NIKOLAS CRUZ’S DISTURBING INSTAGRAM PAGES vs FREEDOM OF SPEECH (LAWSUITS)

NIKOLAS CRUZ’S DISTURBING INSTAGRAM PAGES vs FREEDOM OF SPEECH:

WHY DID INSTAGRAM EMPLOYEES IGNORE CRUZ’S OBSESSION WITH GUNS?

WHAT WAS CRUZ’S MOTIVE & WHO INFLUENCED HIM?

A 19-YEAR OLD COULD NOT PLAN SUCH MASS MURDER, PREMEDITATED EVIL ALL BY HIMSELF.

CRUZ’S INSTAGRAM & FACEBOOK PAGES SHOULD HAVE BEEN REPORTED TO THE FBI.

WHY DIDN’T FACEBOOK & INSTAGRAM REPORT CRUZ TO THE FBI??

THE PARENTS OF THOSE 17 DEAD TEENS SHOULD SUE INSTAGRAM.


Sources: Telegraph.co.uk, CBS News, Fox News, TIME, Youtube


***** Nikolas Cruz: Florida school massacre suspect had 'disturbing' social media history and 'was crazy about guns'


TThe gunman who allegedly killed at least 17 people at a Florida high school on Wednesday was a former student who posted disturbing material on social media and was "crazy about guns".

Police identified the suspect as Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old who had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, about 45 miles (72 km) north of Miami.

The suspect was wearing a gas mask and carrying smoke grenades, Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida told CNN.

Mr Nelson, who said he had been briefed by the FBI, said the attacker "set off the fire alarm so the kids would come pouring out of the classrooms into the hall. And there the carnage began."

He said he did not know if the gunman had used the smoke grenades but he assumed that's why he had a gas mask on.

Frightened students ran out onto the streets as shots rang out before SWAT team members swarmed the building.

Authorities later announced that they had taken the suspect into custody and took him to hospital after locating him in Coral Springs, a little over a mile away from the school. The gunman surrendered to police without a struggle, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said.

Inside the suspect's disturbing Instagram page

The Instagram page of the alleged shooter paints a picture of a man obsessed with guns and knives.

One of the more recent posts shows target practice, captioned "Group therapy. Sometimes it really f---ing works."

Others show him posing proudly with his weapons, which include pistols and knives, and in one Instagram post, he seemingly asks followers for advice on a certain model of gun.

He also posed for selfies where he wore all black clothes and a balaclava.

One photograph shows a dead toad, which he claims to have killed.

His Instagram profile contained the word “annihilator.”

One post about purchasing a shotgun reads: “I plan on getting this but I need more information on it so if someone could give advice on how much I’m spending and background cheeks [sic] please to god let me know."

Students at the school have confirmed the Instagram page is his.

One student, who escaped the shooting, wrote on Twitter: "He literally had an Instagram where he posted pictures of animals he killed gruesomely."

Flagged as a threat

Jim Gard, a Maths teacher, said Cruz had been in his class last year.

“We were told last year that he wasn’t allowed on campus with a backpack on him,” Mr Gard told the Miami Herald. “There were problems with him last year threatening students.”

However, Robert Runcie, the Broward County School District Superintendent, told reporters he was not aware of any concerns raised about the student.

“We received no warnings,” Mr Runcie said outside the school. “Potentially there could have been signs out there. But we didn't have any warning or phone calls or threats that were made.”

One student, who did not wish to be named, told TV station WSVN-7 that Cruz had said he had guns at home and talked about using them.

“He’s been a troubled kid,” the student said. “He’s always had a certain amount of issues going on. He shot guns because he felt it gave him, I guess, an exhilarating feeling.”

'Very disturbing' social media history

Mr Israel said the gunman had an AR-15 assault rifle and "countless magazines".

“We already began to dissect his websites and the things on social media that he was on and some of the things that came to mind are very, very disturbing," he said.

His Instagram account was taken down after the shooting, but screenshots were sent to various media outlets.

“Everything he posts is about weapons,” one student told ABC News. “It’s sick.”

Daniel Huerfano, a student who fled Wednesday's attack, said he recognised Cruz from an Instagram photo in which Cruz posed with a gun in front of his face. Huerfano recalled Cruz as a shy student and remembered seeing him walking around with his lunch bag.

