On Friday, The Lede is providing updates on the aftermath of Thursday’s deadly shooting spree at Fort Hood, the Texas Army base where 13 people were killed and 28 wounded by an Army psychiatrist facing deployment to Afghanistan. For an overview of where the case strands on Friday evening, read the article “Ft. Hood Investigators Focus on Motive ,” by my colleagues Clifford Krauss and Jack Healy. James Dao has a profile of Major Nidal Hasan, the suspected gunman: “Suspect Objected to Deployment, Cousin Says.” 
 
 For more background, read Thursday’s updates on The Lede. The right column of this page includes a Times Twitter list incorporating feeds from local sources near the base. 
 
 The Associated Press reports that the suspected gunman has been moved to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio: 
 
 Hospital spokeswoman Maria Gallegos says Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is in stable condition in the intensive care unit at the hospital on Fort Sam Houston outside San Antonio, about 150 miles southwest of Fort Hood. 
 
 Here is Associated Press video from the news conference at Fort Hood earlier today with remarks from Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of staff, and John McHugh, the secretary of the Army: 
 
 Two psychiatrists who had worked closely with the suspected gunman, Major Nidal Hasan, when he was training at Walter Reed Army Medical Center told NPR on Friday that he could be belligerent. NPR reports: 
 
 The two asked not to be identified because the military had ordered them not to talk to the media. They said Hasan would sometimes belittle colleagues without provocation. The psychiatrists also said Hasan once gave a bizarre lecture to the medical staff in which he said the Quran teaches that infidels should have their heads cut off and set on fire. “When I heard the news about Hasan, honestly, my first thought was, ‘That makes a lot of sense. That completely fits the person I knew,’ ” one of the psychiatrists told NPR. 
 
 My colleague James McKinley has filed an article on Kimberly Munley, the police officer who shot the suspected gunman. According to Chuck Medley, the director of emergency services at the base, when Sergeant Munley arrived at the center where the shooting was taking place, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was brandishing a pistol and chasing a wounded soldier outside the building. Mr. McKinley reports: 
 
 Sergeant Munley bolted from her car and shot at Major Hasan. He turned toward her and began to fire. She ran toward him, continuing to fire, and both she and the gunmen went down with several bullet wounds, Mr. Medley said. Whether Sergeant Munley was solely responsible for taking down Major Hassan or whether he was also hit by gunfire from another responder is still unclear, but she was the first to fire at him. Sergeant Munley, who is 34, is an expert in firearms and a member of the SWAT team for the civilian police department on the base, officials said. She received two wounds in each thigh and one to her right wrist. The base‚Äôs fire chief applied torniquets to stop her bleeding, and she was taken to a hospital that the officials did not identify, where she was reported in stable condition on Tuesday. Sergeant Munley joined the police force on the sprawling base in January 2008 after a career in the Army. Mr. Medley described her as highly trained, and said she had received specific training in a tactic called active shooter protocol, which was intended for the kind of situation she encountered on Thursday. 
 
 My colleague Campbell Robertson has been speaking with some of the first responders who helped the victims of Thursday’s attack at Fort Hood. Captain Reis Ritz, a 30-year-old emergency-room doctor from Houston, was off-duty at the Darnall Army Medical Center but volunteered to help when he heard the call “trauma team activation,” over an intercom. He said that when he started to treat a middle-aged female soldier who had been shot in the abdomen, he got his first clue that what had happened was something other than the occasional trauma case he sees at the base: 
 
 I said, you know, “I‚Äôm Dr. Ritz, What‚Äôs going on?” And she said, “Well I was shot.” And of course my first question was, “Who shot you?” And she said she didn‚Äôt know, that someone started opening up fire where they were and started shooting a bunch of rounds — and so that‚Äôs when I first realized it was something of that nature. At first we had four or five maybe patients who drove themselves in by their own private vehicles and then we started getting ambulances. So within about 25, 30 minutes we went from no patients or no mass casualty patients to about 30 or so. […] Of course anytime this happens there are always rumors flowing around, like there are four gunmen or five gunmen, or three of them loose on post. You hear all the rumors so its hard to piece together what‚Äôs happening. 
 
 Janet DiPalma, a 50-year-old civilian registered nurse who works at Darnall, also said that there was little information about what had happened as the wounded started to come in: 
 
 One of the nurses came back to the office and said that we had multiple gunshot wounds coming in. I had no idea what was going on. We had no clue, no clue. All we were told initially is that we had gunshot wounds, multiple gunshot wounds. By the time we got from the office to right there around the corner from the trauma room, they were walking in the door…. My first sight was just soldiers walking in our emergency room doors carrying other soldiers. […] We knew something bad had happened right at that point, when they were coming in right one after the other — one solider was shot and she was carrying her buddy. 
 
 Sgt. Andrew Hagerman, a 27-year-old military police officer said he heard shots fired over a radio and “your ears perk up when you hear that.” He added that when he got to the scene of the crime, he saw, “pretty much controlled chaos.” Sgt. Hagerman recalled seeing 
 
 people on the ground that they had moved out of the building trying to get them set up for ambulances and stuff like that, and there were soldiers who‚Äôd come from all over this post, all different units, just using whatever they had, whatever they could get their hands on, whether it was a uniform or a shirt or anything else, just trying to stop bleeding. […] They were treating the shooter‚Ä¶ you had gunshot victims everywhere‚Ä¶ there were people pretty much inside every building that was there, there were people trying to help, trying to treat wounded‚Ä¶ there really wasn‚Äôt anybody standing around I can tell you that. 
 
