[wvns] Fort Hood Tragedy & Commentary

11 killed, plus gunman, in Fort Hood shootings
November 5, 2009
http://www.cnn. com/2009/ US/11/05/ texas.fort. hood.shootings/ index.html

(CNN) -- Eleven people plus a gunman were dead and 31 wounded
after the gunman opened fire Thursday on a soldier-processing center at Fort Hood, Texas, officials said. The gunman was a soldier, and two other soldiers have been detained as suspects, Army Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said.

The slain gunman was Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan, according to a law enforcement source. The source believes he is 39 or 40 years old.
Ten of the other dead also were soldiers, while the remaining one was a civilian police officer who was working as a contractor on the base, Cone said. Two of the injured were in "very serious" condition, Fort Hood spokesman Christopher Hogue said.

More than one shooter may have been involved, Cone said. "All the casualties took place at the initial incident, that took place at 13:30 [1:30 p.m. CT], at the soldier readiness facility," Cone said.
Video: Shooters 'in military uniform'

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What Happened To The Accomplice Shooters?
Cryptogon
Friday, November 6, 2009
http://www.prisonplanet.com/what-happened-to-the-accomplice-shooters.html

Comment: A description of the building where the victims were standing would be helpful. He fired 200-400 times and hit 40 people. You'd think it would take 10 seconds to fire 50 bullets with an automatic gun, much less aiming and pulling a trigger. Why was there no cover for people to run to during the 10 seconds? If he had an automatic weapon and they were sitting in movie-theater style seats, it would be conceivable. Otherwise, the idea of a collaborator makes sense.

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Update: And Now… "Men in Suits" Take Another Suspect Away

Surviving Fort Hood shooting suspect arrested at golf course, officer says
CNN
November 5, 2009
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/05/texas.fort.hood.witnesses/

(CNN) — A senior officer who was playing golf Thursday near Fort Hood, Texas, told CNN he witnessed the arrest of one of the two surviving suspects of the shooting at the Army installation.
Shortly after the shooting, the officer said, military police told him to clear the course and he saw other MPs surround the building that held the golf carts, he said.

The senior officer said he ducked into a nearby house for cover as 30 to 40 cars carrying MPs approached.

He said he saw a soldier in battle-dress uniform, his hands in the air. The MPs ordered him to lie on the ground and open his uniform, presumably to ensure he was not carrying explosives, the senior officer said.

He said an MP told him that authorities considered the man to be a suspect in the shootings after having overheard the man say he was with the shooter.

The man was surrounded for 25 to 30 minutes, until a convoy of vehicles arrived, led by a Ford Crown Victoria and carrying men in suits, and he was taken away, the senior officer said.

The golf course is about 2.5 miles from Fort Hood, the officer told CNN.

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Update: The "Gunmen" Story That Will Soon Disappear

Second Gunman In Custody At Army's Fort Hood -Report
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=200911051656dowjonesdjonline000934&title=second-gunman-in-custody-at-armys-fort-hood--report

A second gunman is in custody after a shooting at the Army's Fort Hood in Texas in which at least seven people were killed and 12 wounded, reports KCEN-TV of Waco. The report comes about two hours after a first suspect was captured, shortly after gunfire broke out.
Authorities say the gunmen were dressed in fatigues, though it's not confirmed whether they are military personnel. It's also not known if the victims were military personnel or civilians.

The incident reportedly began at Fort Hood's theater and then moved to the Soldier Readiness Processing Center, Killeen City Public Information Officer Hillary Shine told Fox News. A graduation ceremony was scheduled to take place Thursday.

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ABC News:
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/fort-hood-shooting-army-doctor-nidal-malik-hasan/story?id=9012970

Thirteen people died and 30 were wounded at a Texas military post in a shooting rampage that officials believe was carried out by an Army psychiatrist who was about to be deployed to Iraq.

The suspected gunman has been identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. Hasan would have been deployed to Iraq later this month, an Army official said.

It would have been his first deployment, two sources told ABC News.
Hasan is believed to be of Palestinian origin: His grandfather moved to the United States in the 1940s. One of Hasan's two brothers recently moved to Ramallah and works in the West Bank, the sources said. Hasan's family is said to own a number of apartments in Ramallah.

