Monday, November 09, 2009
FORT HOOD — Mourners were asked to pray for the man authorities say went on a shooting spree at Fort Hood, and an Army chaplain exhorted his congregation Sunday to draw together even if the gunman’s motives may never be fully known.
Worshippers at the post’s chapel hugged each other and raised their hands in prayer during the service, in which Col. Frank Jackson asked the congregation to pray for the 13 killed and 29 wounded, as well as accused shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.
“Lord, all those around us search for motive, search for meaning, search for something, someone to blame. That is so frustrating,” Jackson told a group of about 120 people at the service. “Today, we pause to hear from you. So, Lord, as we pray together, we focus on things we know.”
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The chaplain urged the crowd to pray for Hasan and his family “as they find themselves in a position that no person ever desires to be.”
Authorities continue to refer to Hasan, 39, as the only suspect in the shootings, but they won’t say when charges would be filed. They have not revealed a possible motive.
A key U.S. senator called Sunday for an investigation into whether the Army missed signs that the man accused of opening fire at Fort Hood had embraced an increasingly extremist view of Islamic ideology.
Sen. Joe Lieberman’s call came as word surfaced that Hasan apparently attended the same Virginia mosque as two Sept. 11 hijackers in 2001, at a time when a radical imam preached there. Whether Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, associated with the hijackers is something the FBI probably will look into, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, wants Congress to determine whether the shootings constitute a terrorist attack.
“If Hasan was showing signs, saying to people that he had become an Islamist extremist, the U.S. Army has to have zero tolerance,” Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, said on “Fox News Sunday.” “He should have been gone.”
Hasan, who was shot by civilian police to end the rampage, was in critical but stable condition at an Army hospital in San Antonio.
He was breathing on his own after being taken off a ventilator Saturday, but officials won’t say whether Hasan can communicate.
Sixteen victims remained hospitalized with gunshot wounds, and seven were in intensive care.
Army Chief of Staff George Casey warned against reaching conclusions about the suspected shooter’s motives until investigators have fully explored the attack. “I think the speculation (on Hasan’s Islamic roots) could potentially heighten backlash against some of our Muslim soldiers,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”
No terror links found
A government official speaking on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the case said an initial review of Hasan’s computer use has found no evidence of links to terror groups or anyone who might have helped plan or push him toward the attack. The review of Hasan’s computer is continuing, the official said.
Hasan likely would face military justice rather than federal criminal charges if investigators determine the violence was the work of just one person.
There is no time limit on charging Hasan, but once he is in pretrial confinement, the military has 120 days to start his trial, said John P. Galligan, an attorney who has represented Fort Hood soldiers but is not involved in the Hasan case. However, defense attorneys can file motions to stop the 120-day clock.
At Fort Hood and in neighboring Killeen, soldiers, their relatives and members of the community struggled to make sense of the shootings. Candles burned Saturday night outside the apartment complex where Hasan lived. Small white crosses, one for each of the dead, dotted a lawn Sunday at a Killeen church.
Even as the community took time to mourn the victims at worship services on and off the post, Col. John Rossi acknowledged that the country’s largest military installation was moving forward with its usual business of soldiering. The processing center where Hasan allegedly opened fire Thursday remains a crime scene, but the activities that went on there were relocated with the goal of reopening the center as soon as Sunday.
Fort Hood is “continuing to prepare for the mission at hand,” Rossi said. “There’s a lot of routine activity still happening. You’ll hear cannon fire and artillery fire. Soldiers in units are still trying to execute the missions we have been tasked with.”
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