If you believe Major Hasan was a terrorist, I've got some WMD I'd like to sell ya

After a decade of sexed-up "intelligence", you'd think people could tell when they're being played. Oh well...

but I'm leaning towards terrorist.

:-(

They all are insane!!!

:wow:

Yep rationalization hard at work

of American literature. And I know you don't believe that one, Bobbie.

of over one million people who never did anything to them? Is that insane also? Or are you one of those so blinded by xenophobia that you really do believe that when the US does it, it's not terrorism? If so, ask an Iraqi what terrorism is. You might get an education.

... it does.

causes a large military base to be shut down AND gets local law enforcement plus FBI involved AND intimidates and causes fear amongst the relatives of all those people on the aforementioned military base AND causes the broadcast media and internet forums and blogs to be non-stop talk about him AND causes multiple deaths and injuries, that person is just a plain whack-job.

OK, have it your way. But I think terrorism was involved here.

Opinions do vary. Some people thought OJ was guilty.

If that first paragraph was yr definition of terrorism, then that's one bizarre sort of definition yr trying to use...

Killing lots of random innocent people does however. Instead of shooting them, what if he blew them up with a bomb, would this be any different? He had his ideology and a plan - which he successfully executed.

BTW, did you see the report that his Imam praised Hasan as a hero on his website. People need to admit there is a radical faction within Islam that hates 'infidels' and tries to figure out ways to try to kill us. Sorry, but Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus don't have anything like this happening within their ranks.

Terrorism is political violence. Just because the guy's a Muslim doesn't mean we should all eagerly swallow everything in the media. It's fear-mongering and unfortunately there's a fair few DUers who are falling for it...

Oh, and what you said about other religions not having radical factions is completely untrue. There are extremists in all religions, and if yr looking for mass-murderers, look up Baruch Goldstein for an example of a Jewish one....

... oh yeah, who happens to be Muslim.

And that those views may have contributed to his murder spree?

The WOT was this man's. That still only makes him a man who cracked up.

.

of homicide/suicide/violent attacks.

And I expect that number will further increase over the next few years, in and out of the military.

eom

The cop admits shooting him. That's about all we know with certainty, apart from the fact that he's also been tried and convicted of murder by the media.

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:argh:

hard to say just yet...

that's been the plan since the news broke.

The right has been trying to take Obama down with disinformation/fear mongering since he was sworn in - this tragic incident will be spun in the 'terrorist' meme in order to bring in big $$$ from their lunatic base. ie - 'energize' their base.

They(2) are going to say whatever they want no matter how the investigation turns out.

They(1) are the FBI and military investigators; They(2) are Obama's political enemies.

for a lot of very unhappy agencies and former powers and interests that can't wait to come back bigger and better than ever. HUGE. To say nothing of the orgasms it has to be giving Snarl and his execrable daughter right now, along with lots of just plain rank and file Republican politicians and the corp whore media that love the idea. Oh you bet this is where this is going.

that prosecutors had absolutely no evidence of.

innocent people

Hurting his feelings about names he's called is really not something I worry about.

or ends up dumping more bombloads on people who had nothing to do with it.

changes anything.

I'm more concerned about potential destruction done under the banner of the "new crusades".

Or what you call him either.

We can sit around over beers, or over this forum and call him Santa Claus. It doesn't matter.

What he is called on the national stage will be determined by the corporate media.

Sad but true.

As far as I know he hasn't been convicted of or even charged with any crimes.

He's due a presumption of innocence in court, but you and I are entitled to form whatever opinion we choose.

You go ahead and pretend he's a saint.

As for me? Well he's guilty of killing of innocent people and I hope he suffers immensely for it.

NPR too. NPR especially in fact. All the more reason to be skeptical, not that there's hope that justice will be served on the actual murderers. But the MO is intel psy-op and CIA fingerprints are all over this thing.

;)

Alleged it is. :)

Preferably not a military one that works with folks with PTSD...

after all being a conservative doesn't make one a terrorism either. Of course I think regardless of religion if you murder innocent people to make a political statement it qualifies as terrorism.

