The right to remain silent

CNN:

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the suspect in last week's mass shooting at the Fort Hood Army Post, is conscious and talking, according to a spokesman for the Army hospital where he is being treated.

The story doesn't say what he's talking about. Most jihad-inspired killers can't resist explaining that that was their motive. Abdulhakim Muhammad, after killing a soldier and wounding another in Little Rock earlier his year, boasted he "would have killed more soldiers if they had been on the parking lot" at the time.

(Update: CNN has deleted that story since we busted them for the fabrication noted below. However, it can be read here.)

CNN also has a new theory on why so many soldiers are reporting the killer was shouting "Allah Akbar" while gunning down as many Soldiers as he could: "with that much adrenaline, you tend to forget things." But that quote is actually a complete fabrication on the part of CNN.

But this one isn't. "The community came together," Pvt. Joseph Foster told CNN, "It's like a giant family. When anything like this happens, we just get stronger, become better united."

"Mt son got shot," the father of a wounded troop said, "but the first responders, the police officers, the other soldiers that responded... this is the best America has to give."

More stories from wounded survivors are beginning to appear:

The soldier, who has a degree in psychology from the University of Wisconsin- La Crosse, was just out of boot camp and preparing to serve as a mental health specialist. Like others in the Soldier Readiness Center, he was unarmed and defenseless.

After being shot in the leg, he found refuge under a desk and played dead. When he heard a lull in the gunfire, he made a break for it, and along with others ran out of the building. He saw the gunman follow, shooting madly.

"He was just shooting as fast as he could," he told his father. "It just seemed like he was shooting whoever he could.'

But the most complete version so far includes this: "I then went over the slaughter house...the medical SRP building. No human should ever have to see what that looked like, and I won't tell you."

Hasan's ultimate defense will be up to him and his lawyer - but if it's going to center around the effects of the imaginary "Pre-TSD" (or "contact PTSD") recently defined in the US media, reports like this one probably won't help:

The personal Web site for a radical American imam living in Yemen who had contact with two 9/11 hijackers praised Hasan as a hero.

The posting Monday on the Web site for Anwar al Awlaki, who was a spiritual leader at two mosques where three 9/11 hijackers worshipped, said American Muslims who condemned the Fort Hood attack are hypocrites who have committed treason against their religion.

Awlaki said the only way a Muslim can justify serving in the U.S. military is if he intends to "follow in the footsteps of men like Nidal."

"Nidal Hassan (sic) is a hero," Awlaki said. "He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people."

Hasan's family attended Awlaki's mosque, the AP reports. And "Hasan's mother's funeral was held at the mosque on May 31, 2001, according to her obituary in the Roanoke Times newspaper, around the same time two 9/11 hijackers worshipped (sic) at the mosque and while Awlaki was preaching." Awlaki is a native-born U.S. citizen who left the United States in 2002.

Elsewhere, it appears that more than a few folks were afraid to speak up:

Danquah said he was so disturbed by Hasan's persistent questioning that he recommended the mosque reject Hasan's request to become a lay Muslim leader at Fort Hood. But he never saw a need to tell anyone at the sprawling Army post about the talks, because Hasan never expressed anger toward the Army or indicated any plans for violence.

"If I had an inkling that he had this type of inclination or intentions, definitely I would have brought it to their attention," he said.

Finnell said he did just that during a year of study in which Hasan made a presentation "that justified suicide bombing" and spewed "anti-American propaganda" as he argued the war on terror was "a war against Islam." Finnell said he and at least one other student complained about Hasan, surprised that someone with "this type of vile ideology" would be allowed to wear an officer's uniform.

But Finnell said no one filed a formal, written complaint about Hasan's comments out of fear of appearing discriminatory.

"In retrospect, I'm not surprised he did it," Finnell said. "I had real questions about what his priorities were, what his beliefs were."

"I told him, `There's something wrong with you,'" Osman Danquah, co-founder of the Islamic Community of Greater Killeen, told The Associated Press on Saturday. "I didn't get the feeling he was talking for himself, but something just didn't seem right."

Danquah assumed the military's chain of command knew about Hasan's doubts, which had been known for more than a year to classmates in a graduate military medical program. His fellow students complained to the faculty about Hasan's "anti-American propaganda," but said a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim student kept officers from filing a formal written complaint.

And then there's this:

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the gunman who killed 13 at America's Fort Hood military base, once gave a lecture to other doctors in which he said non-believers should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats.

He also told colleagues at America's top military hospital that non-Muslims were infidels condemned to hell who should be set on fire. The outburst came during an hour-long talk Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, gave on the Koran in front of dozens of other doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington DC, where he worked for six years before arriving at Fort Hood in July.

Colleagues had expected a discussion on a medical issue but were instead given an extremist interpretation of the Koran, which Hasan appeared to believe.

Glenn Reynolds got it right: "Kind of reminds me of that old Saturday Night Live skit on "The Shooting of Buckwheat." You know: "What was he like?" "Nice guy, quiet, kept to himself." "Are you surprised he shot Buckwheat?" "Oh, no -- it's all he ever talked about"."

Some worshipers at Hasan's Mosque near Ft Hood defended him - but added that his might not have been the best course of action:

Duane Reasoner Jr., an 18-year-old substitute teacher whose parents worked at Fort Hood, said Major Hassan was told he would be sent to Afghanistan on Nov. 28, and he did not like it.

"He said he should quit the Army," Mr. Reasoner said. "In the Koran, you're not supposed to have alliances with Jews or Christian or others, and if you are killed in the military fighting against Muslims, you will go to hell."

Mr. Benjamin, who worked as a private contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan after leaving the Army in 2000, said the military should have let Major Hassan resign. "They should take more consideration of the human beings in the uniform," he said, "rather than simply say, 'We invested our money in you and need to get our money's worth.' "

Still, Mr. Benjamin added, Major Hassan had overlooked an important, and peaceable, tenet of Islam. "We do have the right to retaliate," he said, "but he who does not is twice blessed."

"Ultimately it was Brother Nidal's doing, but the command should be held accountable," Mr. Benjamin said.

Reasoner would later offer even more inflammatory comments to the BBC:

Reasoner: "I'm not going to condemn him for what he did. I don't know why he did it. I will not, absolutely not, condemn him for what he had done though. If he had done it for selfish reasons I still will not condemn him. He's my brother in the end. I will never condemn him."

Lee: "There might be a lot of people shocked to hear you say that."

Reasoner: "Well, that's the way it is. I don't speak for the community here but me personally I will not condemn him."

Lee: "What are your thoughts towards those that were victims in this?"

Reasoner: "They were, in the end, they were troops who were going to Afghanistan and Iraq to kill Muslims. I honestly have no pity for them. It's just like the majority of the people that will hear this, after five or six minutes they'll be shocked, after that they'll forget about them and go on their day."

But somehow his attitude escaped the notice of the New York Time reporter - whose story would be headlined "Muslims at Fort Voice Outrage and Ask Questions".

In other news, the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to block Tuesday's scheduled execution of convicted sniper mastermind John Allen Muhammad.