7 people reported dead, 12 wounded at Ft. Hood, Texas, officials say

[Bailey]

By GUILLERMO CONTRERAS
San Antonio Express-News
Dec. 21, 2009, 6:33PM

SAN ANTONIO — The lead defense lawyer for accused Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan said Monday that he believes the Army is violating Hasan's religious rights because it prohibited him from praying from the Koran in Arabic with a relative.

Attorney John P. Galligan said he learned that police guarding Hasan at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio cut short a phone conversation Hasan was having with one of his brothers on Friday because Hasan was not speaking in English.

“Police at the hospital refused to let him pray, in Arabic, from the Quran with his brother,” Galligan said. “I think it's illegal and a violation of his religious rights.”

Hasan practices Islam, a religion whose followers hold that Jumu'ah (Friday) prayers are one of its most strongly affirmed duties.

Hasan, who is charged with murdering 13 people and the attempted murder of 32 others at Fort Hood, is paralyzed from the chest down. He was shot by police responding to the Nov. 5 shootings. He is confined mostly to his hospital bed at Brooke.

His command, the Army's III Corps at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, has imposed pretrial restrictions on Hasan, including a requirement that he speak only in English with visitors or on the phone, unless an Army-approved translator is present.

Army officials did not respond to requests for comment about Galligan's contention.

Such a restriction would be unusual in the civilian criminal justice system, but not so in the military system, according to those familiar with it. In the civilian world, inmates have successfully challenged religious limitations imposed by jails and prisons. In the military system, Hasan's command may have considered that he is a threat based on his previous actions.

The day of the shootings, the Army has said, some witnesses claimed that an armed Hasan got on a table and yelled “God is Great” in Arabic before or as he opened fire on troops and others in the Soldier Readiness Center at Fort Hood. Some have also said Hasan, a military psychiatrist for Army troops, did not want to deploy to Afghanistan with his unit because he did not want to kill other Muslims.

That backdrop, some argue, provides justification for the military to severely restrict his activities for security reasons.

“He's under military control,” said Jeffrey Addicott, a former Judge Advocate General's Corps officer for 20 years, who now heads the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio. “They can put reasonable restrictions on his movements and activities. The question is what is reasonable. In light of the fact that he is clearly influenced by radical jihad, in my opinion, it's entirely reasonable to limit his spoken activities to English.”

English is Hasan's primary language, and he learned Arabic later in life, according to news accounts. Addicott argued that, because Arabic is not his primary language, and there may not be Arabic-speaking guards available, then the military is justified in its restrictions.

Hasan's article 32 hearing, which is similar to a grand jury or probable cause hearing in the civilian system, is expected to take place sometime early next year. Some congressional leaders, in the meantime, have said they will postpone hearings looking into what intelligence government agencies knew about Hasan before the shootings.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...n/6781557.html

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Cleric says alleged Fort Hood shooter inquired whether it would be ‘lawful’

NBC News
updated 1 hour, 16 minutes ago

A radical Muslim cleric claims Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan asked him about killing American soldiers nearly a year before Hasan allegedly shot to death 13 fellow soldiers at Fort Hood.

In an interview Wednesday with the Arabic-language news network Al-Jazeera, Anwar al-Awlaki, considered a key recruiter for al-Qaida, said Hasan asked him in a December 2008 e-mail "whether killing American soldiers and officers is lawful or not" under Islamic law.

In the interview, Al-Awlaki then appears to taunt U.S. intelligence and security, saying, "I wonder where were the American security forces that one day claimed they can read the numbers of any license plate, anywhere in the world, from space."

He also said he first met Hasan about nine years ago when he was imam at an Islamic center in Washington, D.C.

An English translation of the interview was provided by Evan Kohlmann, a terrorism analyst for NBC News.

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.

Intelligence officials believe al-Awlaki is living in an al-Qaida camp between the Yemeni cities of Shabwa and Mareb.

Al-Awlaki's claim would contradict statements by the FBI, which determined that discussions in intercepted e-mails between Hasan and al-Awlaki were mostly about research being conducted by Hasan and philosophical. Based on that, the FBI said, a Joint Terrorism Task Force determined Hasan "was not involved in terrorist activities or terrorist planning" and chose not to launch an investigation of Hasan.