The family has refused to speak to reporters, but a person close to the family told ABC News that Hasan had told his family he was unhappy about his impending deployment abroad.

The person also said that all three brothers — a lawyer, a professor and a psychiatrist — are highly educated. They lost both parents to cancer. Hasan's mother came from al Bireh, a Palestinian town close to Ramallah. She was traumatized by her experience in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, when she was 15, according to the source.

Hasan was initially reported to have been killed but Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone told a late-night news conference that the suspect was wounded and in custody. Cone declined to comment on Hasan's medical condition was but said he is expected to live.

Hasan has not spoken to authorities, Cone said.

Two other soldiers were taken into custody but were later released.
Hasan's cousin, Nader Hasan, issued a statement late Thursday. "We are shocked and saddened by the terrible events at Fort Hood today. We send the families of the victims our most heartfelt sympathies," the statement read.

"Nidal was an American citizen. He was born in Arlington, Va., and raised here in America. … Our family loves America. We are proud of our country, and saddened by today's tragedy."

Hasan allegedly opened fire and killed 13 people on the post before he was shot several times. Among the wounded was a female police officer who exchanged gunfire with Hasan.

Cone called the attack "a terrible tragedy, stunning." He said the community was "absolutely devastated."

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Islamophobia caused shootings at Fort Hood, Texas
by Hector Carreon
La Voz de Aztlan

Los Angeles, Alta California - November 6, 2009 - (ACN) As an Engineering Specialist with the 2nd Armored Division at Fort Hood, Texas during the Vietnam War, I know how racist and ethnocentric the US Army can be. When I read a report by Major Nidal Malik Hasan's family that the army officer wanted out after being constantly harassed by others in the military and was called a "camel jockey," I began to understand why Major Hasan took two guns and shot up the place killing 13 and wounding 30 soldiers and civilians.

There are certain things that the Pentagon shuts up about that God forsaken place in Central Texas. Fort Hood is located approximately 60 miles north from Austin and is the largest U.S. military installation in the world. The base is a 340 square mile facility nestled between Killeen and Copperas Cove. The horrors that occur there almost daily, especially during times of war, is something you would not want to tell your family after coming home. Killeen is the place where the second worst mass murder in the history of the US took place in 1991.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, presently in a military hospital for
treatment of wounds received in the shootings, is a Muslim of Palestinian descent whose duties, as a Doctor of Psychiatry, are to treat soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan totally psychotic and extremely disturbed because of their war time experiences and mental traumas received in battle. During my 16 months at Fort Hood, there were weekly suicides by soldiers returning from Vietnam but
worst of all was the toll paid by the families that lived at the base. Regularly one would hear of a wife being chopped up by her disturbed G.I. husband and often about their babies being dismembered in the family barracks.

The fact that today, at Fort Hood, the returning soldiers are coming back from Arab and Muslim countries most probably made the situation for Major Nidal Malik Hasan particularly more difficult. I remember that during my initial military training for the Vietnam War, the racist drill sergeants would constantly demonize the "slanted eyed gooks." Their objective was to instill hate and to dehumanize the "enemy" to the point that to kill him would become natural. Today, I am sure that the drill sergeants are demonizing the "ragheads" and the
"camel jockeys."

That an officer of Palestinian descent was constantly harassed by others in the US Army and called a "camel jockey" does not really
surprise me. Mexican-Americans in the US Army suffer similar abuse even though the war with Mexico ended in 1849. There is incredible racism in all branches of the US Armed Forces. The racism is reflected in the attitudes of non-officers and officers alike. At Fort
Hood, I once had the Company Commander, a captain, approach me to tell me not to speak "Mexican" in his company. When I politely informed him that there was no such thing as a Mexican language and that it was called Spanish, I was ordered to extra duty for insubordination.

Islamophobia is today rampant in all sectors of society and it is bound to have extreme negative consequences for all of us. Presently the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) out of New York City is working very hard to create a hostile environment for Muslim students at the University of California at Irvine. The reason is that
the students assisted in raising funds for the humanitarian effort called Viva Palestina USA no matter that four Orthodox Jewish Rabbis raised and donated $30,000 dollars for the very same effort. Also the Zionist press is already propagandizing the Fort Hood incident by labelling Major Nidal Malik Hasan a "Jihadi." They have also already planted the rumor that Major Nidal Malik Hasan yelled "Allahu Akbar" just begore he started shooting.

