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 Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! November 5, 2009 Grim news from HoodBy GreyhawkNote: we've reached a point in this story where old news is being reported as new (including on evening news broadcasts); scroll through this post and you'll see info in order reported, with latest confirmed reports below older information. Six November update: In stories like this one, erroneous news reports are the norm. In the military we call it the fog of war. First reports are always wrong - and reporters eager to get a scoop are generally willing to pass on anything as news, the more sensational the better. As an example, in the earliest reports of this event CNN presented a live phone call with someone claiming to be in the hospital on Ft Hood. The first thing this individual related to CNN was that they didn't know anything about what was happening except for what they had seen on TV - then the interview continued. Here's what happened yesterday: the global war on terror continued, with a battle on American soil. That's twice this year. Here's what matters at this point: Hotline for relatives of Fort Hood personnel: (254) 288-7570 or (866) 836-2751 for information about loved ones. As of a 7:30 CST press conference, officials at Ft Hood were unable to confirm if all next-of-kin notifications had been completed. Video from Ft Hood: Latest - 8:15 CST: Single gunman, in custody, hospitalized, not dead. Death toll is 12 or 13 (for now). First report - 2:28 CST - Developing story: At least seven people are dead and 12 wounded in a shooting at Fort Hood in Texas, the base's public affairs office told NBC News on Thursday.More: There are unconfirmed reports that one of the shooters is surrounded by police in the 42006 building on Fort Hood. That source tells KCEN the shooter has a high-powered rifle and is aiming to kill. Early reports are often wrong... but that would be the Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic. However, other reports say the Commissary. CNN reporter Barbara Starr at the Pentagon says "US military officials" have not confirmed multiple shooters. CNN is also running the "soldiers are psychos, and there are more of them on Ft Hood than anywhere" storyline. Local news from the area:
Live local news broadcast here. Reports Killeen City police say three shooters, one captured, one "holed up" in a building, one location unknown.
Two suspects now reported caught. FORT HOOD -- Rescue crews have been dispatched to Fort Hood for what is being described as a mass casualty event. Fort Hood officials are meeting media representatives to escort them onto post. The paper's web site is now just a text version of that story - the site for the Killeen Daily Herald appears to be inaccessible this afternoon. Report: As many as nine people are dead and as many as 30 more are injured after two or more gunmen in military uniforms opened fire Thursday afternoon in a deployment processing center at Fort Hood. Schools on and around the post are locked down and hospitals report receiving mass casualties. News conference, 3:50 CST, Lieutenant General Robert Cone, recently assigned Commanding General: "One shooter killed - he was a soldier. Two other soldiers apprehended, they are suspects. (Eyewitnesses indicate more than one shooter, all soldiers.) Twelve dead, 31 wounded. All casualties took place in initial incident at 13:30 CST. 'Primary shooter' had two hand guns." 4:12 CST: ABC News: Shooter: Major Malik Nadal Hasan. ABC does not name a source for this information. 04:31 CST: Independent sources confirm a soldier by that name is stationed at Hood.