In the Al-Jazeera interview, Awlaki denies any claims that he recruited or worked with Hasan for the Fort Hood attack. "I did not recruit Nidal Hasan, but America did with its crimes and injustice, and this is what America does not want to admit.

Hasan, a Muslim Army psychiatrist, faces 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in connection with the Nov. 5 shooting attack at the Texas military facility. He remains under guard at a San Antonio military hospital, where he is paralyzed from the waist down due to injuries suffered in the attack.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34579275..._at_fort_hood/

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Web Posted: 01/01/2010 12:00 CST

By Guillermo Contreras - Express-News

The lawyer for Fort Hood shooting suspect Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan said Thursday that the Army's criminal investigators prohibited him from visiting with his client while a relative also was in Hasan's hospital room.

John P. Galligan said he had to scrap plans to visit with Hasan on Thursday and over the weekend because of the limitations imposed by the Army's Criminal Investigations Command at Brooke Army Medical Center, which is more than 150 miles south of Fort Hood.

Hasan is under guard in a room at BAMC, where he was sent after the Nov. 5 shootings to be treated for wounds he received from police gunfire.

Hasan remains paralyzed from the chest down.

Galligan said he was told by two agents he wasn't allowed in the room while Hasan visited with an out-of-town relative.

Galligan said the agents told him to contact Hasan's immediate commander, Capt. James Huber.

Galligan said he was unable to reach Huber and that Huber has never returned his phone calls.

“Because of this unreasonable limitation of access to my client, I was unable to do anything for his defense,” Galligan said.

Calls and e-mails to Army media officers weren't returned.

Fort Hood officials weren't available.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/loc.../80455752.html

[Bailey]

By ANGELA K. BROWN Associated Press Writer © 2010 The Associated Press
Jan. 6, 2010, 6:34PM

FORT WORTH, Texas — The suspect in the Fort Hood shootings will be evaluated next month to determine his mental status that day and if he is competent to stand trial, his attorney said Wednesday.

Attorney John Galligan said he learned from prosecutors late Tuesday that a three-person board of military medical professionals — known as a sanity board — has been named and will start reviewing documents in the case. Galligan has previously objected to such an evaluation.

Board members will evaluate Maj. Nidal Hasan after the review process, which is to be finished by Feb. 7, Galligan said.

Galligan declined to release the names or medical specialties of the board members, who are to report their findings to Army prosecutors by the end of February.

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the Nov. 5 shootings on the Texas Army post. Authorities have not said whether they plan to seek the death penalty.

Fort Hood officials did not immediately return calls Wednesday.

Galligan said he plans to file more objections to the evaluation, citing a military rule that says the board's review is to include a report from the Article 32 hearing, which is similar to a grand jury proceeding. He said military prosecutors have said they have not decided whether to hold such a hearing for Hasan.

"They're putting the cart before the horse," Galligan told The Associated Press on Wednesday from his Fort Hood-area office, about 150 miles southwest of Fort Worth. "And I still don't have the documents I need: the White House investigation, the supposed e-mails and other information."

Galligan said he has been given copies of witness statements but has been denied access to documents about the investigation.

Federal authorities have been reviewing a 2002 file on a radical Muslim cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, who apparently communicated with Hasan via e-mail. Al-Awlaki was at large in Yemen, where he may have been killed last month in an attack on al-Qaida hideouts.

A report spurred by the Fort Hood shootings, led by former Army Secretary Togo West and former Navy chief Vernon Clark, is to be ready by mid-January. They are leading a review of Department of Defense procedures for identifying service members who could pose threats to others as well as the military's ability to respond to mass casualties.

Galligan also said military personnel should not be on the sanity board and that the exam would be too soon. Hasan remains in a San Antonio military hospital undergoing rehabilitation for his paralysis. Authorities have said Hasan was shot and wounded by civilian members of Fort Hood's police force.

