Nidal Hasan
Nidal Malik Hasan is an American former United States Army major, physician, and mass murderer convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in the Fort Hood mass shooting on November 5, 2009. Hasan, an Army Medical Corps psychiatrist, admitted to the shootings at his court-martial in August 2013.
During the six years Hasan was a medical intern and resident at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, concerns were raised about his job performance and behavior, specifically comments described by colleagues as "anti-American." Hasan was described as socially isolated, stressed by his work with soldiers, and upset about their accounts of warfare. Two days before the shooting, less than a month before he was due to deploy to Afghanistan, Hasan gave away many of his belongings to a neighbor.
Prior to the shooting, an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation concluded Hasan's email correspondence with the late Imam Anwar al-Awlaki were related to his authorized professional research and he was not a threat. The FBI, Department of Defense, and United States Senate all conducted investigations after the shootings. The Senate released a report describing the shooting as "the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil since September 11, 2001."
Controversially, the Army decided not to charge Hasan with terrorism. A jury panel of 13 officers convicted him of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder, and unanimously recommended he be dismissed from the service and sentenced to death. Hasan is incarcerated at the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, awaiting execution.
Early life
Nidal Hasan was born on September 8, 1970, at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington County, Virginia. His parents were naturalized American citizens of Palestinian origin; they had immigrated years earlier from al-Bireh, a city in the West Bank near Jerusalem.Raised in the Muslim faith with his two younger brothers, Hasan attended Wakefield High School in Arlington for his freshman year in 1985. His family moved to Roanoke in 1986, where his father had moved a year before to set up what would become a number of successful family-owned businesses which included a market, restaurant and olive bar.
Hasan graduated from Roanoke's William Fleming High School in 1988. His father died in 1998 at the age of 51; his mother died three years later at the age of 49. One of his brothers continues to live in Virginia while the other moved to the Palestinian Territories.
Military service, higher education and medical career
Hasan enlisted in the United States Army in 1988 after graduating from high school. He attended college during this time, earning an associate degree in science from Virginia Western Community College in 1992. In 1995, he graduated from Virginia Tech with a bachelor's degree in biochemistry. He completed both of these programs with Latin honors. He was commissioned as an officer in the Army Medical Department in 1997, and enrolled at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland.Hasan's performance was marginal while enrolled at USUHS. He was on academic probation during much of the six years he required to complete the four-year curriculum and graduate medical school. Upon graduation in 2003, Hasan completed his internship and residency in psychiatry at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He completed his psychiatry training with a two-year fellowship in disaster and preventive psychiatry, earning a master's degree in public health. During his training at Walter Reed, he received counseling and extra supervision.
According to The Washington Post, Hasan made a presentation titled "The Quranic World View as It Relates to Muslims in the U.S. Military" during his senior year of residency at WRAMC; it was not well received by some attendees. He suggested the U.S. Department of Defense "should allow Muslims Soldiers the option of being released as 'Conscientious objectors' to increase troop morale and decrease adverse events." On a previous slide, he explained "adverse events" could be refusal to deploy, espionage, or killing of fellow soldiers.
Retired Colonel Terry Lee, after working with Hasan, recalled the fatal shooting of two recruiters in Little Rock, Arkansas, greatly affected Hasan. Lee told Fox News that Hasan made "outlandish" statements against the American military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, reportedly saying that "the Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor", referring to American soldiers. Hasan expressed hope U.S. President Barack Obama would withdraw troops. He was frequently agitated and argumentative with other Army personnel.
Despite these problems, in May 2009, Hasan was promoted to major. In July 2009 he was transferred to Darnall Army Medical Center in Fort Hood, Texas, moving into the city of Killeen. Two weeks later, he lawfully purchased an FN Five-seven handgun. Prior to his transfer, Hasan had received a 'poor performance' evaluation from supervisors and medical faculty. Despite concerns, his former boss, Lt. Col. Ben Phillips, graded his performance as "outstanding".
Hasan's cousin, Virginia attorney Nader Hasan, disputed the assertion that he was "disenchanted with the military," but said Hasan dreaded war after counseling soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder. He was "mortified by the idea" of deploying after he heard on a "daily basis the horrors they saw over there". Nader also stated Hasan was harassed by his fellow soldiers. "He hired a military attorney to try to have the issue resolved, pay back the government, to get out of the military. He was at the end of trying everything." Hasan's aunt also said Hasan sought discharge because of harassment relating to his Islamic faith. However, an Army spokesman did not confirm the relatives' statements; with the deputy director of the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council stating the reported harassment was "inconsistent" with their records.
Hasan's uncle Rafiq Hamad, a resident of Ramallah in the West Bank, characterized Hasan as gentle and quiet. He fainted while observing childbirth, whence his choice to focus on psychiatry. He was deeply sensitive, and mourned a pet bird for months after it died. Also near Ramallah, cousin Mohammed Hasan said "because he's Muslim, he didn't want to go to Afghanistan or Iraq, and he didn't want to expose himself to violence and death". Mohammed stated his cousin was a "pleasant young man" who was happy to graduate and to be joining the army after his uncle and cousins served. They never talked about politics, but Hasan complained "he was treated like a Muslim, like an Arab, rather than an American; he was discriminated against."
