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Accused Fort Hood shooter dreaded deployment, cousin says

12:00 AM CST on Friday, November 6, 2009

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan never served a tour of duty in Iraq. But the psychiatrist worked inside two places that have seen the terrible fallout from the war – first Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in the nation’s capital, and lately at Fort Hood, the giant Central Texas base.

He dealt with some of the invisible wounds from the conflict. He counseled soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder, perhaps getting a preview of the horrors of war that he had yet to see.

But Hasan was, in many ways, very different from the soldiers and family members who had direct experience with the pain and suffering of war. He’d served in the Army for several years but had not been deployed overseas. Unmarried, he hadn’t experienced the stress of soldiers whose family life had been interrupted by long deployments that put them in harm’s way.

His religion, too, set him apart. He told relatives a few years ago that he was having second thoughts about his military career because other soldiers had harassed him because of his Muslim faith. More recently, he had expressed misgivings about being sent to Iraq or Afghanistan.

“He was mortified by the idea of having to deploy,” said a cousin, Nader Hasan. “He had people telling him on a daily basis the horrors they saw over there.”

Now, he is accused of an act of betrayal against the institution that put him through college and medical school, and men and women who wore the same uniform. Authorities say he is responsible for Thursday’s shooting spree at Fort Hood.

Many questions remained unanswered Thursday night. Chief among them was why he would do such a thing to a military community that has already suffered so much.

Military career

Hasan was born in Virginia, the son of Palestinian immigrants from a town near Jerusalem who ultimately owned a number of businesses. He has two brothers, one who lives in Jerusalem and another in Virginia, according to his cousin.

After graduating from high school, Hasan joined the Army.

“His parents didn’t want him to go into the military,” said Nader Hasan, a lawyer in northern Virginia. “He said, ‘No, I was born and raised here, I’m going to do my duty to the country.’ “

He received his undergraduate degree at Virginia Tech University in 1997 and his medical degree at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., in 2003.

Hasan completed his residency at Walter Reed, where he counseled soldiers suffering from PTSD, and then worked there for several years. He was transferred to the Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood this year.

While an intern at Walter Reed, Hasan had some “difficulties” that required counseling and extra supervision, said Dr. Thomas Grieger, the training director at the time.

Grieger said privacy laws prevented him from going into details, but he noted that the problems had to do with Hasan’s interactions with patients. He recalled Hasan as a “mostly very quiet” person who never spoke ill of the military or his country.

“He swore an oath of loyalty to the military,” Grieger said. “I didn’t hear anything contrary to those oaths.”

His cousin said Hasan was a practicing Muslim who became more devout after the deaths of his parents, in 1998 and 2001. But, he said, Hasan had not expressed anti-American views or radical ideas.

Hasan attended the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, Md., and was “very devout,” according to Faizul Khan, a former imam. Khan said Hasan attended prayers at least once a day, seven days a week, often in his Army fatigues.

Khan also said Hasan applied to an annual matrimonial seminar that matches Muslims looking for spouses.

“We never got into details of worldly affairs or politics,” the former imam said of his conversations with Hasan. “But there was nothing extremist in his questions. He never showed any frustration. … He never showed any … wish for vengeance on anybody.”

In recent years, Hasan had told relatives that he had been harassed because of his religion. And at some point, he began having doubts about his military career.

Harassment claims

His aunt, Noel Hasan of Falls Church, Va., said he had endured name-calling and harassment about his Muslim faith after the Sept. 11 attacks and had sought for several years to be discharged from the military.

A fellow Army officer who worked with Hasan told the Fox News Channel that Hasan had expressed strong opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“He would make comments to other individuals about how we should not be in the war in the first place,” Col. Terry Lee told the network. “He made those comments, and he stuck strongly to his faith.”

His cousin said that Hasan did not want to be deployed overseas. “He was doing everything he could to avoid that,” he said. “He wanted to do whatever he could within the rules to make sure he wouldn’t go over.”

He reportedly made inquiries about whether he could get out of the Army before his commitment had been met, and even had hired a lawyer.

His cousin said Hasan was told that he would not be allowed to leave the Army early, even if he paid the Army back for his education.

“I think he gave up that fight and was just doing his time,” Hasan said.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said Hasan was to be deployed this month, but the Army did not confirm that.

“I know that he was scheduled to be deployed and appeared to be upset about that. … There is a lot of investigation now into his background,” Hutchison told CNN.