Dots, Not Connected
Not in time, anyway. The murders of 12 people and wounding of 31 others by one man with two handguns probably made a lot of things painfully obvious, and probably helped cut through a lot of clutter and red tape pretty quickly.
But when, within a matter of hours, the following facts and suspicions are widely reported, it suggests there may have been insufficient urgency in some quarters, maybe official obstacles in others, maybe reluctance to act on concerns elsewhere … maybe a desire to see the problem known as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan go elsewhere … and in the end, a lot of dots not connected.
Culled variously from AP, Washington Post, New York Times:
Maj. Hasan is a native-born American of Palestinian origin, raised in Virginia, began his military career in the early 1990s as an ROTC student at Virginia Tech. Is an avid Redskins fan. “Very devout” Muslim, prayed up to seven days a week at an Islamic center in Silver Spring, Md., often in uniform, while stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical center. Is not married at 39, but has wanted to be. No kids. Too bad. Marriage and children ground us, give life a special meaning, help cut through a lot of noise. Identified his nationality as “Palestinian” in paperwork seeking a Muslim bride, which the imam thought odd as he considered him American. So maybe it was a sort of cultural identity. Nothing wrong with any of that. Maybe a little counterintuitive, some of it, even contradictory, some would say.
Theoretically, in one combination of parts or another, the above could describe a lot of loyal, stable, well-adjusted Americans who are minding their own business and even serving their country.
Is recalled as pretty uptight. Didn’t want to be photographed with women coworkers, didn’t have friends. Argued with fellow soldiers about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thought “Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor.” That … “the aggressor” …. is a reference to both Hasan’s nation, which he had sworn to defend, and specifically his employer, which expected him to be willing to lay down his life. Starts to sound like a problem. A tightly wound problem.
Had told family members he was being harassed because he is a Muslim. At least one superior officer and family members are saying publicly they were aware he didn’t want to go to serve in those wars. Presumably, officially, the Army knew it, too. Was actively trying to get out of the Army, but had been denied. Well, you don’t get to not go just because you don’t want to. Apparently was disturbed by what he was hearing from the combat-traumatized solders he was counseling. Very sensitive, couldn’t hang with the war wounds. Had poor performance reports and was himself in counseling.
Sounds a bit like the psychiatrist, not simply unwilling and ill-suited to the military career he had chosen, might have been morphing into patient, or should have been, as he found himself increasingly conflicted at the intersection of various aspects of his life, which appears to have included a respectable level of stress and some potentially extreme contradictions. Given that he worked at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress, that part of it starts to sound like a very big dot that shouldn’t have needed that much connecting.
Here’s another one, dot-connection in process.
Had been the focus of some level of attention by federal agents for at least six months, due to disturbing Internet postings that appear to justify suicide bombings and other threats. They believed he was the author, and were in the process of seeking warrants to examine his computer. That starts to sound like a really big problem.
Apparently the latter process wasn’t moving fast enough. Unclear what the Army itself was up to, whether any of the dots were being connected and the concerns voiced or addressed. The reports that they still had him on active duty, working in a hospital and were getting ready to ship him overseas would tend to suggest no, or not sufficiently. Maybe we’ll learn otherwise.
In any case, he ended up yesterday afternoon with two handguns and a lot of extra ammo at Fort Hood’s Soldier Readiness Center, where he must have figured he’d find a lot of the aggressors getting ready to deploy. Also, from the sounds of it, a lot of them just back, being recognized for the academic work they did while they did whatever else they were doing overseas.
Maj. Hasan was alive at last report, critical but stable, under armed guard and expected to live. An apparently heroic MP, a woman who was shot by him, managed to shoot him and ended it. At last report she had emerged from surgery and was stable. Her name had not been released at last check. I hope she’ll be OK. Details on how that went down, and how all the rest of the above went down, or didn’t go down, presumably will begin to emerge as all the dots … 12 bodies later, plus 31 lives shattered and God knows how many more deeply shaken … get connected.
Big roundup at Memeorandum.
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Topics: Afghanistan, America, Iraq, Islam, Jihad, Palestinians, military
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 1:10 am on Friday, November 6, 2009
7 Responses to “Dots, Not Connected”
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November 6th, 2009 at 6:45 am
If you investigate/act against a devout Presbyterian who proselytizes and posts statements supporting suicide bombers, etc, than you are a racial profiler whose career will be over.
November 6th, 2009 at 8:12 am
The dots, if properly connected, will likely lead to MAJ Hasan’s mosque, the particular Islamic ideology (i.e. Wahhabist) advocated by its imam and Hasan’s desire to martyr himself.
November 6th, 2009 at 8:54 am
According to the NYT and others, this was clearly a case of PTSD*. Here’s the current headline for the NYT:
Hasan was ‘mortified’ about deployment
Relatives: Ft. Hood suspect upset over being harassed about being Muslim
See, it was all about the PTSD* and the harassment. You wouldn’t want to get the silly idea that the shooting spree was religiously motivated. Perish the thought!
* Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder
November 6th, 2009 at 10:47 am
[...] –Jules Crittenden says the dots were “not connected”: Not in time, anyway. The murders of 12 people and wounding of 31 others by one man with two handguns probably made a lot of things painfully obvious, and probably helped cut through a lot of clutter and red tape pretty quickly. [...]
November 6th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Good questions. The lib spinning on this for the next several weeks is going to be an awesome sight to behold. MSM organizations I’ve heard over the last 12 hours seem pretty quick to run with the “he was harassed because he was a Muslim” angle without any supporting evidence, as opposed to the possibility he was an Islamist wackjob intent on carrying out his own personal jihad (and who knows how “personal” it all really was).
If death by firing squad was good enough for Eddie Slovik, than it should be good enough for him.
November 6th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
No kids. Too bad. Marriage and children ground us, give life a special meaning, help cut through a lot of noise.
Somehow I don’t think marriage and children would have made much difference, considering Hasan’s extremist views. He claimed “harrassment”, but there’s also information out now that he was an obnoxious proselytizer (of his patients, no less). Having a family might have delayed the explosion somewhat, until his American daughters got out of hand and merited honor killing. That’s not to say he isn’t mentally unbalanced, but I’m pretty sure he bought wholesale into the “slay the infidels” thing.
November 6th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
Jules - He may have been a Hokie, but he wasn’t an ROTC student at Virginia Tech (Corps of Cadets, there).