, one a semiautomatic, to take some 100 shots at about 300 people crowded into the building. None of the witnesses Wednesday testified to seeing Hasan with more than one gun, and some said they heard gunfire but did not see the shooter.

Hasan has been in custody since the shooting, hospitalized first in San Antonio, then moved to jail in Bell County, which houses military suspects for nearby Fort Hood. The military justice system does not offer bail.

Prosecutors have not said whether they will seek the death penalty if the case goes to trial.
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http://www.abc6.com/Global/story.asp?S=13313851
 
Survivors of the Fort Hood massacre say they expected the accused shooter, Maj. Nidal Hasan, to "come in and finish the job," according to interviews to be broadcast on "Fox Files: The Enemy Within."

Staff Sgt. Shawn Manning was shot six times, with one bullet narrowly missing his heart. Manning said he had sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. Manning paused as he described the shooter.

"Domestic enemy, I mean, that's what this was," Manning said. "He might have worn the uniform, but he wasn't a soldier. He didn't act like a soldier. He tried to kill soldiers. I mean, he was an enemy -- plain and simple."

When it came to Hasan, Manning said, there was a double standard. Hasan wrote emails to radical American cleric Anwar al Awlaki -- seeking advice on reconciling his Muslim faith with serving in the Army. This fact was known to the FBI.

"You could lose your security clearance in the Army for having bad credit and be kicked out of the Army. But you can't lose your security clearance for talking to a member of al Qaeda, through email. I mean, it doesn't make any sense," Manning said.
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Islamo beard delays trial indefinitely

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The criminal case of alleged Ft. Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan was delayed indefinitely by a U.S. Army appeals court on Friday to determine whether his beard can be forcibly shaved during trial.

The Army Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay for an undetermined period in response to appeals filed by Hasan's lawyers.

Army regulations prevent soldiers from wearing facial hair while in uniform. Hasan, a practicing Muslim, maintains he has the right to wear the beard under U.S. laws protecting religious freedoms.

Earlier this month, Col. Gregory Gross, the judge who will oversee the trial, ordered Hasan to be forcibly shaved for the proceedings.

The last time he was in court, Hasan told the judge, "Your honor, in the name of almighty Allah, I am a Muslim. I believe that my religion requires me to wear a beard."

Gross has said the beard violated Army regulations and Hasan was still an officer in the U.S. Army and subject to regulations.
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http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/now_he_staring_at_death_W2nER0t7TNJIHkmqtfYLeL

Fort Hood killer convicted and eligible for death penalty
By WILL WEISSERT and PAUL J. WEBER
From AP
Last Updated: 6:33 AM, August 24, 2013
Posted: 1:31 AM, August 24, 2013

FORT HOOD, Texas — A military jury yesterday convicted Maj. Nidal Hasan in the deadly 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, making the Army psychiatrist eligible for the death penalty in the shocking assault against American troops by one of their own on home soil.

There was never any doubt that Hasan was the gunman. He acknowledged to the jury that he was the one who pulled the trigger on fellow soldiers as they prepared to deploy overseas to Iraq and Afghanistan. And he barely defended himself during a three-week trial.

The unanimous decision on all 13 counts of premeditated murder made Hasan eligible for execution in the sentencing phase that begins Monday.

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JUDGMENT DAY: Maj. Nidal Hasan was found guilty yesterday of the Fort Hood slaughter and now a jury will decide on the death penalty.


“This is where members [of the jury] decide whether you will live or whether you will die,” said Col. Tara Osborn, the trial judge.

Hasan, a Virginia-born Muslim who said the attack was a jihad against US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, did not react to the verdict, looking straight at jurors as they announced their findings. After the hearing, relatives of the dead and wounded fought back tears. Some smiled and warmly patted each other’s shoulders as they left court.

Because Hasan never denied his actions, the court-martial was always less about a conviction than it was about ensuring he received a death sentence. From the beginning, the federal government has sought to execute Hasan, believing that any sentence short of a lethal injection would deprive the military and the families of the dead of the justice they have sought for nearly four years.

Autumn Manning, whose husband, retired Staff Sgt. Shawn Manning, was shot six times during the attack, wept when the verdict was read. She said she had been concerned that some charges might be reduced to manslaughter, which would have taken a death sentence off the table.

“This is so emotional,” she said in a telephone interview from Lacey, Wash., where she and her husband live. “I’ve just been crying since we heard it because it was a relief . . . We just wanted to hear the ‘premeditated.’ ”

Hasan, who represented himself after firing his legal team, also was convicted on 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. He carried out the attack in a crowded waiting room where unarmed troops were making final preparations to deploy. Thirteen people were killed and more than 30 were wounded.

The jury of 13 high-ranking officers took about seven hours to reach the verdict. In the next phase, jurors must all agree to give Hasan the death penalty before he can be sent to the military’s death row, which has just five other prisoners. If they do not agree, the 42-year-old will spend the rest of his life in prison.
 
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