The sanity board will determine whether Hasan had a severe mental illness at the time of the shooting; if so, his 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 involves psychological testing and interviews by board members, who also can review any evidence presented by prosecutors and defense attorneys, Galligan said. The exam is closed to everyone except the board members and Hasan, Galligan said.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6802293.html

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Psychiatrist is accused of killing 13 people at Ford Hood army base
Last Updated: Monday, January 11, 2010 | 4:31 PM ET

An investigation into the Fort Hood shooting spree found that doctors overseeing Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's medical training repeatedly expressed concerns over his zealous religious views and unprofessional behaviour, but continued to give him positive performance reviews, according to information received by The Associated Press.

Hasan, 39, was charged with murdering 13 people on Nov. 5, 2009, at Fort Hood in Texas. It was the worst shooting rampage on a U.S. military base.

He had been working at Fort Hood as a military psychiatrist specializing in preventive and disaster psychiatry.

The day of the attack, according to witnesses, Hasan walked into the base's processing centre, jumped on a table with two handguns, shouted "Allahu Akbar!" — Arabic for "God is great!" — and opened fire.

Following the attack, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates appointed two former army officials to conduct an investigation of the shooting. The information, collected by the Pentagon and obtained by The Associated Press, has not been released publicly and is supposed to be presented to Gates later this month.


An official investigation suggests Maj. Nidal Hasan was promoted despite documented complaints about his strident religious views and unprofessional behaviour.

The review revealed that Hasan's supervisors during his psychiatry internship and residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., from 2003 to 2007, voiced concerns about him in memos, meeting notes and counselling sessions.

Records from his medical school days at a Maryland university also indicated Hasan received average and failing grades and at one point had been placed on academic probation.

In the latter stages of Hasan's lengthy medical education in the Washington, D.C., area, he gave a class presentation questioning whether the U.S.-led war on terror was actually a war on Islam. Fellow students said he suggested that Shariah, or Islamic law, trumped the U.S. constitution and he attempted to justify suicide bombings.

In another incident already made public, a patient of Hasan's with suicidal and homicidal tendencies walked out of the hospital without permission.

Hasan was also cited for inappropriately engaging patients in discussions about religious issues.

Early in 2007, Maj. Scott Moran became director of psychiatry residency at Walter Reed and took a firm stance with Hasan. Moran disciplined him for not being reachable when he was supposed to be on-call, developed a plan to improve his performance, and informed him his research project about the internal conflicts of Muslim soldiers was inappropriate.

Nonetheless, Hasan presented the project, he titled: Koranic World View as It Relates to Muslims in the U.S. Military, and it was found to meet residency program requirements, according to the review.
Lower standards in medical corps: former official

Despite concerns about Hasan's behaviour, supervisors gave him positive reviews in his officer evaluation reports. Known as OERs, the reports are used to determine promotions and assignments. Hasan was promoted to captain in 2003, graduated from Walter Reed in 2007, and was promoted to major in 2009.

Upon graduation, Hasan received a favourable reference letter from Moran, despite the director's earlier concerns.

Reached by telephone, Moran declined to comment.

Hasan completed a two-year fellowship at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., before arriving at Fort Hood in July 2009.

Some have speculated that Hasan was able to rise through the ranks, despite his superiors' hesitations, because the U.S. army is contending with shortages of both psychiatrists and majors in the medical corps.

"The army is caught in a perfect storm," Larry Korb, the Pentagon's top manpower official during the Reagan administration, told the Houston Chronicle soon after the Fort Hood shooting. "It's had to lower standards to keep people coming in — and it's made changes to keep people from getting out."

Defence Secretary Robert Gates is scheduled to receive the complete review by Jan. 15.

Army Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington, a Pentagon spokesperson, declined to comment on the review because it's not complete. "We will not know the specific content of the report until it is submitted to the secretary of defence," he said.

Hasan has been charged with 13 counts of murder and 32 counts of attempted murder. He remains at a San Antonio military hospital, undergoing rehabilitation for paralysis stemming from gunshot wounds suffered when police officers fired back during the massacre.

Authorities have not said whether they plan to seek the death penalty.