"He was that weird kid that you see ... like a loner," he added.

One pupil said other teenagers had long thought the suspect would “shoot up the school”.

The pupil told local television station WFOR-TV: “A lot of people were saying it was going to be him. A lot of kids threw jokes around saying that he was going to be the one to shoot up the school. It turns out that everyone predicted it. That’s crazy.”

Broward County Mayor Beam Furr said during an interview with CNN that the shooter was getting treatment at a mental health clinic for a while, but that he hadn't been back to the clinic for more than a year.

"It wasn't like there wasn't concern for him," Mr Furr said. "We try to keep our eyes out on those kids who aren't connected ... Most teachers try to steer them toward some kind of connections. ... In this case, we didn't find a way to connect with this kid."

Another student, named as Brandon, was asked whether he was surprised to learn the identity of the gunman, and replied: “No.” He continued: “He told me he got kicked out of two private schools, and was held back twice. He seemed a little off.”

'Crazy about guns'

Chad Williams, 18, a senior at Stoneman Douglas High school, remembered Cruz as a troubled classmate from when they attended middle school together. He said Cruz would set off the fire alarm, day after day, and finally got expelled in the eighth grade.

More recently, Williams saw Cruz carrying several publications about guns when they ran into each other at the high school. Williams thought Cruz was there to pick up a younger sibling.

“He was crazy about guns,” Williams told Reuters, speaking by the side of the road near the high school. “He was kind of an outcast. He didn’t have many friends. He would do anything crazy for a laugh, but he was trouble.”

Victoria Olvera, a 17-year-old junior, said Cruz was expelled last school year after a fight with his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend. She said Cruz had been abusive to his girlfriend.

'If anyone would do it, it was him'

Dakota Mutchler, 17, said he used to be close friends with Cruz but hadn't seen him in more than a year following his expulsion from school.

"He started progressively getting a little more weird," Mutchler said. "He started going after one of my friends, threatening her, and I cut him off from there.

"I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him."

Travis Julmice, an 18-year-old senior, said he had not been in a class with Cruz since middle school.

"You could tell he was a little off," Julmice told Reuters at the Coral Springs hotel. "He was always like a troubled kid, getting in-school suspension a lot. And detentions."

AARON HERNANDEZ: Gangster & Killer Whose Background NFL Overlooked Because He's LATINO

#AARONHERNANDEZ


AARON HERNANDEZ is a straight-up GANG BANGER & Murderer, whose background was overlooked by the NFL because he is a LATINO.







ARTICLE: "Documents: Car Believed To Be Driven By Aaron Hernandez Circled Victims Of 2012 Double Murder In Boston’s South End"

A new search warrant filed in Connecticut details evidence police have amassed against former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez in the unsolved double murder of two men in Boston’s South End, and provides the first formal indication that the June murder of Odin Lloyd may have been linked to that crime.

According to the search warrant affidavit, first reported by the Hartford Courant, Boston police received an anonymous tip that Hernandez was likely linked to the unsolved July 16, 2012, killing of Daniel Abreu and Safiro Furtado.

While the documents make it clear that it is unknown who pulled the trigger, investigators allege that video evidence show a vehicle — allegedly driven by Hernandez — circling the block, waiting for the victims to exit the club and to get to their car, seemingly stalking them before the shooting.

Police say video shows Hernandez arriving at 12:04 a.m. early that morning, driving a 2006 Toyota 4Runner, and additional video then shows him entering Cure nightclub immediately behind the victims, according to the affidavit.

The document provides a narrative, based on video evidence, that details Hernandez’s alleged movements on the night of the double shooting.

Hernandez and an accomplice — whom investigators later identified as Alexander Bradley — were recorded on tape during their time in the club. He spent just 10 minutes inside, downing two drinks before exiting, the documents state.

The victims did not exit the club until after 2 a.m., and at 2:32 a.m. Boston police responded to a report of six shots fired.

Witnesses told police that an SUV resembling the one driven that night by Hernandez pulled up next to the vehicle driven by the victims and one of the occupants opened fire.

No video depicting the actual shooting has been recovered by police, and until Lloyd was killed in North Attleborough in June 2013, the South End double murder trail had gone cold.

But, just days after Hernandez was formally implicated in the Lloyd murder investigation, a tipster called police to tell them that he believed Lloyd’s killing was tied to the South End shootings.