 Alison Buckholtz, a reader from a military family, gives us a better idea of what a deployment readiness center is like in a blog post she wrote today for Slate’s Double X Web site: 
 
 I‚Äôm very familiar with these centers, though not the one at Ft. Hood; my husband Scott, a Navy pilot, has spent many hours in their lines, thick medical file in one hand and Kindle in the other, waiting for shots to be given, teeth to be examined, boxes to be checked. This is usually one of the last stages before his actual deployment, and at home, we‚Äôre often caught in the eye of an emotional tornado. There‚Äôs a moment of calm for us in the midst of the panic over his leaving. On my part, I‚Äôve passed through the phases of resisting, ranting, and sobbing‚ÄĒthe advance grieving‚ÄĒand I‚Äôm exhausted, ready for him to depart so that we can start the countdown to his homecoming. At that point, I‚Äôm a butterfly pinned to a mat, unable to beat my wings anymore. Complete surrender. I watch him gather his medical records and walk out the door, knowing that he‚Äôs almost gone for good. 
 
 Following up on a reader comment from a psychologist we pointed to earlier today, another reader, Todd Essig, who is also a psychologist, draws our attention to a blog post he has written on the Web site True/Slant arguing that post-traumatic stress disorder “is contagious.” 
 
 Mr. Essig writes: “The fact is treating soldiers traumatized by war experience is not just an honor and a challenge; it is itself a risky behavior.” He cites an article, “Vicarious traumatization: A framework for understanding the psychological effects of working with victims,” published in the Journal of Traumatic Stress in 1990 by Lisa McCann and Laurie Anne Pearlman, in which they discussed a problem called “vicarious traumatization.” According to another paper quoted by Mr. Essig, this syndrome describes 
 
 the cumulative transformative effects upon therapists resulting from empathic engagement with traumatized clients. As part of their work, these clinicians must listen to graphically detailed descriptions of horrific events and bear witness to the psychological (and sometimes physical) aftermath of acts of intense cruelty and/or violence. The cumulative experience of this kind of empathic engagement can have deleterious effects upon clinicians, who may experience physical, emotional, and cognitive symptoms similar to those of their traumatized clients. 
 
 While the Army has not released the names of the victims, families have confirmed some of the deaths. My colleague Liz 
 
 Robbins has details on some of the victims of the attack. 
 
 My colleague Michael Brick visited the Casa Del Norte Apartment complex in a rundown section of Killeen, Texas where Major Nidal Hasan has lived since July. He reports: 
 
 The manager, John Thompson, said Hasan moved in late in July, taking unit number 9, a small one-bedroom with a combination living room and kitchen. Hasan dressed alternately in his Army uniform or white robes, appearing at the complex at different times of day, no apparent pattern. ‚ÄúHe pretty much kept to himself. Never had any visitors.‚ÄĚ With one exception: Thompson saw a man enter the apartment with Hasan on Wednesday, staying for only about five minutes. Hasan kept his unit sparse, with a couple chairs, a microwave, nothing memorable on the walls. ‚ÄúHe was a major in the Army. It‚Äôs kind of hard to believe he‚Äôd do something like this.‚ÄĚ Hasan‚Äôs next door neighbor was Patricia Villa, age 47. Her husband is a roofer, she sells handmade tamales at construction sites. They moved in a month ago. Until this week, her apartment was almost bare, with just a small kitchen table and a mattress. Before this week, she had only passed Hasan on the stairs, exchanging how-are-yous. On Tuesday night, Villa was sitting outside taking in the air. Hasan approached her with a small book he described as a Spanish language Koran. Hasan asked if she could read Spanish. She said no. ‚ÄúOn Wednesday morning, he knocked on my door and he told me, ‚ÄėHere‚Äôs the Koran that I was going to give you, and it‚Äôs in English.‚ÄĚ She thanked him. Hasan, who was carrying three bags of vegetables, offered them to her. ‚ÄúI said, ‚ÄėWhy?‚Äô He said, ‚ÄėBecause I‚Äôm leaving my apartment, I don‚Äôt want to throw them away.‚Äô‚ÄĚ Villa started to put the groceries away in fridge. Hasan noticed her apartment was bare. He went to his apartment and came back with three sets of shelves, a digital clock and some folding chairs. ‚ÄúThen he goes, ‚ÄėYou don‚Äôt have a bed?‚Äô‚ÄĚ ‚ÄúI said, ‚ÄėI only have two mattresses, I can‚Äôt afford to buy a bed right now.‚ÄĚ Thursday morning, Hasan came back with an air mattress, a steamer, a scale, clothes racks, a lantern and men‚Äôs clothing for her husband, including shirts, slacks and sportcoats, some still in dry cleaning bags marked ‚ÄúHasan.‚ÄĚ ‚ÄúHe said, ‚ÄėI‚Äôm not going to need them, I‚Äôm going to Iraq or something like that. I‚Äôll be there for six months.‚Äô‚ÄĚ ‚Äú‚ÄôYou need them,‚Äô he told me. I was so grateful to him.‚ÄĚ ‚ÄúHe said, ‚Äėwhatever you don‚Äôt want, could you please give it to the Salvation Army?‚ÄĚ On Thursday morning, Hasan also offered to pay Villa to clean his apartment Friday morning. She looked in the apartment, saw there was not much left and offered to do the cleaning job for free. ‚ÄúHe said, ‚ÄėThat‚Äôs not fair, you need to charge me.‚Äô‚ÄĚ Villa offered to accept $30. Hasan raised the price to $60. ‚ÄúSo I was supposed to go in today and clean his apartment, but he didn‚Äôt leave the key.‚ÄĚ Hasan didn‚Äôt seem strange to her. ‚ÄúWhen he told me he was going to Iraq, he said he was ready. I said, ‚ÄėFor reals?‚Äô He said, ‚ÄėI‚Äôm ready.‚Äô I figured, he‚Äôs with God. He‚Äôs ready to go fight.‚ÄĚ ‚ÄúYou think you know a person by seeing them, by how they act, but sometimes you‚Äôre wrong.‚ÄĚ She still has all the stuff he gave her, except the Koran. A TV reporter took that from her. 
 