In my book even Timothy McVeigh was a terrorist and not a poor misunderstood victim who lost his way.

He, unlike Hasan, really was plugged into a network of terrorists.

The FBI and Army investigators will have to make that determination.

I remind the tinfoil hat crowd that both the FBI and the Army now report to President Barack Obama.

wasn't to terrorize but to kill specific people, those leaving for battle. But we can no longer call things what they technically are in this country it seems. Anyway, we need better screening in our services apparently, especially when red flags appear in someone's behavior and words.

and a SUSPECT in a multiple homicide. That's what we know.

Nothing more.

Thanks for all you do to keep us safe from the invading Islamic hordes. :patriot: :spray:

IT is soooo convenient to have an evil enemy out there on which to blame everything.

That way we do not have to really find answers, or even ask questions for that matter....

"Today we are at peace with Oceania, and we have always been."

....er..that is....

"today we are at war with Oceania, and we always have been."

He doesn't seem to be connected to any great conspiracy. But his motives may have been politically albeit privately motivated.

And we will.

I don't know if you've noticed but we're still at war in two countries, and there are some who would love to make it 3 (Iran). As the wars drag on and the economy tanks, there will be less and less public support for our military adventures and occupations. We need their oil, we need to feed the voracious industrial-military-security-complex, and we need an enemy to keep people interested. Since nobody has been crashing planes into buildings lately, this guy will have to do.

nearly everything he asked for, which probably means more than what he asked for. And I'm sure everyone in Congress save a handful will go along for the ride.

You remember, George Sodini, who killed three women and himself, who had a pathological hatred of women because they refused to have sex with him?

That's who Hasan reminds me of. Hasan was frustrated in his ability to find a wife, as Sodini was in his efforts to get laid. The theme here is loner-losers men who would outwardly appear to be "successful," who are nonetheless frustrated, socially isolated, whose miserable interior lives do not jibe with their inflated sense of their own self-importance. Most people don't go out and kill folks, no matter how miserable their own lives seem, but men like this are beset with a sort of narcissism-fueled rage that bespeaks some underlying psychopathology.

By way of contrast, terrorists have shown themselves to be largely sane individuals who see themselves as soldiers. They may have rage, but they are not loners, existing instead in a group of like-minded zealots who will do anything for the cause. Think Timothy McVeigh. In fact, the nature of this sort of bad actor is so consistent that that's why, to this day, many in the FBI think Eric Robert Rudolph did not act alone.

It seems probable to me that this is an incident of workplace violence made worse by the fact that the perpetrator was trained to kill by the US Army, which explains why the body count is so much higher here than in Pittsburgh. Still, it is possible that Hasan could see himself as a terrorist, someone like James von Brunn: fucked up personal life, loner, who nonetheless commits a terrorist act.

He makes a lot of sense...

Op-Ed Columnist
The Rush to Therapy

By DAVID BROOKS
Published: November 9, 2009

We’re all born late. We’re born into history that is well under way. We’re born into cultures, nations and languages that we didn’t choose. On top of that, we’re born with certain brain chemicals and genetic predispositions that we can’t control. We’re thrust into social conditions that we detest. Often, we react in ways we regret even while we’re doing them.

But unlike the other animals, people do have a drive to seek coherence and meaning. We have a need to tell ourselves stories that explain it all. We use these stories to supply the metaphysics, without which life seems pointless and empty.

Among all the things we don’t control, we do have some control over our stories. We do have a conscious say in selecting the narrative we will use to make sense of the world. Individual responsibility is contained in the act of selecting and constantly revising the master narrative we tell about ourselves.

The stories we select help us, in turn, to interpret the world. They guide us to pay attention to certain things and ignore other things. They lead us to see certain things as sacred and other things as disgusting. They are the frameworks that shape our desires and goals. So while story selection may seem vague and intellectual, it’s actually very powerful. The most important power we have is the power to help select the lens through which we see reality.

