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FORT HOOD SUSPECT REPORTEDLY SHOUTED ‘ALLAHU AKBAR’

BY JEFF CARLTON
The Sacramento Bee

Soldiers who witnessed the shooting rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead reported that the gunman shouted “Allahu Akbar!” - an Arabic phrase for “God is great!” - before opening fire, the base commander said Friday.

A convenience store video showing what appears to be the soldier suspected in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood may offer more information for a possible motive. In the video, the individual believed to be Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan appears wearing clothes that would be abnormal for someone of Palestinian descent - Hasan’s family is from Jordan. CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar reports that the man is wearing a shalwar kameez - long robes far more common in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He is also wearing white, which in Islam is associated with death or mourning.

Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said officials had not yet confirmed that the suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, made the comment before the rampage Thursday. Hasan was among 30 people wounded in the shooting spree and remained hospitalized on a ventilator.

All but two of the injured were still hospitalized, and all were in stable condition.

Military officials were trying to piece together what may have pushed Hasan, an Army psychiatrist trained to help soldiers in distress, to turn on his comrades. Cone said the 39-year-old Hasan was not known to be a threat or risk.

MUSLIMS REACT TO FORT HOOD

“I’m not aware of any problems here,” said Col. Steve Braverman, the Fort Hood hospital commander. “We had no problems with his job performance.”

An imam from a mosque Hasan regularly attended said Hasan, a lifelong Muslim, was a committed soldier, gave no sign of extremist beliefs and regularly wore his uniform at prayers.

The motive for the shooting wasn’t clear, but Hasan was apparently set to deploy soon and had expressed some anger about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Retired Col. Terry Lee, who said he had worked with Hasan, told Fox News said Hasan had hoped President Barack Obama would pull troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq and got into frequent arguments with others in the military who supported the wars.

Braverman said at a news conference early Friday that Hasan was on deployment orders to Afghanistan. A military official later told The Associated Press that Hasan was to be deployed to Iraq. It was not immediately possible to verify the discrepancy.

The military official, who did not have authorization to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity, said Hasan had indicated he didn’t want to go to Iraq but was willing to serve in Afghanistan.

A neighbor at the apartment building near Fort Hood where Hasan lived said they had recently discussed his impending deployment to Afghanistan.

“He seemed OK with it,” said Edgar Booker, a 58-year-old retired soldier who now works in a cafeteria on the post. “I asked him how he felt about going over there, with their religion and everything, and he said, ‘It’s going to be interesting.’”

Cone said authorities have not yet been able to talk to Hasan, but interviews with witnesses went through the night.

Terrorism task force agents planned to interview several of Hasan’s relatives Friday, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the case.

Officials are not ruling out the possibility that some of the casualties may have been victims of “friendly fire,” that in the mayhem and confusion at the shooting scene some of the responding military officials may have shot some of the victims.

The officer who shot the gunman, Kimberly Munley, also was wounded.

“She happened to encounter the gunman. In an exchange of gunfire, she was wounded but managed to wound him four times,” Cone said. “It was an amazing and aggressive performance by this police officer.”

Cone said some 300 soldiers had been lined up to get shots and have their eye tested at a Soldier Readiness Center when the shots rang out. He said one soldier who had been shot told him, “I made the mistake of moving and I was shot again.” The commander said survivors told him that during the rampage, soldiers “would scramble to the ground and help each other out.”

Cone acknowledged that it was “counterintuitive” that a single shooter could hit so many people. But he said the massacre occurred in “close quarters.

“With ricochet fire, he was able to injure that number of people,” Cone said. He said authorities were investigating whether Hasan’s weapons were properly registered with the military.

The gunfire broke out around 1:30 p.m. Nearby, some soldiers were readying to head into a graduation ceremony for troops and families who had recently earned degrees.

See Related: CLEARER PICTURE EMERGING OF MAJ. NIDAL MALIK HASAN - MUSLIM GROUPS FEAR BACKLASH