 As many readers will be aware, reports of a mass shooting in Florida were accurate. My colleague Sewell Chan reports: 
 
 A 40-year-old engineer who was dismissed from his job two years ago returned to his former workplace in downtown Orlando, Fla., on Friday morning and opened fire, killing one person and shooting five others, the authorities said. 
 
 The two events may turn out to be entirely unrelated, but, as we noted earlier, this is the second time this year that a widely-reported mass shooting was followed by another the next day. 
 
 An Army spokesman writes that the Chaplain’s Corps at Fort Hood will host a candlelight prayer vigil at 6 p.m. Central Time, which is 7 p.m. Eastern Time, in honor of “the Soldiers and family members impacted by 
 
 the mass shooting incident that happened on post yesterday afternoon.” 
 
 This video report from Britain’s Channel 4 News includes footage of Fort Hood today, an excerpt from an interview NBC did this morning with the father of one of the wounded soldiers — who said that his daughter told him that the gunman had said “Allahu akbar” (which is Arabic for “God is great”) during the rampage, which initially led her to believe it was a training exercise — and security camera footage of Major Hasan at a convenience store hours before the attack: Some reporters at Fort Hood just asked the Secretary of the Army and the Army Chief of Staff if they thought that Thursday’s shooting spree, apparently carried out by an Army psychiatrist about to be deployed to Afghanistan, is yet another sign that fighting two wars is taking a toll on the mental health of American soldiers. One reporter noted that suicide rates are “off the charts.” 
 
 There has been a recent increase in suicide rates in the Army. As my colleague Lizette Alvarez reported in January: 
 
 Suicides among soldiers in 2008 rose for the fourth year in a row, reaching the highest level in nearly three decades. … At least 128 soldiers killed themselves last year, and the Army suicide rate surpassed that for civilians for the first time since the Vietnam War, according to Army statistics. The suicide count, which includes soldiers in the Army Reserve and the National Guard, is expected to grow; 15 deaths are still being investigated, and the vast majority of them are expected to be ruled suicides, Army officials said. 
 
 Ms. Alvarez reported at the time that Pete Geren, who was then the secretary of the Army, said that the Army had stepped up its efforts in the last two years as the numbers had begun to climb. 
 
 But, Mr. Geren cautioned, there are no easy answers. ‚ÄúIs there a silver bullet out there?‚ÄĚ he said. ‚ÄúI‚Äôm confident there isn‚Äôt.‚ÄĚ 
 
 In the initial hours after the rampage was reported, some bloggers wrote that the fact that Major Hasan had not yet served in Iraq or Afghanistan meant that the shootings had nothing to do with the traumatic stress of battle. Major Hasan’s family, however, told reporters that his work required him to hear “horrific things” while counseling soldiers who had returned from war zones and were haunted by what they had seen. One of our readers writes in the comments thread below that providing therapy for soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder is considered very stressful in itself. The reader writes: 
 
 I am a psychologist who used to work at the VA, and I am confident that most civilians have no idea of the horrible things discussed during therapy with patients with PTSD. Most of the things discussed are beyond imagination. Mental health professionals are at high risk for developing psychiatric and substance abuse problems if they have no social support, are isolated, or have any predisposing vulnerability. Therapists working with patients with PTSD are supposed to be in therapy themselves to prevent this, as no human being can listen to these things day after day for years and not be adversely affected. There is actually a term for this – “vicarious or secondary traumatization” – trauma from exposure to others’ trauma. I don’t condone what he did in any way shape or form, but I understand how he may have gotten to the point of snapping. Just a thought… 
 
 We have live video of the news conference with the Secretary of the Army, John McHugh and Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey, Jr. streaming live on the home page of NYTimes.com now. 
 
 After his remarks, Gen. Casey rejected a suggestion from a reporter that the incident, along with increased suicide rates, is evidence that the Army is “overstretched.” 
 
 Mr. McHugh said that the investigation is currently being conducted by both the military and civilian authorities, led by C.I.D. and the F.B.I. and that no decision has yet been made as to whether the case will be prosecuted in a civilian or military court. 
 
 Mr. McHugh also mentioned that studies of traumatic stress are underway as the military seeks to better understand “why people do desperate things.” 
 