Most people select stories that lead toward cooperation and goodness. But over the past few decades a malevolent narrative has emerged.

That narrative has emerged on the fringes of the Muslim world. It is a narrative that sees human history as a war between Islam on the one side and Christianity and Judaism on the other. This narrative causes its adherents to shrink their circle of concern. They don’t see others as fully human. They come to believe others can be blamelessly murdered and that, in fact, it is admirable to do so.

This narrative is embraced by a small minority. But it has caused incredible amounts of suffering within the Muslim world, in Israel, in the U.S. and elsewhere. With their suicide bombings and terrorist acts, adherents to this narrative have made themselves central to global politics. They are the ones who go into crowded rooms, shout “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” and then start murdering.

When Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan did that in Fort Hood, Tex., last week, many Americans had an understandable and, in some ways, admirable reaction. They didn’t want the horror to become a pretext for anti-Muslim bigotry.

So immediately the coverage took on a certain cast. The possibility of Islamic extremism was immediately played down. This was an isolated personal breakdown, not an ideological assault, many people emphasized.

Major Hasan was portrayed as a disturbed individual who was under a lot of stress. We learned about pre-traumatic stress syndrome, and secondary stress disorder, which one gets from hearing about other people’s stress. We heard the theory (unlikely in retrospect) that Hasan was so traumatized by the thought of going into a combat zone that he decided to take a gun and create one of his own.

A shroud of political correctness settled over the conversation. Hasan was portrayed as a victim of society, a poor soul who was pushed over the edge by prejudice and unhappiness.

There was a national rush to therapy. Hasan was a loner who had trouble finding a wife and socializing with his neighbors.

This response was understandable. It’s important to tamp down vengeful hatreds in moments of passion. But it was also patronizing. Public commentators assumed the air of kindergarten teachers who had to protect their children from thinking certain impermissible and intolerant thoughts. If public commentary wasn’t carefully policed, the assumption seemed to be, then the great mass of unwashed yahoos in Middle America would go off on a racist rampage.

Worse, it absolved Hasan — before the real evidence was in — of his responsibility. He didn’t have the choice to be lonely or unhappy. But he did have a choice over what story to build out of those circumstances. And evidence is now mounting to suggest he chose the extremist War on Islam narrative that so often leads to murderous results.

The conversation in the first few days after the massacre was well intentioned, but it suggested a willful flight from reality. It ignored the fact that the war narrative of the struggle against Islam is the central feature of American foreign policy. It ignored the fact that this narrative can be embraced by a self-radicalizing individual in the U.S. as much as by groups in Tehran, Gaza or Kandahar.

It denied, before the evidence was in, the possibility of evil. It sought to reduce a heinous act to social maladjustment. It wasn’t the reaction of a morally or politically serious nation.

In fact, leaving him alone with a paper sack might result in asphyxiation.

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thanks in advance

There is no proof yet that his alleged Islamist leanings were behind this.

Quit watching the MSM hysteria.

Did the guy hear voices in his head ordering him to kill like the mother who drowned her 5 kids in a bath tub? Has it been reported that Hasan couldn't hold a rational conversation? What is the evidence of insanity?

On the other hand it was reported that he gave an hour long talk on an extremist view of the Koran to dozens of fellow doctors
at Walter Reed Hospital. During the talk he proclaimed that "infidels should be beheaded and boiling oil poured down their throats".

There were complaints filed by other doctors regarding his "anti-American" rants.

It was reported that Hasan openly claimed to be a "Muslim first and American second."

He was emailing a radical Imam who once preached a mosque where two 911 hijackers attended.

One of Hasan's neighbours described how on the day of the massacre he gave her a Koran and said "I'm going to do good work for God" before leaving for the base.

The main argument that I see for those claiming stress or insanity is that the guy acted alone. If he had a partner(s)there would be no argument. Regardless, the act was planned for some time. He bought the guns back in August, he gave away his possessions in the week leading up to the massacre. This was no "snap" decision.