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8/24/13, "Ft. Hood shooter received glowing evaluations before attack," LA Times, Molly Hennessy-Fiske
"Maj. Nidal Hasan, convicted of killing 13 and wounding several others, was said to have 'great potential as an Army officer.'"
"Months before the Ft. Hood shooting in November 2009, the Army psychiatrist convicted Friday of killing 13 and wounding more than 30 was completing a fellowship at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where military supervisors praised his unique interest in Islam's impact on soldiers, according to documents provided to The Times.
Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's supervisors had also repeatedly recommended him for promotion, according to documents.
"He has a keen interest in Islamic culture and faith and has shown
capacity to contribute to our psychological understanding of Islamic
nationalism and how it may relate to events of national security and
Army interest in the Middle East and Asia," supervisors wrote in an
evaluation report July 1, 2009.
Among Hasan's "unique
skills," the report listed "Islamic studies" and "traumatic stress
spectrum psychiatric disorders," concluding that "Maj. Hasan has great
potential as an Army officer."...
Hasan, 42, has been convicted of 13 charges of premeditated murder in
the Nov. 5, 2009, shooting in Texas. The same jury of 13 officers that
convicted him will determine his sentence. For a death sentence to be
imposed, the decision must be unanimous....
The evaluation reports were filed while Hasan, an American-born
Muslim, was earning a master's degree in public health through a
two-year fellowship in disaster and preventive psychiatry. A colleague of Hasan's at Walter Reed testified that he pursued the fellowship in order to avoid deployment.
The other report, completed March 13, 2009, said Hasan had
"outstanding moral integrity" and that he had selected a "challenging
topic" for his master's of public health project: "the impact of beliefs and culture on views regarding military service during the Global War on Terror."
Supervisors recommended Hasan for a position "that allows others to
learn from his perspectives," noting his "unique insights into the
dimensions of Islam" including "moral reasoning" were "of great
potential interest and strategic importance to the U.S. Army."
An Army doctor testified that a month before the attack, Hasan told
her that if the military forced him to deploy to the Middle East "they
will pay." He was later ordered to deploy to Afghanistan, and began
plotting his attack.
Prosecutors argued during his trial that Hasan was motivated by a
"jihad duty" to kill soldiers. Hasan rarely challenged them, admitted to
the shooting in his opening statement and argued that his religious
beliefs led him to switch sides and attack fellow soldiers. He declined
to cross-examine prosecution witnesses, call his own witnesses, testify
or submit much evidence — in contrast to the prosecution, which called
nearly 90 witnesses and submitted more than 700 pieces of evidence." via Lucianne
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