 As my colleague Benedict Carey reported in August Ge, Casey has been involved in an effort to address mental-health problems in the Army: 
 
 The Army plans to require that all 1.1 million of its soldiers take intensive training in emotional resiliency, military officials say. The training, the first of its kind in the military, is meant to improve performance in combat and head off the mental health problems, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide, that plague about one-fifth of troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. […] In an interview, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army‚Äôs chief of staff, said the $117 million program was an effort to transform a military culture that has generally considered talk of emotions to be so much hand-holding, a sign of weakness. ‚ÄúI‚Äôm still not sure that our culture is ready to accept this,‚ÄĚ General Casey said. ‚ÄúThat‚Äôs what I worry about most.‚ÄĚ 
 
 The Killeen Daily Herald reports on Twitter from the base: 
 
 Sgt. Maj. Jamie Posten just asked a sergeant to escort 3 ‘Hooters Girls’ from media area at Fort Hood – says were commercializing incident. 
 
 A message posted on the Twitter feed @hope2forget30, which appears to be maintained by Kim Munley, the police officer who reportedly shot the suspected gunman and was wounded, contains this a wry answer to the question “What are you doing?” 
 
 still recovering from a long night of work from Saturday! 
 
 Here is the profile picture posted with the feed and on TwitPic: 
 
 A number of Twitter users have posted tributes to Ms. Munley beneath this photograph on TwitPic. 
 
 CNN published an interview with her brother-in-law on its Web site a few minutes ago, which begins: 
 
 When Bryan Munley heard that his sister-in-law thwarted the Fort Hood gunman in a shootout, he wasn’t surprised. Kimberly Munley, he said Friday, is “definitely a tough woman,” an active-duty soldier before she got her job as a civilian officer with the Fort Hood police. “There’s nothing that stands in her way. It completely makes sense that she did what she did,” Bryan Munley said from Downingtown, Pennsylvania. “It was amazing. Without her, there would have been a lot more people killed.” […] His brother, Staff Sgt. Matthew Munley, is Kimberly’s husband. He said Matthew was in Downingtown, outside Philadelphia, visiting his family when the shootings happened. The couple, married since 2006, have a 3-year-old daughter named Jayden. 
 
 The rarely-updated Twitter feed started with a note posted in May reading: 
 
 being the paranoid OCD parent and praying that the new “flu” stays FAR away from Jayden!!! 
 
 CNN also reports: “Munley’s father, former Carolina Beach, North Carolina, Mayor Dennis Barbour, said his daughter is doing well in a hospital.” 
 
 Cable news networks and The Associated Press report that there has apparently been another mass shooting in the United States — this time in Orlando, Florida. According to a breaking news update from The A.P.: 
 
 People are streaming out of an office building in downtown Orlando, Fla., where officials say a shooter is on the loose. Orange County Sheriff’s Spokesman Jim Solomons says his department is backing up Orlando police and they’re still looking for an armed man wearing a light blue polo shirt and jeans. The Legions Place office building in downtown Orlando was ordered on lockdown Friday afternoon as officers began a floor-by-floor evacuation. Orlando Police Sgt. Barbara Jones confirms there has been a shooting but can’t say how many people are hurt. The Orlando Fire Department tells WESH-TV that at least eight people are injured. Interstate 4 is closed in both directions through downtown and a nearby school is locked down. 
 
 If these reports are accurate, this would be the second time this year that one highly-publicized mass shooting was followed the next day by another. In March, a shooting spree in Samson, Alabama that left 10 dead was followed just hours later by a rampage in the small German town of Winnenden, where a 17-year-old killed 15 people before taking his own life. 
 
 The moment of silence for the victims of Thursday’s shooting rampage at Fort Hood will be at 1:34 Central Time, which is 2:34 p.m. Eastern Time — about 90 minutes from now. Immediately following that there will be a news conference with John McHugh, the new Secretary of the Army — whose vacated seat in the House caused the special election earlier this week in New York’s 23rd Congressional district. 
 
 The BBC has published this telephone interview with a Catholic chaplain at Fort Hood named Edward McCabe who described entering a room at the base on Thursday after the shootings and seeing nine bodies on the floor. 
 
 The Associated Press posted this video interview with Captain Reis Ritz at Fort Hood on its YouTube channel. Capt. Ritz described the “chaotic” scenes inside an emergency room at Fort Hood on Thursday: 
 
 My colleague Jeff Zeleny was at the White House for President Obama’s brief remarks on the Fort Hood shootings in the Rose Garden. He reports: 
 
 The President said that he had met with Robert Mueller, the director of the FBI, and ordered that flags be flown at half-staff until next Wednesday, which is Veteran‚Äôs Day. 
 
 Video 
 
 ‚ÄúWe don‚Äôt know all the answers yet and I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts,‚ÄĚ Mr. Obama said. ‚ÄúWhat we do know is that there are families, friends and an entire nation grieving right now for the valiant men and women who came under attack yesterday in one of the worst mass shootings ever to take place on an American military base.‚ÄĚ 
 
 He added, ‚ÄúWe honor their service, we stand in awe of their sacrifice.‚ÄĚ 
 
 Here is a transcript of the President’s full statement on the incident: 
 
 I want to begin by offering an update on the tragedy that took place yesterday at Ft. Hood. This morning, I met with F.B.I. Director Mueller and the relevant agencies to discuss their ongoing investigation into what caused one individual to turn his gun on fellow servicemen and -women. We don’t know all the answers yet, and I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts. What we do know is that there are families, friends and an entire nation grieving right now for the valiant men and women who came under attack yesterday in one of the worst mass shootings ever to take place on an American military base. So from now until Veterans Day, I’ve ordered the flags at the White House and other federal buildings to be flown at half-staff. This is a modest tribute to those who lost their lives even as many were preparing to risk their lives for their country, and it’s also a recognition of the men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect our safety and uphold our values. We honor their service, we stand in awe of their sacrifice, and we pray for the safety of those who fight and for the families of those who have fallen. And as we continue to learn more about what happened at Ft. Hood, this administration will continue to provide you updates in the coming days and weeks. 
 