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/0...-shooting.html

[Bailey]

By Mike Mount, CNN
January 13, 2010 1:29 a.m. EST

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

* Defense Department review to be released Thursday; official gives details to CNN
* Review: Maj. Nidal Hasan promoted despite his extremist views on Islam, odd behavior
* Hasan also had long record of lackluster performance on the job
* Review will suggest military focus on looking internally for potential threats

Washington (CNN) -- An upcoming military review of the Fort Hood, Texas, shootings finds that the alleged shooter, Maj. Nidal Hasan, was promoted despite supervisors' concerns about his extremist views on Islam and odd behavior.

The review also says that a lack of communication between the U.S. military and a terrorism task force did not allow the sharing of information to determine whether he was a terrorist threat months before the shooting.

CNN was told details of the Pentagon review by a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the report. The official did not want to be identified because the report, requested by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, will not be officially released until Thursday.

The Defense Department review, led by former Chief of Naval Operation Adm. Vernon Clark and former Army Secretary Togo West, will recommend the Army and the entire military focus more on looking internally for potential threats among the troops, according to the official.

The review does not look into the reported e-mail communications between Hasan and the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is based in Yemen and also has possible ties to the Christmas Day airline bombing plot. Those ties are being looked at in a separate criminal investigation by the Army.

The publicly released part of the report will not discuss Hasan's actions the day of the shooting at Fort Hood because that, too, is part of the criminal investigation.

In November, Hasan walked into the processing center and began firing his two handguns while standing on a table yelling "Allahu Akbar" ("God is great" in Arabic), killing 13 people before being shot numerous times by base security officers.

Hasan remains in a Brooke Army Medical Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, where he is paralyzed from his wounds. He is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.

The review outlines elements of Hasan's behavior that should have triggered supervisors and senior military officials to look more closely at his behavior.

It questions why Hasan was allowed to keep his security clearance after numerous questionable actions that should prevent military members from getting one.

Among those actions: a class presentation where he said the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were a war on Islam and that Islamic law was more powerful than the U.S. Constitution and justified suicide bombing, according to the official.

Questioning the Constitution is grounds for dismissal as an officer, as well as grounds for having a security clearance revoked or not awarded, the official said. Yet Hasan was given the clearance and continued to be promoted afterward.

During his time in Washington, Hasan's religious views became increasingly apparent. He took a trip to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, to take part in the Haj -- a pilgrimage that devout Muslims are expected to do at least once in their lifetimes if they are able.

In July, Hasan reported to his new position as a psychiatrist at Fort Hood. The report says supervisors knew he had poor performance reviews before the move but was posted at the large base because his poor work would not be as noticeable.

The report is expected to show that Hasan's superiors were all able to clearly see in his records that as an officer, medical student and a psychiatrist, Hasan was a repeat poor performer.

He took six years to graduate from medical school instead of the four years it takes most students. He was on academic probation for receiving numerous below average and failing grades between 1997 and 2007 at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, according to the official.

After graduation, Hassan began his internship in psychiatry, a four-year program at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

Very little changed in his performance reviews, and teachers and supervisors told him of their concerns. He did not see many patients and required monitoring. But the official with knowledge of the review said after being spoken to about his lacking performance, Hasan would focus and improve for a while before slipping back to performing poorly again.

Despite his history of poor grades and performance, Hasan's officer evaluations were strong including the words "satisfactory" and "outstanding." He was promoted to the rank of captain and then major in the standard same time spent in those ranks along with stronger performing colleagues.

Hasan was promoted from captain to major in May, military records show. Because of a shortage of majors in the medical corps, the promotion board was given the authority to promote captains who otherwise would not have been considered for a promotion, according to a U.S. military official who asked not to be identified in connection with discussing personnel matters possibly related to the Hasan investigation.

Hassan was also disciplined for inappropriate conversations with patients about religion.

By 2007, a new supervisor of Hasan's, Maj. Scott Moran, got tough with him. Moran was the director of the psychiatry residency at Walter Reed. He chastised Hasan for not being reachable while on-call and counseled him that his research project about internal conflicts of Muslim soldiers was not a topic appropriate for the program.

Moran also developed a performance-improvement plan for Hasan.