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Fort Hood shooting: Nidal Malik Hasan 'said Muslims should rise up'
Philip Sherwell
November 6, 2009
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6511591/Fort-Hood-shooting-Nidal-Malik-Hasan-said-Muslims-should-rise-up.html

Col Terry Lee, a retired officer who worked with him at the military base in Texas, alleged Maj Hasan had angry confrontations with other officers over his views.

Maj Hasan was reportedly fighting orders to be deployed to Iraq at the end of the month, claiming that he was the victim of harassment and insults because of his Arab background and his faith.

The major is a psychiatrist who had been treating soldiers returning from Iraq for post-traumatic stress and alcohol and drug abuse problems.

"He was making outlandish comments condemning our foreign policy and claimed Muslims had the right to rise up and attack Americans," Col Lee told Fox News.

"He said Muslims should stand up and fight the aggressor and that we should not be in the war in the first place." He said that Maj Hasan said he was "happy" when a US soldier was killed in an attack on a military recruitment centre in Arkansas in June. An American convert to Islam was accused of the shootings.

Col Lee alleged that other officers had told him that Maj Hasan had said "maybe people should strap bombs on themselves and go to Time Square" in New York.

He claimed he was aware that the major had been subject to "name calling" during heated arguments with other officers.

Federal law enforcement officials have said Maj Hasan had come to their attention at least six months ago because of internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats.

The officials said the postings appeared to have been made by Maj Hasan but they were still trying to confirm that he was the author.

Maj Hasan's cousin Nader Husan said he was happy working for the military but did dread deployment to Iraq.

Mr Hasan said his cousin was a US-born Muslim who had joined the military after high school. He had served as a psychiatrist at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC, which treats many badly wounded troops.

"He was a psychiatrist at Walter Reed dealing with the people coming back and ... trying to help them with their trauma," he said.

He said his cousin had been transferred to Fort Hood in April months ago and was very reluctant to be deployed to Iraq. "We've known over the last five years that was probably his worst nightmare," he said.

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The Fort Hood Tragedy in Perspective
El-Hajj Mauri' Saalakhan
The Peace And Justice Foundation
Dhul Qi'dah 1430 AH

While the functionaries of Muslim organizations, large and small, seem to be in competition to see who can release the most effective "condemnation," in response to the tragedy that erupted at Fort Hood (Texas) earlier today, my own thoughts revolve around a piece of commentary that I read many years ago; and the question, what drove Major Nidal Malik Hasan to do what he did?

I believe it was the Qur'anic scholar Abdullah Yusuf Ali who once observed in his writings: "Man can be beset by inner storms far more devastating than those in the physical world around him." This writer has lived long enough to appreciate the unquestionable truth behind that sage observation.

When I saw the photograph of Major Hasan, I immediately recognized him as someone familiar. When I read that he had formerly attended the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, MD, that was all the confirmation I needed. I knew this brother from a distance for quite some time.

I didn't know him well enough to know his name, but we crossed paths on many occasions. I knew him from a distance as a quiet and reserved practicing Muslim. Whenever we saw each other we would exchange greetings, but that's as far as it went. The impression that I had of Hasan makes the events of the day shocking to say the least.

Before going any further, let me make clear my profound regret for the tragedy that unfolded on that military base. My heart goes out to the families of the deceased and wounded; but my heart also goes out to the family of Major Nidal Malik Hasan. What enormous grief they must be experiencing right now. (May ALLAH fortify them in the days ahead.)

According to reports, Major Hasan was a trained psychiatrist charged with the responsibility of attending to the psychological trauma of American soldiers – while the events seem to indicate that he was wrestling with enormous psychological trauma himself? Military authorities, political leaders, and concerned citizens of every stripe should be wondering (and seeking answers to the question) why?
What was it that pushed this military officer over the edge? I do not believe for one second that this tragedy resulted from a premeditated plot by Major Hasan to commit murder and mayhem at Fort Hood.
Something occurred that caused this tortured soul to cross that thin line between sanity and insanity. This I believe (surely ALLAH knows best).

Muslims in America should also be raising tough questions in the wake of this tragedy; not the least of which is, should we be encouraging our sons and daughters to enlist in the military – especially at a time when Islam and Muslims are being aggressively and very publicly portrayed as Public Enemy #1 – and at a time when wars are raging (with enormous human and material devastation) in Muslim populated lands!