 The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, issued this statement on Thursday night: 
 
 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.‚ÄĚ Along with innumerable condemnations of terror, CAIR has in the past launched an online anti-terror petition drive called ‚ÄúNot in the Name of Islam,‚ÄĚ initiated a television public service announcement (PSA) campaign against religious extremism and coordinated a ‚Äúfatwa,‚ÄĚ or Islamic religious ruling, against terrorism and extremism. 
 
 President Obama has ordered all flags at the White House and on federal buildings to be be flown at half-staff until Veterans Day. 
 
 Here is live video from MSNBC, which is streaming President Obama’s remarks from the White House: 
 
 We are expecting President Obama to speak at 11:30 a.m. Eastern. At 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time, there is to be a moment of silence and a news conference at Fort Hood with the new Secretary of the Army, John McHugh, and Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey, Jr. 
 
 I have been reading the essay “Martyrdom in Islam Versus Suicide Bombing,” posted on the document-sharing Web site Scribd — which has attracted attention today because someone using the screen name “NidalHasan” posted a comment on it in May — and the essay ends with a pretty robust refutation of the theory that suicide bombing is well-supported by Islamic teaching, noting, for instance, that one frequently-cited justification is ‚Äúmade by those with no solid grounding in the scholastic sciences of Islam, and is regurgitated only in the cyber literature of suicide bombing apologists.‚ÄĚ The essay‚Äôs author also wrote, near the conclusion of the text, something that might have given a mental-health professional pause: 
 
 many of those who sign up to blow themselves up are often complete basket cases who are exploited by their more shrewd commanders; with many so-called human bombs often displaying advances signs of psychosis, erratic or abnormal behaviour, and even flagrant violations of Shariah in the build-up to their self-sacrifice. 
 
 Fort Hood spokesman Christopher Haug writes that Secretary of the Army John McHugh and Army Chief of Staff 
 
 Gen. George W. Casey, Jr. will hold a press conference at Fort Hood this afternoon. The briefing will be proceeded by “an Army-wide moment of silence in honor of the Fort Hood victims, family members and loved ones.” 
 
 Here is a statement by Nader Hasan, a cousin of the suspected gunman Nidal Hasan, sent to The Washington Post by spokeswoman for the family: 
 
 As Nidal Hasan’s first cousin, and because his parents are no longer alive, I wanted to issue a statement on behalf of my family. We are shocked and saddened by the terrible events at Fort Hood today. We send the families of the victims our most heartfelt sympathies. We, like most of America, know very few details at this time. Here is what we do know about our cousin. Nidal was an American citizen. He was born in Arlington, Virginia, and raised here in America. He attended local high schools and eventually went on to attend Virginia Tech. We are filled with grief for the families of today’s victims. Our family loves America. We are proud of our country, and saddened by today’s tragedy. Because this situation is still unfolding, we have nothing else that we are able to share with you at this time. 
 
 On the document-sharing Web site Scribd a heated discussion has been going on beneath a comment posted six months ago by someone using the screen name “NidalHasan.” The comment was written in response to an essay uploaded to the site by another user headlined “Martyrdom in Islam Versus Suicide Bombing.” 
 
 The name Nidal Hasan is not uncommon, and there is no way of knowing if this comment was in fact written by the Army psychiatrist who is the suspected gunman in Thursday’s rampage at Fort Hood, but the comment does seem to match a report from The Associated Press, that Major Hasan had “attracted the attention of law enforcement authorities in recent months after an Internet posting under the screen name ‘NidalHasan’ compared Islamic suicide bombers to Japanese kamikaze pilots.” 
 
 Here is the entire comment posted in May by the Scribd user NidalHasan: 
 
 There was a grenade thrown amongs a group of American soldiers. One of the soldiers, feeling that it was to late for everyone to flee jumped on the grave with the intention of saving his comrades. Indeed he saved them. He inentionally took his life (suicide) for a noble cause i.e. saving the lives of his soldier. To say that this soldier committed suicide is inappropriate. Its more appropriate to say he is a brave hero that sacrificed his life for a more noble cause. Scholars have paralled this to suicide bombers whose intention, by sacrificing their lives, is to help save Muslims by killing enemy soldiers. If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off guard that would be considered a strategic victory. Their intention is not to die because of some despair. The same can be said for the Kamikazees in Japan. They died (via crashing their planes into ships) to kill the enemies for the homeland. You can call them crazy i you want but their act was not one of suicide that is despised by Islam. So the scholars main point is that “IT SEEMS AS THOUGH YOUR INTENTION IS THE MAIN ISSUE” and Allah (SWT) knows best. 
 
 A post on “Army Live,” the U.S. Army’s official blog, headlined “Keep Fort Hood in Your Hearts,” says “The flood of support we have seen through our social networking channels has been incredible.” The blog invites readers to “Check out www.facebook.com/usarmy or www.twitter.com/usarmy, and feel free to send your thoughts.” 
 