Hasan continued with his presentation regardless of his supervisor's reprimand. The review found the presentation was approved as meeting the residency program requirements despite the reprimand, according to the official with knowledge of the review.

Upon completion of the residency program, Moran wrote a positive reference letter for Hasan, saying he was a competent doctor, according to the official with knowledge of the report.

Hasan then started a two-year fellowship in preventative and disaster psychiatry that he completed in last June, before moving to Fort Hood in July.

In addition to retracing Hasan's history performance as a military psychiatrist, the report will recommend changes for the military.

The military needs to develop new and more precise methods of sharing information on people of concern between the military and intelligence agencies, the report will say.

The report also will recommend a new process for encouraging troops to alert commanders to people of concern instead of the current attitude in many units of a more "boys' club culture" of not turning problem troops in, according to the official. The investigation also recommend ways to overhaul the military performance evaluation system.

The review suggests holding officers accountable for their poor performance reviews, preventing them from moving up the ranks. It also finds supervisors "don't want to rock the boat" and prevent junior officers from getting promoted, the official said.

In a separate aspect of the Hasan case, Hasan's civilian lawyer, John Galligan, told CNN on Tuesday he is frustrated with the "deliberate, intentional actions," by the Army to make it impossible for him to conduct the proper discovery in the case.

"He has a right to proper pretrial procedure," Galligan said.

Galligan said his legal team is hitting some resistance in access to basic information from the military, including the Army's Criminal Investigation Division office not allowing the photocopying of paperwork related to the case. He said he has not encountered that in his 30 years as a lawyer.

He also would like to have the courts-martial moved from Fort Hood for a more fair trial. Because the president, the Army chief of staff and the Fort Hood commander all attended a memorial service there it is not a place, Galligan believes, that Hasan can get a fair trial.

Galligan's access to Hasan has also been limited by the military, he said. He has had trouble seeing him on visits to the hospital. He would also like Hasan moved to a closer medical facility to Fort Hood because traveling between Hood and San Antonio is difficult for his legal team. His requests have gone unanswered, he said.

The military did not return a request for comment.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/01/12/...ect/index.html

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Friday, January 15, 2010



As many as eight Army officers may be punished for failing to heed warning signs and take action against suspected Fort Hood gunman Maj. Nidal Hasan, a U.S. official said Thursday.


Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan

First reported in the Los Angeles Times, an official familiar with a Pentagon review of the case, which will be discussed at a briefing Friday, said the officers who face discipline hold ranks of colonel and below.

The review reportedly found that superiors allowed Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, to advance within the ranks despite his failings to meet physical and professional standards. Hasan avoided physical training, was overweight and frequently late, but was seen by superiors as a rare medical officer and thus avoided corrective action.

"Had those failings been properly adjudicated, he wouldn't have progressed," the official told the Times.

Additionally, the Pentagon review into the deadly rampage that killed 13 found that the Defense Department does not do an adequate job of sharing information about internal personnel, and it focuses more on hunting spies than ferreting out extremists.

The Defense Department made public its own review of the rampage earlier this week and found that doctors overseeing Hasan's medical training repeatedly voiced concerns over his strident views on Islam and his inappropriate behavior, yet continued to give him positive performance evaluations that kept him moving through the ranks.

Both reviews seem to point to the fact that supervisors failed to heed their own warnings about an officer ill-suited to be an Army psychiatrist.

Recent statistics show the Army rarely blocks junior officers from promotion, especially in the medical corps.

Hasan showed no signs of being violent or a threat. But parallels have been drawn between the missed signals in his case and those preceding the thwarted Christmas attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound U.S. airliner. President Barack Obama and his top national security aides have acknowledged they had intelligence about the alleged bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, but failed to connect the dots.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,...est=latestnews

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By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 15, 2010; 5:04 PM

A Pentagon review of the Fort Hood shootings has found that several officers failed to intervene in the career of the suspect, despite widespread signs of his religious radicalization and his shortcomings as a soldier.

The review determined that supervisors of Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, the Army psychiatrist charged in the Nov. 5 attack at the Texas military post, bungled his performance reviews by excluding instances of erratic behavior in treating patients and signs that he might be growing sympathetic to suicide bombers.