8:15 CST: Hasan Single gunman, in custody, hospitalized, not dead. Death toll is 12 or 13 (for now). Other two suspects reportedly questioned and released. Repeat: early reports are often wrong. What is certain is several good people are dead, a lot of families are grieving, and many more are wondering - and very uneasy right now, to say the least. Hotline for relatives of Fort Hood personnel: (254) 288-7570 or (866) 836-2751 for information about loved ones. Statements: Secretary Gates: "I am deeply saddened by the tragic events today at Fort Hood. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the fallen, the wounded, and all those touched by this incident. There is little we can say at this point to alleviate the pain or answer the many questions this event raises, but I can pledge that the Department of Defense will do everything in its power to help the Fort Hood community get through these difficult times." Army Secretary John M. McHugh: "This is a terrible tragedy that we will know more about in the coming days. For now our focus is squarely on taking care of our soldiers and their families. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of those who have been killed and wounded. The leadership at Fort Hood is marshaling the medical support and counselors necessary to take care of our soldiers and their families and to notify the next of kin." President Obama: THE PRESIDENT: Please, everybody have a seat. Let me first of all just thank Ken and the entire Department of the Interior staff for organizing just an extraordinary conference. I want to thank my Cabinet members and senior administration officials who participated today. I hear that Dr. Joe Medicine Crow was around, and so I want to give a shout-out to that Congressional Medal of Honor* winner. It's good to see you. (Applause.) My understanding is, is that you had an extremely productive conference. I want to thank all of you for coming and for your efforts, and I want to give you my solemn guarantee that this is not the end of a process but a beginning of a process, and that we are going to follow up. (Applause.) We are going to follow up. Every single member of my team understands that this is a top priority for us. I want you to know that, as I said this morning, this is not something that we just give lip service to. And we are going to keep on working with you to make sure that the first Americans get the best possible chances in life in a way that's consistent with your extraordinary traditions and culture and values. Now, I have to say, though, that beyond that, I plan to make some broader remarks about the challenges that lay ahead for Native Americans, as well as collaboration with our administration, but as some of you might have heard, there has been a tragic shooting at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas. We don't yet know all the details at this moment; we will share them as we get them. What we do know is that a number of American soldiers have been killed, and even more have been wounded in a horrific outburst of violence. My immediate thoughts and prayers are with the wounded and with the families of the fallen, and with those who live and serve at Fort Hood. These are men and women who have made the selfless and courageous decision to risk and at times give their lives to protect the rest of us on a daily basis. It's difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas. It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil. I've spoken to Secretary Gates and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, and I will continue to receive a constant stream of updates as new information comes in. We are working with the Pentagon, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security, all to ensure that Fort Hood is secure, and we will continue to support the community with the full resources of the federal government. In the meantime, I would ask all Americans to keep the men and women of Fort Hood in your thoughts and prayers. We will make sure that we get answers to every single question about this horrible incident. And I want all of you to know that as Commander-in-Chief, there's no greater honor but also no greater responsibility for me than to make sure that the extraordinary men and women in uniform are properly cared for and that their safety and security when they are at home is provided for. So we are going to stay on this. But I hope in the meantime that all of you recognize the scope of this tragedy, and keep everybody in their thoughts and prayers. Again, thank you for your participation here today. I am confident that this is going to be resulting in terrific work between this government and your governments in the weeks, the months, and years to come. God bless you, and God bless the United States of America. (Applause.) Posted by Greyhawk / November 5, 2009 3:28 PM | Permalink 2 TrackBacksConfederate Yankee:Ironically, there is no known record of that weapon even being used to kill a police officer in the United States, and there is a distinct possibility that Sgt. Kimberly Munley, wounded while engaging Hasan, may have been the first A... Read More Pvt Joseph Foster is yet another soldier reporting that Nidal Hasan shouted "Allah Akbar" when he began firing last week - but Foster made the mistake of saying it on CNN:Roberts: So the first moments of Thursday afternoon, can you tell our viewers, yo... Read More 21 Comments |
November 26, 2010America@war [Greyhawk]
I think anyone who's ever pondered the "comment" option - once only available on blogs and bulletin boards, now ubiquitous on almost any web site - will appreciate this:
The so-called faculty of writing is not so much a faculty of writing as it is a faculty of thinking. When a man says, "I have an idea but I can't express it"; that man hasn't an idea but merely a vague feeling. If a man has a feeling of that kind, and will sit down for a half an hour and persistently try to put into writing what he feels, the probabilities are at least 90 percent that he will either be able to record it, or else realize that he has no idea at all. In either case, he will do himself a benefit. That's wisdom from the past, captured for posterity at the US Naval Institute, shared via the web on the institute's 137th anniversary. From their about page:
"The Naval Institute has three core activities," among them, History and Preservation: The Naval Institute also has recently introduced Americans at War, a living history of Americans at war in their own words and from their own experiences. These 90-second vignettes convey powerful stories of inspiration, pride, and patriotism. Take a look at the collection, and you'll see it's not limited to accounts from those who served on ships at sea, members of the other branches are well-represented. I'm fortunate to have met USNI's Mary Ripley, she's responsible for the institute's oral history program (and she's the daughter of the late John Ripley, whose story is told here). She also deserves much credit for their blog. ("We're not the Navy nor any government agency. Blog and comment freely.") We met at a milblog conference - Mary knew (and I would come to realize) that milbloggers are the 21st-century version of exactly what the US Naval Institute is all about. Once that light bulb came on in my head, I mentioned a vague idea for a project to her - milblogs as the 21st century oral history that they are. "Put that in writing," she said (of course - see first paragraph above!) - and here's part of the result. Shortly after the first tent was pitched by the American military in Iraq a wire was connected to a computer therein, and the internet was available to a generation of Americans at war - many of whom had grown up online. From that point on, at any given moment, somewhere in Iraq a Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine was at a keyboard sharing the events of his or her day with the folks back home. While most would simply fire off an email, others took advantage of the (then) relatively new online blogging platforms to post their thoughts and experiences for the entire world to see. The milblog was born - and from that moment to this stories detailing everything from the most mundane aspects of camp life to intense combat action (often described within hours of the event) have been available on the web... And et cetera - but since you're reading this on a milblog, you probably knew that. And you know that milblogs aren't just blogs written by troops at war, that many friends, family members, and supporters likewise documented their story of America at war online in near-real time, as those stories developed. The diversity in membership of that group is broad, the one thing we all have in common is the impulse to make sense of the seemingly senseless, and communicate the tale - for each of us that impulse was strong enough to overcome whatever barriers prevent the vast majority of people from doing the same. Everyone at some point has some vague idea they believe should be shared - we were the people who, from some combination of internal and external urging, found and spent those many half hours persistently trying to write it down. But where will all that be in another 137 years? Or five or ten, for that matter. That's something I've asked myself since at least 2004 - when I wrote this:
Membership in the ghost battalion has grown in the years since, and an ever growing majority of those abandoned-but-still-standing sites are vanishing. Have you checked out Lt Smash's site lately? How about Sgt Hook's? If you're a long-time milblog reader you know the first widely-read milblog from Operation Iraq Freedom and the first widely-read milblog from Afghanistan are both gone from the web. If you're a relative newcomer to this world you may never even have heard of them - or the dozens upon dozens of others who carried forth the standard they set down. If you have a vague notion that something should be done about that, (a notion I've heard expressed more than once...) then you and I and the good folks at the US Naval Institute are in agreement. Preserving the history documented by the milbloggers is just one of the goals of the milblog project, the once-vague idea that we're now making real. And it's a big idea, if I say so myself - too big to explain in one simple blog post, so stand by for more. Likewise, it's too big a task to be accomplished by just one person. So if you're a milblogger (and exactly what is a milblogger? is a topic for much further discussion on its own) I'm asking for your help. All I'll really need is just a little bit (maybe just one or two of those half hours...) of your time, and your willingness to tell the tale. We've already made history, it's time to save it. (More to follow...) Posted 4:02 PM | Permalink |
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The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
 
 
 Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house. I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email. Original content copyright © 2003 - 2011 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed. Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com  Tending Distant Far from hearth and home, watching What tales we'll tell When things grim Some distant sunset, vision fading Saluting fallen friends whose names - Greyhawk, Baghdad, December 2004 |
A Major doing the shooting? Sounds totally wierd to me.
Susbunk
I have no idea how these things work, but the 'suspects' bit reminded me there will be some kind of hearing or trial. I am curious how swift justice is on a military base, or if it's even done there. Here's hoping they got them all, they got the right ones, and the wounded survive.
Stress doesn't make any sense if there's a team...3 military guys don't usually freak out all together. Stress related stuff tends to be a solo act.
I am not 'gun knowledgeable" but a single shooter with 2 handguns could kill 11 and wound 31 people? Does that seem possible?
Saw something at Hot Air that indicated one of the shooters had an Arabic sounding name. I have seen no confirmation.
Crap. Crappity crap crap.