 In this video interview with CBS News on Friday morning, Gen. Robert Cone gave more details of how the shootings unfolded on Thursday — he also said that there were what he called “unconfirmed reports” that Major Nidal Hasan was shouting “Allahu akbar” (Arabic for “God is great”) during the shooting: 
 
 My colleague Liz Robbins has spoken with the family of one of the soldiers who was killed in Thursday’s rampage, a 21-year-old Army Private named Michael Pearson. A relative confirmed his death and said that his parents, Sheryll and Jeff, were trying to get some sleep after being up all night. Pfc. Pearson was the youngest of four children and joined the army a little more than a year ago. 
 
 According to a post on the news Web site ChicagoBreakingnews.com, his mother said on Friday that Pfc. Pearson was training to learn how to deactivate bombs and had joined the military because “He was working for a furniture company and felt like he wasn’t going anywhere.” She added: 
 
 He felt he was in a rut. He wanted to travel, see the world. He also wanted an opportunity to serve the country. 
 
 Mrs. Pearson also said that the family initially assumed their son was safe, 
 
 But as they were driving home about 6:30 p.m., they received a call on their cell phone from Mike’s sergeant at Ft. Hood. Mike, he said, had been shot three times–in the spine and chest. He said Mike had lost a lot of blood. About 10 p.m., an Army surgeon called to say that Mike hadn’t made it. He said doctors had brought Mike back to life twice on the operating table but were unsuccessful the third time. “His father is still in shock and very angry,” Sheryll Pearson said. “We’re all very angry.” 
 
 The Pentagon Channel, a Department of Defense broadcaster, has posted video on its Web site of Thursday’s two news conferences at Fort Hood, both featuring the base commander, Gen. Robert Cone, who said in the first briefing that the suspected gunman, Major Nidal Hasan had been killed, and then corrected that statement in the second briefing. 
 
 Thursday afternoon news conference: 
 
 Thursday evening news conference: 
 
 Reporters in the Washington area, where Major Nidal Hasan, the suspected gunman, lived and worked before being sent to Fort Hood to prepare for his deployment to Afghanistan, have discovered that he prayed every day at the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring. Md. The Washington Post reports: 
 
 In an interview, his aunt, Noel Hasan of Falls Church, said he had endured name-calling and harassment about his Muslim faith for years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and had sought for several years to be discharged from the military. “I know what that is like,” she said. “Some people can take it, and some cannot. He had listened to all of that, and he wanted out of the military, and they would not let him leave even after he offered to repay” for his medical training. 
 
 My colleague Jennifer Preston put together a very useful a Twitter list on the Fort Hood shootings, which you can follow in the box at the upper right of this page. The list includes feeds from local news sites and even from the local hospital, Scott & White, which has also posted video of their Thursday evening news conference on YouTube. 
 
 In an interview with Matt Lauer on NBC Friday morning, Gen. Robert Cone, the Fort Hood commander, said that Major Hasan is in stable condition but has not yet been interrogated. Mr. Lauer said that a relative of one of the witnesses to the shooting said that Major Hasan shouted “Allahu akbar” (“God is great”) during the rampage. Gen. Cone said that “there are first-hand accounts here from soldiers that are similar to that.” 
 
 An article on the Web site of The Killeen Daily Herald notes that an Army spokesman confirmed at the morning news conference that Major Hasan “had been given orders for to deploy to Afghanistan.” The Daily Herald adds: 
 
 Army officials say the suspect, “the lone shooter” for this tragic incident, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, is currently on a ventilator at a nearby civilian hospital and the police officer who gunned him down, Kimberly Munley, a civilian Fort Hood police officer, is in stable condition. Col. Steven Braverman, Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center commander, said 90 percent of the families of victims have been notified thus far. All of the wounded are in stable condition. All victims were sent yesterday to Darnall and three other community hospitals. There were 12 soldiers and one civilian among the casualties. Braverman said Hasan was a psychiatrist who took care of soldiers with behavioral health problems. “We’re not aware of any problems he had at Fort Hood,” Braverman said this morning. He had no job performance problems at Darnall that are known at this time, he added. 
 
 Chris Haug, the chief of media relations at Fort Hood, points us to the Web site of the base newspaper, The Fort Hood Sentinel, which encourages soldiers and their families to call a family hotline for assistance. 
 
 A Twitter feed from a local newspaper, The Killeen Daily Herald — which you can follow in our Twitter module at the right of this page — reports that Army officials gave the identity of the female police officer who shot Major Hasan on the base, putting an end to rampage. Her name is Kimberly Munley. She is a civilian police officer who was wounded in an exchange of fire but is now in stable condition. 
 
 CNN has obtained this security-camera video from a 7-Eleven convenience store in Fort Hood, Texas, from the store owner who said that it shows the suspected gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, wearing traditional Arab clothing, at the counter at about 6:20 a.m. Thursday, local time (7:20 a.m. Eastern) — about seven hours before the mass shooting: 
 
 A news conference is underway at Fort Hood, where Major Nidal Hasan, an Army psychiatrist facing deployment to one of America‚Äôs war zones, killed 13 people and wounded 30 others on Thursday in a shooting rampage at the huge Army base in central Texas. 
 
 An Army spokesman, Col. John Rossi, told reporters that the military is still checking to see if the handguns the gunman used during the rampage were licensed or not. 
 