The tipster, who was later identified as a security supervisor at Rumor Nightclub — where Lloyd and Hernandez had partied two nights before Lloyd’s killing — said that the Lloyd killing was linked to the South End killing. Asked how he knew that, he told police: “Someone accidentally spilled the beans in front of me.”

Investigators have filed a search warrant to obtain jailhouse phone calls made by Bradley, who has been imprisoned after he skipped out on a grand jury subpoena, in which he allegedly discusses the details of the double murder.

Law enforcement officials have consistently refused to discuss whether Hernandez and Bradley are being investigated for the murders, but the Globe has previously reported that both are the subject of the current investigation.

The Globe has previously reported that Bradley is believed to have been in the car with Hernandez on the night of the double killing. Citing law enforcement sources, the Globe has also previously reported that investigators believe Lloyd may have had information about the South End shooting, and that may have been the motive for his slaying.

What was considered a cold case, the South End shooting investigation has become much more active since Hernandez’s implication in Lloyd’s death.

Police recovered the SUV believed to be driven in the double murder from a Bristol, Conn., home of Hernandez’s uncle.


Sources: ABC News, AP, Boston.com, ESPN, TMZ, WGHB, Youtube

Joseph Stack's Crash: Domestic Terrorism Or Criminal Act?

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Austin Plane Crash: Criminal Act Or Domestic Terrorism?



A "cowardly, Criminal" act ... or Domestic Terrorism?

That's one of many questions being asked in the wake of Thursday's plane crash in Austin, Texas, where a software engineer with an anti-government grudge crashed his single-engine plane into an office building that housed nearly 200 Internal Revenue Service employees.

The pilot, 53-year-old Joseph Stack, killed both himself and a 67-year-old IRS employee, Vernon Hunter, in the attack.

Stack is believed to have posted an online manifesto just hours earlier, detailing his longstanding gripes with "big brother," the "IRS man" and the Catholic church.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters aboard Air Force One that White House officials will let an investigation "play out" before determining how to label the incident. He had earlier said that the incident did not appear to be terrorism, and when asked specifically if domestic terrorism was a possibility, he said he did not suspect ''somebody like an Al Qaeda.''

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo, meanwhile, labeled the incident a single act by a lone individual and refused to classify it as terrorism.

"I call it a cowardly, criminal act, and there was no excuse for it," he told reporters.

But at least one lawmaker, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, disagreed and compared the incident to the 1995 bombing that killed 168 people in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

"Like the larger-scale tragedy in Oklahoma City, this was a cowardly act of domestic terrorism," Doggett said in a statement. "Stack's apparent website message reflects the steadily increasing flow of 'the government is out to get me' paranoia."

Matthew Chandler, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, referred FoxNews.com to Gibbs' comment when asked to clarify why the incident has not been labeled an act of domestic terrorism.

Ken Gude, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank based in Washington, said that while it's appropriate for Gibbs to reserve judgment on the matter, Stack's act of violence has all the markings of domestic terrorism.

"It certainly appears as if his motives would qualify as domestic terrorism," said Gude, a former policy analyst at the Center for National Security Studies. "He put out an anti-IRS creed, he used an airplane to crash into a building with the clear intention of causing destruction and death."

But Gude urged caution before placing any label on the event, which he characterized as an inexcusable, unacceptable act that "should not be tolerated" in any way whatsoever. He said the Austin crash differed from the Oklahoma City bombing because Stack apparently acted alone. (Militia sympathizer Timothy McVeigh was executed in 2001 for organizing the Oklahoma City bombing; his accomplice, Terry Nichols, was sentenced three years later to 161 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole for assisting him.)

DHS officials explicitly warned against the potential emergence of terrorist groups or "lone wolf extremists" in a report issued in April. The report, "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," found that while no specific threat existed, there was the potential for violence from extremists concerned about illegal immigration, abortion, increased federal power and restrictions on firearms.

The report followed a similar DHS document released in January 2009 that detailed left-wing threats, focusing on cyberattacks and radical "eco-terrorist" groups like Earth Liberation Front.

Jena Baker McNeill, a homeland security policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Washington, said it's "too early" to make a definitive determination of whether Thursday's incident was a criminal or terrorist act.