Aside from the terrible implications of this possibly being an attack by rogue members of our own military on their fellow soldiers, something else immediately comes to mind.
One of the things we pro-Right to Keep and Bear folks have been saying for a long time is, "You don't see many folks attacking armed installations like police stations and military bases."
That assertion just took a direct hit -- I seriously doubt it will be often noted that an armed presence was undoubtably why the attack was put down as quickly as it was. I'm thinking how much worse this would have been at a mall, say, or a college campus.
Also, it's not clear to me that the particular area that was hit was in fact full of armed military personnel.
I'm going to be watching this very closely. I hope I'm quickly proven totally wrong on all counts.
Ft Hood has very tight control on guns. Most people are unarmed.
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/11/05/breaking-massacre-at-fort-hood/
Update: The suspect’s name, via ABC: Major Malik Nadal Hasan.
The suspected gunman was identified as Major Malik Nadal Hasan. He was killed and two other suspects have been apprehended, Lt. Robert W. Cone said.
The gunman used two handguns, Cone said. He wasn’t sure if the shooter reloaded the weapons during the attack.
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DJMoore:
I understand what your saying, I'm entertaining all sorts of dark thoughts myself.
But let's hold off at least for 24 hours. The truth will come out.
http://abcnews.go.com/m/screen?id=9007938
Twelve people have been killed and 31 wounded in a shooting spree at a Texas military base by what officials believe was possibly carried out by an Army officer.
The suspected gunman was identified by ABC News as Major Malik Nadal Hasan.
Cone said the motive for the attack, which took place just after 1:30 p.m. CT, is unclear.
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Well I'll give my opinion. Sudden Jihad Syndrome
Ah. Per ABCNews: "According to a source on the base, it is rare for firearms to be on the base because they are locked up."
CBS says he was a 39 yo Psychiatrist.
@DJMoore
The reason "You don't see many folks attacking armed installations like police stations and military bases" is that it would be a suicide mission.
But, what if a suicide mission is the whole point?
CBS News investigative producer Len Tepper reports that Hasan, 39, is a licensed psychiatrist from Silver Spring, Md.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/05/national/main5539067.shtml
Possibly this listing at Walter Reed?
Weapons are kept in armory on base. Even personal firearms.
DJMoore -- Please note that domestic American military bases are strictly "weapons-free zones." Soldiers, contractors and visitors are strictly forbidden to possess personal weapons on base. Simple possession, whether at home, at work or in a car is the equivalent of a felony.
Further, some bases in recent years have taken to forbidding their military personnel from possession even while off base and off duty.
This is another case whether a mass-shooter has chosen a weapons free environment for a rampage and then suicide by cop, when they eventually show up.
There is a ton of literature pointing to the increased likelihood of mass-shootings compared to less restricted areas.
Sadly for the dead, wounded and their families, even a few minutes response time is too long. Sadly, too, that bad guys, in this case defined as someone who wanted to shoot people, are never, ever dissuaded by signs.
You know and I know that weapons are kept in armories, but you'd be surprised how many people are unaware of that.
Is there any charity that people can give money or help for the victims?
Thanks. I'll link to this story on my Blog and any charity you reccommend. I will put it on my sidebar.
We've been running the annual Valour-IT fundraiser for all wounded troops here all week.
All American military installations are strictly enforced "gun free zones", except for MPs and civilian police personnel, of which out of a pool of 40,000 soldiers, there are relatively few. Yes, we all have fully stocked armories, but storing ammunition there is prohibited. And it would take hours to get it if needed, not to mention hours more waiting on the authority to do so.
It's a national embarrassment. Entire companies of infantry soldiers reduced to sitting on our hands while a home-grown jihadist runs rampant.
Army posts are the softest targets imaginable. A properly motivated terrorist cell could take out thousands with relative ease and all we'd have to fight them with would be pocket knives and Leatherman tools.
I hate to say it, but even the US military has finally succumbed to liberal weakness. And it was the last bastion. Time to start looking for that cabin in Montana.
Buck Sargent
Ft. Hood, TX