 Another Army spokesman, Col. Steven Braverman, the commander of the base’s hospital, said that there has been “an initial surge of behavioral health providers” to help soldiers deal with the trauma of the attack. The gunman, Major Hasan, was a psychiatrist who provided that sort of assistance to soldiers. Before his deployment to Fort Hood, he was a fellow at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress in Bethesda, Maryland. 
 
 The BBC published this video of Col. John Rossia speaking at the news conference. ||||| An Army psychiatrist who opened fire at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 12 people and wounding 31 others, was shot but captured alive, military officials said late Thursday. 
 
 The gunman, identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was wounded at the scene but was captured alive and was in stable condition, Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone, commanding general of the Army’s III Corps, said at a press conference late Thursday. 
 
 Eleven of the victims died at the scene, military officials said. A 12th died later at a hospital, NBC station KCEN-TV of Waco reported. Cone said that most of those who were shot were military but two were civilians. 
 
 Cone also said that a female officer who was thought to be the first responder shot Hasan and was herself wounded and had undergone surgery at a hospital. It was not clear if the officer was a military policewoman or a civilian officer. 
 
 Col. Ben Danner said the suspect was shot at least four times. "I would say his death is not imminent," Cone said, adding that Hasan was in custody at a hospital. 
 
 It initially was reported that Hasan had been killed at the scene. But Cone said at the press conference that Hasan had been in custody since the incident occurred, and there was no explanation of the earlier report. 
 
 Poor performance evaluation 
 
 U.S. officials said Hasan was an Army psychiatrist, NBC News reported. Defense officials said Hasan, 39, arrived at Fort Hood in July after practicing for six years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, which included a fellowship in disaster and preventive psychiatry. 
 
 At Walter Reed, Hasan received a poor performance evaluation, according to an official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly. 
 
 There was no official word on motive. But Hasan was scheduled to be deployed overseas on Nov. 28, officials said. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said military officials had told her that Hasan was “pretty upset” about his deployment, which she said was to be to Iraq. 
 
 Maj. Nidal Malik Hassan was described as ‘upset’ about his pending deployment to Iraq. 
 
 The Associated Press, quoting federal law enforcement officials, said 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 they were still trying to confirm that he was the author. 
 
 Medical records on file in Virginia, where Hasan was born and was registered to practice, and Maryland, where he received his medical degree at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, revealed no disciplinary actions or formal complaints. 
 
 Two handguns used 
 
 Cone said the gunman used two handguns. He said that military officials believed that there was a single shooter. 
 
 Two other soldiers were taken into custody after the shooting, but Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, said they were released. 
 
 A senior administration official told NBC News that the shootings could have been a criminal matter rather than a terrorism-related attack and that there was no intelligence to suggest a plot against Fort Hood. 
 
 Military and local hospital officials said the victims were a mixture of men and women, military and civilian. At least four local SWAT officers were among those wounded, KCEN reported. 
 
 ‘They shot me!’ 
 
 Among the wounded was Pfc. Keara Bono, 21, of Independence, Mo., who was shot in the shoulder. She called her mother, Peggy McCarty, to let her know she would be OK. 
 
 Bono, who works with soldiers dealing with stress, arrived in Fort Hood only Wednesday from her previous posting in Topeka, Kan., NBC station KSN-TV of Wichita, Kan., reported. Her brother, Dustin, told the Kansas City Star that Bono was “mad more than anything.” 
 
 “They shot me! And I’m still here in this country!” Dustin Bono quoted his sister as saying. 
 
 Robin Geiser of Random Lake, Wis., said her 24-year-old son, who commands soldiers at Fort Hood, knew some of the victims. He had been scheduled to be in the readiness center Thursday ahead of his deployment in January, but he was spared because his day’s orders were changed and he was on the training ground, instead, Geiser said. 
 
 “I was terrified come January,” Geiser told NBC station WTMJ-TV of Milwaukee. “I’m doubly worried now. If you can’t be safe here ...” 
 
 Geiser said that in conversations with her son, he told her that “there’s a lot of anger in a lot of these soldiers.” 
 
 “Who knows what it stems from?” she asked. 
 
 Reminders of 1991 massacre 
 
 Fort Hood, one of the largest military complexes in the world, was put on lockdown until about 7 p.m. ET, as were schools in the area. Dozens of agents of the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives responded to the post, federal officials said. 
 
 The base is surrounded by the town of Killeen, where a man shot and killed 23 people in a Luby’s restaurant in October 1991. 
 
 “Unfortunately, this is a day we had dreaded,” said Hilary Shine, a spokeswoman for the city of Killeen. “Every time you hear of a mass casualty situation in Killeen, you think of Luby’s. ... ||||| Twelve people have been killed and 30 wounded in a shooting spree at a Texas military post in a murderous rampage that officials believe was carried out by an Army psychiatrist who was about to be deployed to Iraq. 
 
 The suspected gunman was identified by ABC News as Major Nidal Malik Hasan. An Army official confirmed that Maj. Hasan would have been deployed to Iraq later this month. Sources tell ABC News that this would have been his first deployment. 
 
 The shooter 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 would not say what Hasan's medical condition was, but said the suspect was not in danger of dying. 
 
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 Hasan is not talking to authorities, said Cone. 
 
 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, Virginia 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 12 people on the post before he was shot several times. Among the wounded was a female police officer who exchanged gunfire with Hasan. 
 
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 Cone called the attack "a terrible tragedy, stunning." He said the community was "absolutely devastated." 
 