"I would also await more details from the investigation," McNeill wrote in an e-mail. "I will say that the number of fatalities should not have an impact on whether something is labeled an act of terrorism — but again, still waiting on more details before a conclusion can be made."

Gude echoed that sentiment, saying the focus shouldn't be on casualty rates, but rather on the source of the extremism.

"There has always been an undercurrent of anti-government groups in the United States," he said. "It's appropriate for our law enforcement, intelligence and security agencies to be vigilant and be aware that this threat is real."

Gude continued, "There is concern, certainly, about the volume of extremist views that seems to be percolating in the political space in the United States. But it's also evident that this type of threat from extremism has existed for a very long time and it will be with us for a very long time."

Several news reports likened Thursday's event to that of Charles Bishop, the teenage Al Qaeda sympathizer who flew a small plane into a Bank of America building in Tampa, Fla., in 2002, and Johnny Lee Wicks, a 66-year-old shotgun-wielding retiree who killed a security guard and wounded a deputy U.S. marshal at a Las Vegas courthouse in January. FBI officials have said Wicks was angry about losing a government lawsuit in which he had challenged a cut in his monthly Social Security benefits.


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Sources: Fox News, MSNBC, EmbeddedArt.com, Google Maps

GOP Skeptical Of Obama's Health Care Mtg Motives

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GOP Cool To Obama's Call For Health Talks


Republicans gave a chilly reception Monday to President Barack Obama's invitation to discuss health care in a bipartisan, televised setting later this month, part of the White House effort to revive the stalled legislation.

The House and Senate GOP leaders said Obama and his fellow Democrats must shelve their long-debated health care bill, which was on the verge of becoming law until Republican Scott Brown won a special Senate election in Massachusetts last month. The White House says Obama has no plans to do so but is willing to hear Republicans' ideas.

Rep. Darrell Issa of California, the top Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said Monday that the first question for Obama should be: "Did you lie about moving forward on malpractice reform?" He was alluding to the president's earlier remarks about possibly curbing malpractice lawsuits, which is not included in the health bills passed separately by House and Senate Democrats in December.

In the first major move to jump-start his health care agenda after his party's loss of a filibuster-proof Senate majority, Obama on Sunday invited GOP and Democratic leaders to discuss possible compromises in a half-day, televised gathering on Feb. 25.

It comes amid widespread complaints that Democrats' efforts so far have been too partisan and secretive.

The meeting's prospects for success are far from clear. GOP leaders insisted on starting from scratch. But many Democrats want to use their party's remaining parliamentary muscle to enact their plans with as few changes as possible.

"If we are to reach a bipartisan consensus, the White House can start by shelving the current health spending bill," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

But House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said his earlier efforts to reach out to Republicans "did not result in any serious follow through to work together in a bipartisan fashion."

Obama told CBS's Katie Couric that he and the leaders of both parties will "go through systematically all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward."

Asked if he was willing to start from square one, the president said he wants "to look at the Republican ideas that are out there."

"If we can go step by step through a series of these issues and arrive at some agreements," Obama said, "then procedurally, there's no reason why we can't do it a lot faster than the process took last year."

Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress have differed sharply on most major questions in the long-running health care debate. Only one Republican voted for the health care bill that the House approved in November, and no Republicans voted for a similar Senate version.

Many liberal groups want congressional Democrats to enact the health care bill that the Senate passed on Christmas Eve, employing rules that could bypass GOP filibusters to make changes demanded by House Democrats.

The White House has not ruled out such a strategy. But Obama's recent talk of inviting Republican input and extending the debate for several weeks has caused uncertainty about his plans.

A White House statement Sunday said Obama repeatedly has made it clear "that he's adamant about passing comprehensive reform similar to the bills passed by the House and the Senate."

Polls show that many Americans feel Obama and his congressional allies have not sought enough GOP input, although Democrats say Republicans have shown virtually no interest in seeking a realistic agreement.

Obama also is trying to address criticism of Democrats' closed-door negotiations that led to special accommodations for Nebraska and Louisiana senators when their votes on health care were in question. Some Republicans taunted Obama for suggesting earlier that health care negotiations should be aired on C-SPAN, and one GOP senator said health care would be the president's Waterloo.

Obama said the closed-door deal-cutting was not helpful to the process.