There have been many horrific tragedies – too many to count - involving military personnel on and off military bases over the years. Seldom, if ever, does one read or hear a report on the religious affiliation of the perpetrator – except, of course, when the alleged perpetrator has any presumed or known affiliation with Islam.

Case in point, the opening lines of the online Washington Post report on this tragedy reads as follows ("Shooting Suspect was Virginia native, devout Muslim," by Chris Hopkins Washington Post Staff Writer - Thursday, November 5, 2009; 8:52 PM ):

"Nidal M. Hasan, the Army major suspected of shooting dozens at Fort Hood in Texas on Wednesday, was a devout Muslim and Virginia native born to two Jordanian immigrants. The 39-year-old received a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Virginia Tech in 1997, followed by advanced degrees in psychiatry and public health from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda."

Without question, in the coming days anti-Islam and opportunistic ideologues in the print and broadcast media are going to have a field day with this tragedy. It is for this reason that Muslims in America was strive to remain calm and centered, not fearful and reactionary. As ALLAH Almighty has said in The Noble Qur'an: "Do men think they will be left alone on saying, `We believe,' and that they will not be tested?"

People of genuine good will throughout this nation will recognize this regrettable tragedy as the aberration that it is. (And among these, the truly thoughtful will recognize the probability that the causative factors have far more to do with the military, and its multiple pressures, than with "religion.")

On a final note, I am deeply concerned about the question of Br. Nidal Malik Hasan's burial arrangements. He was a practicing Muslim, and as a practicing Muslim he has rights. I pray that those who knew him will recognize these rights and respond accordingly.
May ALLAH (SWT) fortify us all in the struggles ahead.

P.S. Right after I released the above commentary to a number of our other recipients, I saw a report that suggests Major Hasan may still be alive (see below). If he is, and the investigative inquiry and subsequent court-martial will be an OPEN and transparent process, we will all be able to learn precisely where the roots of this tragedy lay. This is a time for patience and fortitude (sabr).

News Alert
09:23 PM EST Thursday, November 5, 2009

Fort Hood suspected gunman was not killed in incident
The gunman behind a shooting rampage at Fort Hood is alive, hospitalized in stable condition and in custody, the commanding general of Fort Hood said Thursday night in contradicting his own information from earlier Thursday. Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone said Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was the only shooter.

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Was Fort Hood Killer On Psychotropic Drugs?
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Friday, November 6, 2009

Despite clear link between anti-depressants and mass shootings, media fails to ask if Hasan was on SSRI's

Despite the fact that Fort Hood gunman Nidal Malik Hasan was a psychiatrist, the media has failed to even raise the question of whether he was taking psychotropic drugs before he gunned down over a dozen of his colleagues during yesterday's tragic rampage, a hefty indictment of how the establishment rushes to blame politics, religion, gun rights, or any other factor for mass shootings in order to hide the direct link between such massacres and the use of anti-depressant drugs.

It has been confirmed that Hasan was an Army psychiatrist at Fort Hood. Psychiatrists have a history of "self-medication" because of the easy access they have to psychotropic drugs.

In almost every major mass shooting over the past two decades, since anti-depressant drugs became popular, the killer has been on SSRI's – serotonin reuptake inhibitors.

The establishment media, allied closely as it is with the pharmaceutical industry, uniformly fails to stress this common factor, preferring instead to blame shootings on gun rights or, as in the case of Hasan, political motives.

However, any fair study of mass shootings cannot justifiably come to any other conclusion but the fact that SSRI's play a central role in causing assassin's to go berserk and engage in the kind of carnage that the average person struggles to comprehend.

Immediately after we learned of the Virginia Tech massacre, the largest mass shooting in U.S. history by a single gunman, we predicted that the assassin would be on psychotropic drugs, which is exactly what turned out to be the case.

Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, as well as 15-year-old Kip Kinkel, the Oregon killer who gunned down his parents and classmates, were all on psychotropic drugs.

Robert Hawkins, the 19 year old who killed himself and eight other people with an assault rifle in Omaha, Nebraska in December 2007 had a history of treatment with psychiatric drugs for depression and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and was on prozac.

