WASHINGTON — The Army psychiatrist suspected of carrying out Thursday’s shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, came to the attention of authorities six months ago because of Internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats, law enforcement officials said.
The postings appeared to have been made by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who is suspected in the shootings at the Army post that left at least 12 dead and 31 wounded.
The officials said they were still trying to confirm that he was the author, and they said an official investigation of the writings had not been opened. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.
One of the Web postings that authorities reviewed is a blog post that equates suicide bombers with a soldier throwing himself on a grenade to save the lives of his comrades.
“To say that this soldier committed suicide is inappropriate. Its more appropriate to say he is a brave hero that sacrificed his life for a more noble cause,” said the Internet posting. “Scholars have paralled (sic) this to suicide bombers whose intention, by sacrificing their lives, is to help save Muslims by killing enemy soldiers.”
Military officials said Hasan, 39, had worked for six years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, where he had received a poor performance evaluation. He transferred to Fort Hood in July.
The officials, who had access to Hasan’s record, spoke on condition of anonymity because such records are confidential.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said Hasan was about to deploy overseas, but it was not known whether he was headed to Iraq or Afghanistan.
Retired Army Col. Terry Lee told Fox News that he worked with Hasan, who had hoped President Barack Obama would pull troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq. Lee said that Hasan got into frequent arguments with others who supported the wars and that he had tried hard to prevent his deployment.
Hasan started having second thoughts about his military career a few years ago after other soldiers harassed him for being a Muslim, he told relatives in Virginia, according to The New York Times.
Having counseled scores of returning soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder, he knew all too well the realities of war, said a cousin, Nader Hasan.
“He was mortified by the idea of having to deploy,” Nader Hasan said. “He had people telling him on a daily basis the horrors they saw over there.”
Nader Hasan said his cousin never mentioned in recent phone calls to Virginia that he was going to be deployed, and he said the family was shocked by the news on television Thursday afternoon.
“He was doing everything he could to avoid that,” Hasan said. “He wanted to do whatever he could within the rules to make sure he wouldn’t go over.”
Nader Hasan, 40, a lawyer, described his cousin as a respectful, hard-working man who had devoted himself to his parents and his career. He said his cousin had been a practicing Muslim who had become more devout after the deaths of his parents, in 1998 and 2001. But he said he had not expressed anti-American views or radical ideas.