The leaders of the review, former Army secretary Togo D. West Jr. and retired Adm. Vernon E. Clark, a former chief of naval operations, recommended in a report released Friday that the Army examine whether "several officers" should be disciplined in the Hasan case.

The report did not name the officers or specify how many could be held accountable. But West said that "we have no doubt the Army will be able to isolate any individuals" who could face disciplinary proceedings, based on detailed information about Hasan's career that was included in a confidential addendum to the report.

In addition, the report said that Hasan was granted a top-level security clearance in February 2008 but that his background check did not include interviews with co-workers, supervisors or Hasan himself.

"If a more thorough investigation had been accomplished, his security clearance might have been revoked and his continued service and pending deployment would have been subject to increased scrutiny," the report concluded.

At a news conference, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said the review found that military supervisors are often slow to act when personnel under their command exhibit suspicious behavior outside the realm of their official duties. He also said the military's ability to guard against internal threats is still geared toward uncovering Cold War moles instead of detecting religious radicals.

Gates said the military needed to be alert to perceived signs of danger and deal with them "openly and honestly."

"Failure to do so, or kicking the problem to the next unit or the next installation, may lead to damaging -- if not devastating -- consequences," he added.

Military authorities have charged Hasan, a loner who was awaiting deployment to Afghanistan, with 45 counts of murder and attempted murder in the Fort Hood shootings. Thirteen people were killed; 43 were wounded or injured. Hasan was shot by police but survived.

Hasan, the son of Palestinian immigrants, joined the Army Medical Corps in 1997 and served at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington from June 2003 to July 2009 as an intern, resident and psychiatry fellow.

Last May, he was promoted to the rank of major despite concerns expressed about his handling of psychiatric patients, his increased tendency to proselytize to other soldiers about his Muslim faith, and his outspoken opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said commanders throughout the military needed to pay more attention to the overall behavior of their personnel instead of simply dismissing unorthodox beliefs or personal behavior.

"I think the issue of self-radicalization is one that we have really got to focus on because there is clearly more and more of that going on," he told reporters. "And how much of that we have in the military is something that we ought to really understand."

In hindsight, military officials said, there were other obvious signs that Hasan's personal views had taken a worrisome turn, including his correspondence with a radical Yemeni American cleric, Anwar al-Aulaqi, in which Hasan not only sought the latter's advice on religious matters, but also discussed his growing discomfort with serving in the U.S. military.

West, the co-author of the Pentagon review, said the military needed to strike a careful balance between keeping a judicious eye out for troubled soldiers and intrusive monitoring.

"Do we want commanders in the mosque? No," he said. "What we want is commanders' awareness of what's going on in their unit. . . . Sometimes there are warning signs that need to be paid attention to and passed along the chain of command."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...011502010.html

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2010 The Associated Press
Jan. 26, 2010, 4:22PM

SAN ANTONIO — An Iraqi immigrant charged with falsely claiming to be the Fort Hood shooting suspect's attorney has been released from federal custody, despite a prosecutor's objection.

Senan Kahtan Abrahem tried to visit Maj. Nidal Hasan at a San Antonio military hospital earlier this month, and was indicted last week on a federal charge of making a false statement.

During a bail hearing Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge John Primomo released Abrahem on an unsecured bond after hearing he didn't harm anyone and has resumed taking medication for his bipolar disorder, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

But prosecutor Mark Roomberg, head of the national security/anti-terrorism section for the U.S. attorney's office, had opposed Abrahem's release, questioning his mental competence and saying Abrahem could threaten witnesses. Roomberg said Abrahem might flee because he faces deportation if convicted.

Roomberg didn't return messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Hasan's lawyer John Galligan said Abrahem has no connection to his client, who is charged with 13 counts of murder and 32 counts of premeditated murder in the November shooting at Fort Hood near Killeen. He was paralyzed after being shot that day and remains at Brooke Army Medical Center.