 " target="external">President Obama called the Fort Hood shootings a "horrific outburst of violence." 
 
 "It is difficult enough to lose soldiers overseas, but it is horrifying that they should lose their lives at an Army base in the U.S.," he said. 
 
 "My prayers are with the wounded and the families of the fallen," said the president. 
 
 The Senate and the House of Representatives held a moment of silence this evening for the victims of the Fort Hood massacre, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry ordered flags be flown at half mast until Sunday. 
 
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 Cone said the motive for the attack, which took place just after 1:30 p.m. CT, is unclear. While he said he could not rule out the incident as an act of terrorism, evidence does not support that theory. 
 
 Hasan's cousin Nader Hasan said that he believed it was his upcoming deployment combined with the wartime horror stories he heard from his patients that set him off. 
 
 Hasan had reportedly recently hired an attorney to help him get out of the military. 
 
 According to the suspect's cousin, Hasan was also harassed after 9/11 because of his ethnicity, and was called a "camel jockey." 
 
 According to sources, Hasan, who is either 39 or 40, attended the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, MD. He graduated in 2003 with a degree in Osteopathy and later finished his residency as a psychiatrist. 
 
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 In 2009, Hasan completed a fellowship in Disaster and Preventive Psychiatry at the Center for Traumatic Stress. 
 
 He was promoted to major status in May, according to the Army Times. 
 
 According to the Associated Press, Retired Army Col. Terry Lee told Fox News that Hasan had expressed hope that President Obama would pull troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq and often argued with others who supported the wars. 
 
 Fort Hood, located just 60 miles north from Austin, is the largest U.S. military installation in the world, and has suffered the greatest number of casualities of all American bases in the war on Iraq. 
 
 The base is a 340 sq. mile facility located in Killeen, Texas and is home to the 1st Cavalry Division, which was one of the first groups of soldiers deployed to Iraq. 
 
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 Cone said that a gunman entered a facility known as the Soldier Readiness Facility, where soldiers who are preparing to deploy go for last minute medical check ups and dental treatment. Sources told ABC News that the soldiers gathered there were getting ready to deploy to Iraq. 
 
 Thursday is a day that brings many different military units to the facility to make up miss appointments, said Cone, which explains why the victims were part of different branches. 
 
 "This could have been much worse, as horrible as this was, it could have been much worse," said Cone. 
 
 Cone praised the soldiers' quick response and knowledge of first aid techniques in saving so many lives. 
 
 The gunman used two handguns, Cone said. He wasn't sure if the shooter reloaded the weapons during the attack. 
 
 Cone said he did not believe the guns used were military weapons. 
 
 "As a matter of practice, we don't carry weapons here, this is our home," said Cone. 
 
 Fort Hood Went on Lockdown After 12 Shot Dead 
 
 Schools on the base were also placed on lockdown. A message on Fort Hood's public affairs office Web site read, "Organizations/units are instructed to execute a 100 percent accountability of all personnel. This is not a Drill. It is an Emergency Situation." 
 
 According to a source on the base, it is rare for firearms to be on the base because they are locked up. 
 
 Homeland Security said it is still gathering information and that the "Army is taking the lead" as of now. FBI agents from Waco and Austin, Texas, are being deployed to the scene. 
 
 An army spokesman said that unit commanders have been instructed to account for all of their personnel. 
 
 "The immediate concern is to make sure that all of our soldiers and family members are safe and that's what commanders have been instructed to do," said Jay Adams of First Army, Division West, located at Fort Hood. 
 
 Cone emphasized the post's plans to amp up security in the coming days. 
 
 The CounterTerrorist Unit said they have "no word" yet on whether this incident was terrorism-related. 
 
 At least six victims are being treated at the Metroplex Hospital five miles away. Area hospitals are all requesting blood donations to treat victims. 
 
 According to icasulaties.org, 483 soldier deaths from Fort Hood since war started. Fort Hood has suffered more deaths in Iraq than any other US home base. ||||| Military officials say the suspected shooter at Fort Hood was a psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for six years before being transferred to the Texas base in July. 
 
 The officials had access to Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's military record. They said he received a poor performance evaluation while at Walter Reed. 
 
 The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because military records are confidential. 
 
 The Virginia-born soldier was single with no children. He was 39 years old. 
 
 He is a graduate of Virginia Tech University, where he was a member of the ROTC and earned a bachelor's degree in biochemistry in 1997. He received his medical degree from the military's Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, in 2001. At Walter Reed, he did his internship, residency and a fellowship.
– The shooter in today's rampage at the Fort Hood Army base has been identified as Major Malik Nadal Hasan. He is described as an Army psychiatrist, 39, who was to be sent to Iraq on Nov. 28, reports ABC. Hasan was reported killed after opening fire at a soldier processing center, killing 11 others and wounding about 30—but since said to be in custody. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison says Hasan was "upset" at the prospect of being deployed to Iraq, notes NBC. Two soldiers remain in custody as suspects, and their role, if any, is unclear. Hasan came to the Texas base after 6 years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center—where, a source tells AP, he received a poor performance evaluation. Meanwhile, Josh Marshall writes that "The fact that the primary assailant has an Arabic name and is presumably, though we don't know this yet, of Muslim extraction if not a practicing Muslim, is going to be the focus of attention." But more surprising to Marshall, he adds on Talking Points Memo, is that he's not a young soldier but an Army major.