Jeff Weise, the Red Lake High School killer was on prozac, "Unabomber" Ted Kaczinski, Michael McDermott, John Hinckley, Jr., Byran Uyesugi, Mark David Chapman and Charles Carl Roberts IV, the Amish school killer, were all on SSRI psychotropic drugs.

Northern Illinois University killer Steven Kazmierczak had taken Prozac.

Since these deadly drugs are prevalent in almost all mass shooting incidents, where is the call to ban prozac? Why is the knee-jerk reaction always to attack the 2nd Amendment rights of Americans to self-defense? The fact that yesterday's shooting occurred on an Army base is the only reason that the establishment media has been unable to blame the carnage on gun rights. Instead, they have exploited Hasan's religion to stir up more hatred for Muslims in a crude attempt to reinvigorate flagging public support for the war on terror.

Scientific studies proving that prozac encourages suicidal tendencies are voluminous and span back nearly a decade.

In 2005, it was revealed that Eli Lilly had full knowledge of a 1200% increase in suicide risk for takers of their Prozac. This evidence came in the wake of findings published in the British Medical Journal a year previously.

In 2006 a report was published outlining the fact that anti-depressant drug Paxil doubles the risk of violent behavior. Another study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry revealed that teens taking antidepressant drugs are more likely to commit suicide.

It is a well known fact among the makers of these drugs that they are directly linked to behavioral disturbances including agitation, panic attacks and extreme aggression, yet their use is so commonplace that they have now even found their way into our drinking water.

The corporate media, owned as it is by the U.S. military-industrial complex, will continue to gratuitously and shamelessly exploit yesterday's tragedy by characterizing Hasan's religious and political beliefs as the main motivation behind the massacre, without even investigating whether or not he was taking psychotropic drugs and what role these played in why he suddenly snapped, a character trait completely at odds with how Hasan's own family described his personality.

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AMERICAN MUSLIMS CONDEMN ATTACK ON FORT HOOD
AMT castigates shootings as contemptible and unforgivable

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/6/09) - American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Right and Elections (AMT***), an umbrella group representing major Muslim organizations, has condemned in "the strongest terms possible" today's unconscionable attack on Fort Hood military base that has left 13 people dead and 30 injured.

The AMT statement in part reads:

"We condemn this cowardly attack in the strongest terms possible and ask that the perpetrators be punished to the full extent of the law. No religious or political ideology could ever justify or excuse such wanton and indiscriminate violence. The attack was particularly heinous in that it targeted the all-volunteer army that protects our nation. American Muslims stand with our fellow citizens in offering both prayers for the victims and sincere condolences to the families of those killed or injured.

"The motive of the attacker is not yet known. We urge all Americans to remain calm in reaction to this tragic event and to demonstrate once again what is best about America - our nation's ability to remain unified even in times of crisis. We urge national political and religious leaders and media professionals to set a tone of calm and unity.

"Based on unfortunate past experiences, we also urge American Muslims, and those who may be perceived to be Muslim, to take appropriate precautions to protect themselves, their families and their religious institutions from possible backlash."

*** AMT is an umbrella organization that includes American Muslim Alliance (AMA), American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA), MAS-Freedom, Muslim Student Association-National (MSA-N), Muslim Ummah of North America (MUNA), and United Muslims of America (UMA). Its observer organizations include American Muslims for Civic Engagement (AMCE), Islamic Educational Council of Orange County (IECOC), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC).

- END -

CONTACT: Muhammad Salim Akhtar - 773- 507 - 5335

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Deja Vu All Over Again?
by Wilton Alston
November 6, 2009 03:07 PM
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/42231.html

Karen and Laurence, this latest example of a "lone shooter" reminds me of an oddly-similar situation from some 2 years ago, that of
the supposed suicide of Colonel Ted Westhusing. It strikes me as
rather coincidental as well that Major Hasan was, like Colonel Westhusing, well-educated and high-ranking. Neither of these men could accurately be categorized as an uninformed-grunt-acting-out, as was the initial party line for the torturers at Abu Ghraib. The only difference is that Westhusing killed only himself, while Hasan apparently figured he would take a few others with him. (Yes, I realize Hasan is not dead, but I'd figure that anyone who starts shooting on an army based isn't really planning for a long vacation
afterwards!)