"They did not help. They frustrate me. But, you know, this is a democracy," Obama said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said, "we have promoted the pursuit of a bipartisan approach to health reform from day one."


Sources: MSNBC

Will James O'Keefe's "Louisiana Watergate" Arrest Vindicate ACORN?

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Activist Filmmaker Arrested In Senator’s Office



A conservative filmmaker who posed as a pimp to target the liberal activist group ACORN was arrested with the son of a federal prosecutor and two other men and accused of plotting to tamper with the New Orleans offices of Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La.

Activist James O'Keefe, 25, recorded two of the other suspects with his cell phone as they walked into the office dressed like telephone repairmen and said they needed to fix problems with the phone system, according to an FBI affidavit.

In the affidavit, Special Agent Steven Rayes said O’Keefe was helping Joseph Basel and Robert Flanagan, who were attempting to interfere with the office’s telephone system.

A federal law enforcement official said one of the suspects was picked up in a car a couple of blocks away with a listening device that could pick up transmissions. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was not part of an FBI affidavit that described the circumstances of the case.

O'Keefe said, "The truth shall set me free," as he left a suburban jail Tuesday with Basel and suspect Stan Dai, both 24. All declined to comment. "There will be a time for that," Dai said.

The fourth suspect, Robert Flanagan, the son of Shreveport-based acting U.S. Attorney Bill Flanagan, was not with them. It was not immediately known if he had already been released on the $10,000 bail set for each suspect.

Bill Flanagan's office confirmed his son was among those arrested, but declined further comment.


Motive unclear

All four men were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.

It sounded like a Watergate-style operation, but federal officials have not yet said why the men wanted to interfere with Landrieu's phones, whether they were successful, or even if the goal was political espionage.

According to the FBI affidavit, Flanagan and Basel showed up at Landrieu's office Monday morning carrying white hard hats and dressed in jeans, blue work shirts, fluorescent green vests and toolbelts. They told an employee they were there to fix problems with the phone system. O'Keefe told an employee he was there waiting for someone.

The affidavit says Basel asked for access to a phone at the reception desk, then manipulated the handset and tried to call the phone with his cell phone, but said he could not get through. Flanagan tried to call as well, according to the affidavit.

They said they needed to work on the main system and asked where the telephone closet was. They were directed to another office in the building, where they again said they were telephone repairmen and an employee asked for their credentials. They said they had left them in their vehicle.

They were arrested later by U.S. marshals. Details of the arrest were not available. Dai was also arrested, but Letten's office said only that he assisted the others in planning, coordinating and preparing.

Landrieu, a moderate Democrat, said in a statement Tuesday, "I am as interested as everyone else about their motives and purpose, which I hope will become clear as the investigation moves forward."

Spokesman Aaron Saunders said Landrieu was in Washington when the men showed up Monday in New Orleans. Landrieu has been in the news recently because she negotiated an increase in Medicaid funds for her state before announcing her support for Senate health care legislation.

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Poor judgment

An FBI criminal complaint charging the men was unsealed Tuesday. None of the defendants, each wearing red prison jumpsuits, commented at a court hearing held in the afternoon. All four were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony, which could bring up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

"It was poor judgment," Robert Flanagan's lawyer, Garrison Jordan, said in a brief interview outside the courthouse. "I don't think there was any intent or motive to commit a crime."

Michael McHale, chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party, referred to the episode as "Louisiana Watergate" in a statement Tuesday and urged authorities to prosecute "any wrongdoers to the fullest extent of the law."

O'Keefe was the brains behind a series of undercover videos that have caused major problems for ACORN — the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now.

He managed to do what Republicans have been trying to for years — hurt the political affiliates of ACORN, which have registered hundreds of thousands of voters in urban and other poor areas of the country.

By producing undercover videos shot in ACORN offices, O'Keefe brought a firestorm of criticism that the group was helping its low-income clients break the law.

Using a hidden camera, O'Keefe, posing as a pimp and accompanied by a young woman posing as a prostitute, shot videos in ACORN offices where staffers appeared to offer illegal tax advice and to support the misuse of public funds and illegal trafficking in children.

Edited videos of those visits to ACORN offices were first posted on biggovernment.com, a site run by conservative Andrew Breitbart. In the past, Breitbart has said O'Keefe — now a paid contributor to biggovernment.com — is an independent filmmaker, not an employee.