In August 2009, according to a Killeen police report, someone vandalized Hasan's automobile with a key; repair was estimated at $1000. Police charged a soldier; a neighbor claimed the vehicle was vandalized because of Hasan's religion.
According to military records, Hasan was unmarried. However, David Cook, a former neighbor, stated, in 1997, Hasan had two sons living with him and attending local schools. Cook said, "As far as I know, he was a single father. I never saw a wife."
Military awards and decorations
Hasan received the Army Service Ribbon as a private in 1988 after completing Advanced Individual Training, the National Defense Service Medal twice for service during the time periods of the Persian Gulf War and the Global War on Terror, and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal for support service during the Global War on Terror.Religious and ideological beliefs
According to one of his cousins, Hasan was Muslim; he became more devout after the early deaths of his parents. His cousin did not recall him expressing any radical or anti-American views, and his family also described Hasan as a peaceful person, and a good American. One of his cousins said Hasan turned against the wars after hearing the stories of soldiers he treated in therapy following their return from Afghanistan and Iraq. His aunt said he did not tell the family he was going to Afghanistan.In May 2001, Hasan attended the Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in the Falls Church area for the funeral of his mother and occasionally, attended a mosque in Silver Spring, Maryland, close to where he lived and worked; he was well known by the Imam for over a decade. Faizul Khan, the former Imam of the Silver Spring mosque where Hasan prayed several times a week, said he was "a reserved guy with a nice personality. We discussed religious matters. Politics were never brought up. He is Muslim." Khan said Hasan often expressed his wish to get married, and the Imam said, "I got the impression he was a committed soldier."
Air Force Lt. Col. Dr. Val Finnell, a graduate school classmate in the Master's in Public Health program, said in a class on environmental health, Hasan's project dealt with "whether the Global War On Terror is a war on Islam" and the effect on Muslims in the military, which Finnell thought was strange.
According to Colonel Terry Lee, since retired, "He said 'maybe Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor'. At first, we thought he meant help the armed forces, but apparently that wasn't the case. Other times, he said we shouldn't be in the war in the first place."
Email exchanges with Anwar Al-Awlaki
In 2001–02, Anwar al-Awlaki was the Imam of the Dar al-Hijrah mosque; during that time, he was considered a moderate Muslim. Serving as the Muslim chaplain at George Washington University, he was frequently invited to speak about Islam to audiences in Washington DC and to members of Congress and the government. Hasan reportedly had deep respect for al-Awlaki's teachings.Eleven months prior to the shootings, in December 2008, federal intelligence officials captured a series of e-mail exchanges between Al-Awlaki and Hasan. During this period, al-Awlaki was deemed a "radical cleric". However, they determined the e-mails were religious, and did not contain any elements of militancy nor any concerning subject matter. Counter-terrorism specialists for the FBI reading the e-mails stated "they were consistent with authorized research Major Hasan was conducting." The e-mails contained general questions about spiritual guidance with regard to conflicts between Islam and military service, and officials judged them to be consistent with his legitimate mental health research about Muslims in the American armed services.
After the shootings, the Yemeni journalist Abdulelah Hider Shaea interviewed al-Awlaki in November 2009 about their exchanges, and discussed their time with a Washington Post reporter. According to Shaea, Al-Awlaki said he "neither ordered nor pressured... Hasan to harm Americans". Al-Awlaki said Hasan first e-mailed him on December 17, 2008. By way of introduction, Hasan said: "Do you remember me? I used to pray with you at the Virginia mosque." According to Al-Awlaki, Hasan said he was Muslim around the time the Imam was preaching at Dar al-Hijrah in 2001 and 2002. This coincides with the death of his mother.
Al-Awlaki said, "Maybe Nidal was affected by one of my lectures." He added: "It was clear, from his e-mails, Nidal trusted me. Nidal told me: 'I speak with you about issues I never speak with anyone.'" Al-Awlaki said Hasan arrived at his conclusions regarding the acceptability of violence in Islam, and said he was not the one to initiate this. Shaea summarized their relationship by saying, "Nidal was providing evidence to Anwar, not vice versa."
In October 2008, Charles Allen, US Undersecretary of Homeland Security for Intelligence and Analysis, warned al-Awlaki "targets US Muslims with radical online lectures encouraging terrorist attacks from his new home in Yemen".
Former CIA officer Bruce Riedel says "E-mailing a known al-Qaeda sympathizer should set-off alarm bells. Even if he was exchanging recipes, the bureau should have put out an alert."
Al-Awlaki had a website with a blog to share his views. On December 11, 2008, he condemned any Muslim who seeks a religious decree "that would allow him to serve in the armies of the dis-believers and fight against his brothers." The NEFA Foundation says, on December 23, 2008, six days after he said Hasan first e-mailed him, al-Awlaki wrote on his blog: "The bullets of the fighters of Afghanistan and Iraq are a reflection of the feelings of Muslims toward America."
An unidentified Muslim officer at Fort Hood said Hasan's eyes "lit up" while speaking about al-Awlaki's teachings. Some investigators believe Hasan's contacts with al-Awlaki pushed him toward violence at a time he was depressed and stressed.