The Army noted that Major Hasan had no appointments in Fort Hood's Soldier Readiness last Thursday. As such, the charges levied against him are premeditated murder. The maximum sentence is death; the minimum is life in prison without possibility of parole.
In another development in the Fort Hood story, the Fort Hood heroine, Fort Hood police Sgt. Kimberly Munley, 34, appears to not be the person who shot Hasan, after all. Rather, it appears, and has been confirmed by an independent witness, that her partner, Sgt. Mark Todd, is the one who shot Hasan.
According to reports, both Munley and Todd were chasing Hasan. When they rounded a corner, Hasan was there, and shot Munley. Todd came upon the scene, and ended it, shooting Hasan four times.
It's unclear why this took so long to come to light, and also unclear why Munley did not correct the perception that she was the heroine.
While recent reports have noted that Hasan was performing poorly in his job and studies, and yet was not subjected to a medical evaluation, it's also true that Hasan contacted a known Islamist sympathetic to Al Qaeda. The questions, when his trial begins, will be was Hasan mentally ill at the time of his rampage. Or, instead of that, was Hasan a terrorist?
Posted November 13th, 2009 by Michael Santo