In a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press, Breitbart said: "We have no knowledge about or connection to any alleged acts and events involving James O'Keefe at Senator Mary Landrieu's office. We only just learned about the alleged incident this afternoon. We have no information other than what has been reported publicly by the press. Accordingly, we simply are not in a position to make any further comment."

O'Keefe's biography on a Web site where he blogs says he works at VeritasVisuals.com, though that Web site does not currently work. O’Keefe was in New Orleans last week to give a speech at the Libertarian Pelican Institute.

O'Keefe has been sued in Pennsylvania and Maryland based on the ACORN videos; he does not have an attorney of record in either case.

ACORN calls itself the largest grass roots community organization of low- and moderate-income people in the country, claiming over 400,000 families, more than 1,200 neighborhood chapters in about 75 cities.

Until the controversy last year over the videos at ACORN offices, 10 percent of ACORN's funds came from federal government grants. In September, Congress blocked previously approved funds from going to the group.

O'Keefe's arrest "is further evidence of his disregard for the law in pursuit of his extremist agenda," ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis said in a statement. The organization's Twitter feed commented on the news: "Couldn't have happened to a more deserving soul."



Sources: MSNBC

Fort Hood Shooter (Major Hasan) Prepared For Jihad...Military Ignored Warning Signs

Alleged gunman's cousin says Hasan was harassed. The cousin of Nidal Malik Hasan said the Army psychiatrist was "ridiculed for being a Muslim." NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.

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Fort Hood Soldier thought attack was part of training. The father of a Fort Hood soldier described the shooting scene relayed to him by his daughter. NBC's Lester Holt reports.

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Fort Hood suspect said goodbyes before attack


As if going off to war, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan cleaned out his apartment, gave leftover frozen broccoli to one neighbor and called another to thank him for his friendship — common courtesies and routines of the departing soldier. Instead, authorities say, he went on the killing spree that left 13 people dead at Fort Hood, Texas.

Investigators examined Hasan's computer, his home and his garbage Friday to learn what motivated the suspect, who lay in a coma, shot four times in the frantic bloodletting that also wounded 30. Hospital officials said some of the wounded had extremely serious injuries and might not survive.

The 39-year-old Army psychiatrist emerged as a study in contradictions: a polite man who stewed with discontent, a counselor who needed to be counseled himself, a professional healer now suspected of cutting down the fellow soldiers he was sworn to help.

Relatives said he felt harassed because of his Muslim faith but did not embrace extremism. Others were not so sure. A recent classmate said Hasan once gave a jarring presentation to students in which he argued the war on terrorism was a war against Islam, and "made himself a lightning rod for things" when he felt his religious beliefs were challenged.

Allahu Akbar

Investigators were trying to piece together how and why Hasan allegedly gunned down his comrades in the worst case of violence on a military base in the U.S. The rampage unfolded at a center where some 300 unarmed soldiers were lined up for vaccines and eye tests.

Soldiers reported that the gunman shouted "Allahu Akbar!" — an Arabic phrase for "God is great!" — before opening fire Thursday, said Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the base commander. He said officials had not confirmed Hasan made the comment.

Hasan's family said in a statement Friday that his alleged actions were "despicable and deplorable" and don't reflect how the family was reared.

Hasan was due to be deployed to Afghanistan to help soldiers with combat stress, a task he'd done stateside with returning soldiers, the Army said. The timing of his departure was not disclosed.

In any event, the major was saying goodbyes and dispensing belongings to neighbors.

Jose Padilla, the owner of Hasan's apartment complex, said Hasan gave him notice two weeks ago that he was moving out this week.

Enemy among us

Earlier this week, Hasan asked Padilla his native language. When Padilla said it was Spanish, Hasan immediately went up to his apartment to get him a Spanish-language Quran. Padilla said Hasan also refused to reclaim his deposit and last month's rent, surrendering $400 that the major said should go to someone who needed it.

"I cannot comprehend that the enemy was among us," Padilla said, tearing up. "I feel a little guilt that I was basically giving housing to someone who is going to do so much destruction."

Neighbor Patricia Villa said Hasan came to her apartment the day of the shooting, and before, to give her vegetables, an air mattress, T-shirts, a Quran and offer her $60 to clean his Killeen, Texas, apartment after he left.