Amid all the shock, and certainly shock is warranted, I, like so many here, wonder if seemingly obvious questions about not only this event, but the totality of military action such as that in Afghanistan and Iraq, will be asked. How can our society remain ignorant of the fact that statist violence is only capable of generating evil? The expansion of violence cannot provide a logical remedy for the failure of violence. Killing people to illustrate that killing people is wrong doesn't work.

Who killed these victims, and Westhusing, and Tillman, and so many others, including so many innocents in Iraq and Afghanistan? I submit that it was not Hasan or men like him, not really. With apologies for not being more creative, I'll just paraphrase myself from that previous essay in answer.

Every person who displays a "support the troops" magnet on their car killed him. Every person who stands around the water cooler (or posts on "the internets") about the desperate need for Amerikan intervention to stop the spread of heinous "Islamo-Fascists" killed him. Every school official who allows the U.S. military to recruit
new killers-for-hire on school grounds killed him. Every person who is not absolutely certain that a standing army has no purpose but aggression and imperialism killed him. He pulled the trigger, but someone else loaded the bullet. When one allows active-duty-dodging chickenhawks to determine the foreign policy of the U.S. he cocks the gun. I am certain that no one wants to die in a terrorist bombing. I
am equally sure no one wants to die from a bomb dropped because they live in a place from whence terrorists supposedly come.

At what point will these types of events bring significant discussion–not just among crazy anarchists and other supposedly-Utopian freedom-lovers, but from the general populace–about why such actions as invading Iraq have can have no positive outcome?

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Was Ford Hoot shootings not another case of Mass Shootings that are on rise in America?
Dr Javed Jamil - <doctorforu123@yahoo.com>

The shootings at Fort Hood in Texas by Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a psychiatrist and practicing Muslim, are shocking and condemnable; and the perpetrator should be punished according to the law of the land. It has to be investigated at length if the killings have anything to do with his being a Muslim or simply reflects the case of a psychiatric patient who was feeling sad about the prospects of being sent to a war which he like billions of others regarded as a crime against humanity.

Even otherwise, the mass shootings in America are on the rise; and the case at Ford Hood is receiving attention only because the killer happens to be an American Muslim.

Killing sprees and incest cases are in international news at regular intervals. High crime rates, rising levels of promiscuity, women and child abuse reflect the maddening effect of modernity, which gives little importance to morality. High-tension life with exposure to high doses of abnormal images in the media is turning people into psychopaths. If society is to be saved from the ill effects of new trends, steps will have to be taken not only at the legal front but also at the social fronts.

On April 4, 2009, the shooting in Binghamton, New York ended with 14 people shot to death, including the apparent suicide of the gunman. The killing sprees in the US is on the rise and has killed more than 50 people in March alone.

A gunman barricaded the back door of a community center with his car and then opened fire on a room full of immigrants taking a citizenship class Friday, killing 13 people before apparently committing suicide, officials said.

Investigators said they had yet to establish a motive for the massacre, which was at least the fifth deadly mass shooting in the U.S. in the past month alone.

In a news conference about the Binghamton shootings, New York Governor David Patterson voiced despair when he said, "When are we going to be able to curb the kind of violence that is so fraught and so rapid that we can't even keep track of the incidents?"

According to Wikipedia, A spree killer, also known as a rampage killer, is someone who embarks on a murderous assault on his or her victims (2 or more) in a short time in multiple locations. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a spree killing as "killings at two or more locations with almost no time break between murders. According to the FBI the general definition of spree murder is two or more murders committed by an offender or offenders, without a cooling-off period; the lack of a cooling-off period marking the difference between a spree murder and a serial murder.

MASS SHOOTINGS IN THE U.S. THIS YEAR

A gunman killed three police officers in Pittsburgh on Saturday. Another gunman walked into an immigration services center in downtown Binghamton, N.Y., on Friday, killing 13 people and wounding at least four before apparently committing suicide.

Here is a look at some of the other U.S. mass shootings this year:
• March 29: Robert Stewart, 45, shot and killed eight people at Pinelake Health and Rehab in Carthage, N.C., before a police officer shot him and ended the rampage.

