Home Grown Muslim Sleeper...

From The Wall Street Journal

Hash Browns, Then 4 Minutes of Chaos
Role of Texas Shooter's Muslim Faith Is Examined;
Policewoman Hailed as Hero

By ANA CAMPOY, PETER SANDERS and RUSSELL GOLD

FORT HOOD, Texas -- On Thursday morning, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan gave a key to his apartment manager, lined up some cleaning supplies under his sink and asked Patricia Villa if he could pay her $60 to tidy up his one-bedroom place. He was shipping out to Afghanistan on Friday, he told her.

"I asked him, 'Are you afraid of going over there?'" Ms. Villa recalls. "He said, 'I'm ready for it."

Then, authorities said, he packed two handguns, drove to this bustling military base, and opened fire on a brigade of young engineers prepping to deploy to Afghanistan after Christmas. In a matter of about four minutes -- before he himself was taken down in a face-to-face shootout with a female police officer -- he killed 13 people and wounded 30.

As victims and witnesses came forward to describe the worst soldier-on-soldier violence in U.S. military history, authorities worked Friday to learn more about the alleged shooter, Maj. Hasan. They seized his home computer in hopes of trying to discern a motive.

Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the top commander at Fort Hood, said soldiers at the base have told investigators Maj. Hasan, a Muslim, shouted "Allahu Akbar," Arabic for "God is great," in the attack. One military official at the Pentagon who has been briefed on the investigation said officials are "close to 100%" certain Maj. Hasan authored an Internet posting defending suicide bombings.

At the same time, the authorities cautioned troops not to jump to conclusions about why one of their own may have chosen to go on a murderous rampage. It remains unclear what role Maj. Hasan's religion played in Thursday's events. Army officials said the alleged shooter's fear and anger about his deployment to Afghanistan could have sparked the assault.

Maj. Hasan -- who was transfered Friday afternoon to an Army hospital in San Antonio, in stable condition according to a hospital spokesman -- was an Army psychiatrist, trained to counsel soldiers wrestling with the horrors of war. If he was agitated about his own deployment, he showed few signs of it, according to friends, neighbors and religious leaders.

"It's a shock," said Col. Kimberly Kesling, who supervised Maj. Hasan.

Before chatting with Ms. Villa on Thursday morning, Maj. Hasan went to a local mosque for morning prayer, arriving a half-hour early, as was his custom, according to an Army veteran who prayed with him. And he made his customary stop at a 7-Eleven convenience store just off the base for hash browns and coffee. Surveillance tapes from the store show him smiling and chatting.

In recent days he had carefully emptied his dingy, $350-a-month apartment, giving away two bookcases, his air mattress, four folding chairs, a clock.

The shooting rampage began shortly after 1:20 p.m. Thursday, as scores of soldiers from the 36th engineer brigade, which has the motto "Stay Rugged," waited for medical exams at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center, a gymnasium-sized building at Fort Hood where troops are prepped for deployment. The process is long and as the soldiers milled about, they texted friends, called parents, watched ESPN.

Then, chaos.

Authorities say several witnesses heard Maj. Hasan open fire with two weapons, neither of them Army-issued. One person with knowledge of the weapons said one was a revolver, the other a FN Herstal "Five-seveN"tactical pistol, which one firearms Web site describes as capable of defeating "most body armor in military service around the world today."

The FN carries 20 rounds per magazine. One witness said he saw Maj. Hasan reload at least once. A medic who treated the major's injuries said his camouflage cargo pant pockets were full of magazines.

The shots came so rapidly that Pvt. First Class Marquest Smith, who was going over some paperwork in a cubicle in the building, says he first thought he was hearing microwave popcorn.

Someone shouted: "Gun!"

Pvt. Smith dived under a desk. He says he waited several long minutes, listening to the terror unfold, until he thought he should make a dash for safety.

As he broke for the door, he saw Maj. Hasan in combat fatigues, moving around the room. His handgun was pointed downward, he said, as though he were methodically shooting the soldiers who had fallen or were crouching, seeking cover.

A bullet hit Pvt. Smith's boot as he fled, sticking in the sole. His mom called, too, on Thursday, and he told her he was fine.

The first 911 calls to the police station on base came in at 1:23 p.m. Officers across the sprawling base sprang into action.

Kimberly Munley, a 35-year-old police officer, happened to be nearby, waiting for her squad car to get a tune-up, when she heard the commotion. She raced to the scene, according to her boss, Chuck Medley, director of emergency services on base.

As she rounded a corner, she saw Maj. Hasan chasing a wounded soldier through an open courtyard. He looked as though he was trying to "finish off" the wounded soldier, Mr. Medley said.

"He looked extremely focused," said Francisco De La Serna, a 23-year-old medic who had fled the building and was watching the same scene unfold from a hiding spot across the street.

Ms. Munley's first shot missed Maj. Hasan. He spun to face her and began charging, Mr. Medley said.

The time was 1:27 p.m., just four minutes after the initial 911 call.

Authorities haven't said precisely how many shots were fired during the running gun battle between Maj. Hasan and Ms. Munley. But one of her shots hit Mr. Hasan in the torso, knocking him to the ground. With that, officials say, she quite likely prevented more injuries or deaths on the base.

Ms. Munley took two bullets to her legs. Both entered her left thigh, ripped through the flesh and lodged in her right thigh. She also received a minor wound to the right wrist.

Specialist De La Serna, the medic hiding across the street, sprinted to the scene as the shooting stopped and put a tourniquet on Ms. Munley, who was fading in and out of consciousness, he said. Then he moved to Maj. Hasan, who had a gunshot wound through the chest. Mr. De La Serna described the wounded major as calm and quiet, conscious but weak, a handgun at his side.

Ms. Munley underwent surgery Thursday night to halt bleeding and faces at least two more operations to remove the bullets in her thigh. Authorities said her husband, a soldier stationed at Fort Bragg, was on his way. Her Twitter account filled with messages of thanks and admiration from strangers world-wide.

As soon as the shooting stopped, soldiers in the processing center shifted into combat mode, ripping apart their uniforms to use as tourniquets. The wounded flooded the emergency room on base, where nurses and doctors struggled to cope with the injuries.

The slain included at least one teenager, 19-year-old Aaron Nemelka, who joined the Army last year, out of high school. Spc. Jason Dean Hunt, was 22 and had just married. Francheska Velez, 21, was an oil-tank driver who had completed tours in Korea and Iraq. She was two months pregnant with her first child. Five Army reservists were also killed, including Michael Cahill, who was 62 and worked at the processing center as a physician's assistant.

In all, 13 caskets, each draped with an American flag, were loaded into a C-17 transport plane on Friday afternoon, to be flown to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

—Stephanie Simon, Yochi Dreazen, Kris Hudson and Nomaan Merchant contributed to this article.
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The enemy is amoung us!
He is in The White House...
He is in our military...
He is Muslim and he is ruthless!

Stay vigilant!