Jacqueline Harris, 44, who lives with her boyfriend Willie Bell in the apartment next door to Hasan, said he called Thursday at 5 a.m. and left a message.

"He just wanted to thank Willie for being a good friend and thank him for being there for him," Harris said. "That was it. We thought it was just a nice message to leave."

Bell said Hasan offered a farewell, saying "nice knowing you old friend. I'm going to miss you."

According to a Killeen police report in August, an Army employee was charged with scratching Hasan's car, causing $1,000 in damage. Apartment manager John Thompson said the man charged was a soldier back from Iraq, who objected to Hasan's faith and ripped a bumper sticker off the major's car that said: "Allah is Love."

Kim Rosenthal, another neighbor, said Hasan didn't seem too upset by his scratched vehicle, even though it was damaged so badly that he got a new one. "He said it was Ramadan and that he had to forgive people," Rosenthal said. "He forgave him and moved on."

Hasan appeared less forgiving to Dr. Val Finnell when they were classmates in a 2007-08 master's public health program at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md.

She said that at a class presentation by public health students, at which topics like dry cleaning chemicals and house mold were discussed, Hasan talked about U.S. military actions as a war on Islam. Hasan made clear he was a "vociferous opponent" of U.S. wars in Muslim countries, Finnell said.

"He made himself a lightning rod for things," she said. "No one picked on him because he was a Muslim."

Law enforcement officials said they are trying to confirm if Hasan wrote Internet postings that include his name about suicide bombings and other threats, equating suicide bombers to soldiers who throw themselves on a grenade to save the life of fellow soldiers.

Hasan is the Arlington, Va.-born son of Palestinian parents who ran a restaurant and bar in Roanoke, Va., from 1987 to 1995, and owned a small grocery store in that city.

His relatives in the West Bank said they had heard from family members that Hasan felt mistreated in the Army as a Muslim.

"He told (them) that as a Muslim committed to his prayers he was discriminated against and not treated as is fitting for an officer and American," said Mohammed Malik Hasan, 24, a cousin. "He hired a lawyer to get him a discharge."

Mohammed Hasan said outside his home in Ramallah that he heard about the shooting from a relative. "I was surprised, honestly, because the guy and his brothers are so calm, and he, as I know, loves his work."

Nidal Hasan is the eldest of three brothers. One brother, Annas, lives in Ramallah with a wife and daughter, and practices law. The youngest brother, Eyad, lives in Virginia.

"We don't mix with them a lot," Mohammed said. "Nidal liked to stay alone, he was very calm. He minded his own business."



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Sources: MSNBC, TIME, Google Maps

"Allahu Akbar!" What Was Major Hasan's Motive? Jihad Or Despair?

Did the suspected Fort Hood gunman US Army Major, Dr. Hasan yell "Allahu Akbar!" prior to his rampage?

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President Barack Obama warns against "jumping to conclusions."

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Were red flags about Dr. Hasan's state of mind or motive for this rampage ignored by the US Army or FBI?

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What was Dr. Hasan's motive for the shooting?

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Dr. Hasan's Grandma: Shooter a good doctor but troubled


The grandmother of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the man authorities say is responsible for the worst mass killing on a U.S. military base, wept Friday as she discussed her grandson at her house in a wealthy suburb of this West Bank city.

Hasan’s maternal grandmother, Salha Hamad, 84, said her grandson was a “good boy” and a “good doctor with a good heart” with whom she would speak frequently on the phone.

She told NBC News that he was extremely unhappy in Fort Hood. Hamad said Hasan told her he was ver troubled by his upcoming deployment.

She said Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, was particularly upset by seeing soldiers who were suffering as a result of being injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Col. Steve Braverman, the Fort Hood hospital commander, said 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.

In the United States, his family on Friday described Hasan's actions as “despicable and deplorable.”

A day after the attack, there remained many unknowns about the suspect, and President Barack Obama, in remarks in the Rose Garden, cautioned against jumping to conclusions.

Six years at Walter Reed

Yet details of his life and mindset, emerging from his family, personal acquaintances and official sources, were troubling.

For six years before reporting for duty at Fort Hood in July, the 39-year-old Army major — who is seen as a balding, heavy-set man in photos — worked at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center pursuing his career in psychiatry, as an intern, a resident and, last year, a fellow in disaster and preventive psychiatry.