• March 29: Devan Kalathat, 42, shot and killed his two children and three other relatives, then killed himself in an upscale neighborhood of Santa Clara, Calif. Kalathat's wife was critically injured.
• March 21: Lovelle Mixon, 26, shot and killed four Oakland, Calif., police officers after a traffic stop. Mixon was killed in a shootout with SWAT officers.
• March 10: Michael McLendon, 28, killed 10 people — including his mother, four other relatives, and the wife and child of a local sheriff's deputy — across two rural Alabama counties. He then killed himself.

Notably large spree killings

Notably large spree killings in history include:

• Tsuyama massacre (Japan, 1938): Mutsuo Toi, using an old Japanese rifle and swords, killed 30[4] and then himself in an hour and a half.
• University of Texas massacre (United States, 1966): Charles Whitman, a student at the University of Texas at Austin killed 14 people and wounded 31 others as part of a shooting rampage from the observation deck of the University's 32-story administrative building. He did this shortly after murdering his wife and mother. He was eventually shot and killed by an Austin police officer.
• Uireyeong massacre (South Korea, 1982): Woo Bum-kon killed 57 and then himself in eight hours, using grenades and an M1 Carbine. 35 people were also wounded.
• Hungerford massacre (United Kingdom, 1987): Michael Robert Ryan, using two semi-automatic rifles and a handgun, killed 16 people and wounded 15 others in a space of 7 hours before shooting himself.
• Gang Lu shootings (Iowa City, 1991): Gang Lu, a graduate student in physics at the University of Iowa used a handgun to kill five people and seriously wound a sixth, then killed himself.
• Aramoana Massacre (New Zealand, 1990): David Gray, using a Norinco Type 56-1S .223 semi-automatic rifle killed 13 people on 13 November. He was shot and killed by police the following day after a 22 hour stand off.
• Tian Mingjian incident(China, 1994): Tian Mingjian, using a type 81 rifle killed 23 people near Tiananmen Square on September 20, including an Iranian diplomat and his son. He was finally shot dead by a police sniper.
• Dunblane massacre (United Kingdom, 1996): Thomas Hamilton, using two 9 mm Browning HP pistols and two Smith & Wesson .357 magnum revolvers, fired 109 times killed 17 people and injured 15 people on 13 March, before shooting himself.
• Port Arthur massacre (Australia, 1996): Martin Bryant, using an AR-15 and an L1A1 SLR, killed 35 and injured 19 in five hours before being arrested by the Special Operations Group of the Tasmanian Police.
• Red Lake High School massacre (United States, 2005): Jeff Weise. Shot and killed his grandfather and his grandfather's girlfriend, both police officers. He then proceeded to a local high school and shot and killed a security guard. Once inside the school Weise shot and killed five students and a teacher before committing suicide. Weise killed 9 and injured 15.
• Virginia Tech massacre (United States, 2007): Seung-Hui Cho, using two pistols, killed 32 in two separate events and then himself in the course of about three hours.
• Dnepropetrovsk maniacs (Ukraine, 2007): an unusual group murder spree. Viktor Sayenko, Alexander Hanzha and Igor Suprunyuck, all 19, went on several murder sprees, claiming 21 victims in one month and videotaping most murders. Two victims were murdered within minutes of each other on June 25; two more on July 1st, three on July 7th, and two each on the 14th, 15th and 16th July, 2007.
• Akihabara massacre (Japan, 2008): Tomohiro Kato hit five pedestrians with a truck, then stabbed twelve people. Kato killed 7 and injured 10.
• 2009 Alabama spree killing (United States, 2009): Michael McLendon using SKS rifle, Bushmaster AR-15, and .38-caliber handgun killed 10 on 10 March and before shooting himself.
• Winnenden school shooting (Germany, 2009): 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer using a handgun killed 15 on March 11 before shooting himself.

The latest case should be fully investigated before jumping to any conclusions. It it is a another case of mass shootings, serious debate should begin on how to create conditions in society that increase the peace level of the members of society. If it has any religious/ethnic connections, serious efforts should be made to tackle islamophobia that seems to be still on the rise despite the fact that evidences are accumulating that point out to unnecessary, unwarranted and more-than-required response by America that resulted in at least 100 times the killing of innocent Muslims than the number of the Americans [many of whom were Muslims -WVNS] killed on 9/11.

"The author is Exeutive3 Chairman, International Centre for Applied Islamics, and Chief Editor, "Islam, Muslims & the World".

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