Army psychiatrist who did shooting rampage was under FBI probe

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

Gunman named as army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan

Muslim major brought down by Kim Munley, a civilian female police officer

He is now under armed guard in a stable condition in hospital

Hasan was fervently opposed to war on terror 

Was due to be deployed to Iraq at end of year - but did not want to go

Had treated hundreds of traumatised Iraq and Afghanistan veterans

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/....html#ixzz0W5U8hbRH

The army psychiatrist who shot dead 13 people in a murderous rampage at America's biggest military base was facing an FBI investigation for expressing sympathy with suicide bombers.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, had allegedly posted a series of comments on a website which drew parallels between terrorists and a US soldier who sacrificed himself to save his comrades.

Investigators were tipped off six months ago by the devout Muslim's worried colleagues. 

His behaviour was particularly alarming as he was responsible for the psychological well-being of many vulnerable soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq.

'If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off guard that would be considered a strategic victory,' he is said to have written.

'Their intention is not to die because of some despair. Their act was not one of suicide that is despised by Islam.'

A well-known opponent of the war on terror, Hasan yesterday armed himself with two handguns before bursting into a medical centre at Fort Hood in Texas and spraying the room with bullets.

The major  was eventually brought down by a female civilian police officer who shot him four times - despite being shot herself. 

She and her partner responded to the shooting within three minutes, Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said, describing her actions as 'amazing and aggressive'.

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 is the author of the posting, 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.

Federal authorities seized Hasan's computer Friday during a search of his apartment in Killeen, Texas, said a U.S. military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.

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, terror 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."