He received his medical degree from the military's Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., in 2001. He was in the preparation stage of deployment to Afghanistan.

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

Grieger said privacy laws prevented him from going into details but 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."

But, more recently, federal agents grew suspicious. At least six months ago, Hasan came to the attention of law enforcement officials because of Internet postings about suicide bombings and other threats, including posts that equated suicide bombers to soldiers who throw themselves on a grenade to save the lives of their comrades.

They had not determined for certain whether Hasan was the author of the postings, and a formal investigation had not been opened before the shooting, said law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the case.

Harassed for religious beliefs?

Reports have emerged that Hasan, a devout Muslim, felt he was discriminated against for his beliefs.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Hasan's aunt, Noel Hasan of Falls Church, Va., said he had been harassed about being a Muslim in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and he wanted out of the Army.

"Some people can take it, and some people cannot," she said. "He had listened to all of that, and he wanted out of the military."

She said he had sought a discharge from the military for several years, and even offered to repay the cost of his medical training.

Noel Hasan said her nephew "did not make many friends" and would say "the military was his life."

Born in Virginia

Hasan was born and raised in Virginia, the son of Palestinian parents who immigrated to the United States from Albireh, a West Bank suburb of Ramallah. His grandmother told NBC News that many members of his extended family have American citizenship and she has a U.S. green card.

In a statement Friday, Kim Fuller, a spokeswoman for Hasan's family, said relatives in Virginia were reaching out to law enforcement to offer any help they can into the investigation.

The family said his actions don't reflect how they were raised in the U.S. Still, while there have been reports that he was harassed for his Muslim religion, there is no indication Hasan filed a complaint within the military about that.

During an interview on NBC’s Today Show, Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the base commander, said soldiers reported that the gunman shouted “Allahu akbar!” — an Arabic phrase for “God is great!” — before opening fire. He said officials had not yet confirmed that Hasan made the comment.

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

Federal law-enforcement agents ordered an evacuation of the apartment complex where Hasan lived in Killeen, Texas, Thursday night and conducted a search of his home, said Hilary Shine, director of public information for the city. She didn't say what was found during the search.

Officials said earlier that federal search warrants were being drawn up to authorize the seizure of his computer.

Retired Army Col. Terry Lee, who said he worked with Hasan, told Fox News that Hasan had hoped Obama would pull troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq. Lee said Hasan got into frequent arguments with others in the military who supported the wars, and had tried hard to prevent his pending deployment.

But a neighbor of Hasan's said he appeared to be OK with his pending deployment.

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

‘Committed soldier’ looking for a wife
Hasan attended prayers regularly when he lived outside Washington, often in his Army uniform, said Faizul Khan, a former imam at a mosque Hasan attended in Silver Spring, Md.

"I got the impression that he was a committed soldier," Khan said. Hasan was single, but Khan said he spoke often with Hasan about his desire for a wife.

His grandmother also told NBC that she frequently spoke with him about getting married, but he said he was so stressed by his work, that he never had time to meet anyone.

On a form filled out by those seeking spouses through a program at the mosque, Hasan listed his birthplace as Arlington, Va., but his nationality as Palestinian, Khan said.

"I don't know why he listed Palestinian," Khan said, "He was not born in Palestine."

Nothing stood out about Hasan as radical or extremist, Khan said.

"We hardly ever got to discussing politics," Khan said. "Mostly we were discussing religious matters, nothing too controversial, nothing like an extremist."

Hasan earned his rank of major in April 2008, according to a July 2008 Army Times article.

He served eight years as an enlisted soldier. He was an undergraduate at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. He received a bachelor's degree in biochemistry and graduated with honors in 1995. Contrary to earlier reports, a statement released by Virginia Tech said that he was not a member of any ROTC program at the school.



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Hasan Is Not Dead! Alive & In Custody! 12 Killed, 31 Injured...Snafu

Suspect in Ft. Hood shootings alive. NBC's Charles Hadlock updates Brian Williams about the evolving story, reporting that both the suspected shooter Maj. Hasan, and the female police officer credited with neutralizing the situation are alive and in stable condition.

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Lt. General Cone: The shooter is not dead. He was not killed as previously reported.

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Earlier false reports of the shooter's status. Error or Strategy?

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