FBI counterterrorism and military intelligence agents testified that they investigated Abrahem after he shouted "Allah Akbar," Arabic for "God is great," and told officers to shoot him when they denied him access to Hasan.

Before trying to visit Hasan, Abrahem left his car keys but not his car at a mosque as a donation and claimed he was going to free Hasan, U.S. Army counterintelligence agent Jeffrey Cram testified Monday.

Abrahem visited the military hospital Jan. 6 claiming to be Hasan's attorney, Cram said. After security officers denied him entry, he said, Abrahem became belligerent but eventually left.

That night, San Antonio police went to his house and he again yelled "Allah Akbar" and told officers to shoot him, Cram said.

The officers took Abrahem to a hospital's psychiatric ward after his wife said he had been off his medication for more than a month. Later, Abrahem told a doctor that he went to the military hospital "to free his Muslim brother," Cram testified. Abrahem also made a beheading gesture to nurses and doctors, Cram said.

Abrahem's wife, Ruth Ann Davis, told the judge that he is a doctor but didn't have his license to practice in the U.S. The two married three years ago, and Abrahem recently obtained temporary resident status.

"My husband is not a terrorist. He's just a man who needs to be on his medicine," Davis said after the hearing, declining further comment.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6836469.html

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Web Posted: 02/08/2010 12:43 CST

Express-News -

U.S. Army officials Monday set a date for an Article 32 hearing in the case against Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the suspected gunman in the Fort Hood massacre that left 13 people dead.

The Article 32 hearing, the military's version of a civilian grand jury proceeding, was scheduled for March 1, Army officials said in a news release. An investigating officer and military judge also were appointed Monday.

Officials said in the release that Col. James Pohl, who presided over several of the Abu Ghraib trials, was selected to oversee the case against Hasan.

Charges were filed against Hasan, who is paralyzed from the waist down, about a week after the Nov. 5 killings. He was charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.

Hasan, 39, remained hospitalized at Brooke Army Medical Center.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/Date_set_for_Article_32_hearing_in_case_against_su spected_Fort_Hood_shooter.html

[Royalpurple209]

Updated April 28, 2010
Army to Seek Death Penalty Against Fort Hood Shooter

Associated Press

Nidal Hasan is accused of opening fire at the post on Nov. 5, killing 13 and wounding dozens.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Military prosecutors sent a notice Wednesday indicating they plan to seek the death penalty against the Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood, a defense attorney said.

Maj. Nadal Hasan is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the Nov. 5 shooting.

Premeditated murder carries the death penalty. But if military jurors convict Hasan, they can only sentence him to death if they determine there is an aggravating factor in the case, according to military law.

Defense attorney John Galligan said the notice he received from prosecutors outlines as an aggravating factor that more than one person was killed in the same incident.

"They've done everything except tell me to my face that they plan to seek the death penalty," Galligan told The Associated Press from his office near Fort Hood, about 130 miles (210 kilometers) southwest of Fort Worth.

Military prosecutors have not publicly said what punishment they plan to seek, and Fort Hood officials did not immediately return calls seeking comment Wednesday.

Richard Stevens, an attorney who defends military cases and is not involved in Hasan's case, said crimes that are ineligible for the death penalty do not require jurors to consider aggravating factors.

"The only reason to send a notice of aggravating factors is if you're trying to seek the death penalty," Stevens said.

Military law allows for about a dozen possible aggravating factors, but prosecutors listed only one in the notice to Hasan's attorney.

Stevens said the notice indicates prosecutors plan to present evidence about aggravating factors at Hasan's Article 32 hearing, which is similar to a grand jury proceeding. The hearing, after which a military judge will determine whether there is enough evidence to go to trial, could be held as early as July 1.

The commanding general over Hasan's unit ultimately will determine if prosecutors can seek the death penalty, Stevens said.

Hasan was moved earlier this month to Bell County Jail from a San Antonio military hospital, where he had been since shortly after the rampage that also left him paralyzed. The jail houses military defendants from nearby Fort Hood, which does not have holding facilities.

Bell County Sheriff Dan Smith has said Hasan will be under 24-hour watch and isolated from other inmates in a cell in the infirmary.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/04/28...est=latestnews