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Recently Nidal Hasan, a Palestinian-American, "tried to get out of the army because soldiers ridiculed him for being a Moslem and for his religious traditions," his cousin Mohammed told NBC's Jim Miklaszewski in an interview from his home on the West Bank. CBS' David Martin quoted from a police complaint Hasan filed at Fort Hood about his car being defaced and an Allah Is Love bumper sticker being torn off. ABC's Brian Ross added that "he complained of being harassed by other soldiers who, he said, called him a camel jockey. CBS' Dean Reynolds played convenience store security videotape obtained by CNN that showed Hasan wearing "devout Moslem clothing" when off duty. Yet ABC's Ross suggested that Hasan may not have been strictly observant: "He himself was counseled for alcoholism."
In the past week Hasan had been "giving away his furniture and copies of the Koran," to his neighbors, ABC's Ross added, "apparently disposing of his worldly goods." CBS' Martin quoted Hasan as "saying he did not need them any more." NBC's Miklaszewski picked up on the same behavior: "The day before the deadly rampage Hasan phoned a friend to say goodbye and gave a neighbor all his belongings including his Koran." "Should that have raised red flags?" asked CBS' Reynolds rhetorically. Whether these were the actions of a soldier about to go to war or a killer about to go on a shooting spree, how could anyone have known?
NBC's Lester Holt quoted the father of an eyewitness to the shooting asserting that his daughter heard Hasan exclaim Allah Akbar--"God Almighty"--as he opened fire. As a result of the shooting, NBC's Miklaszewski found army officials "concerned about a possible backlash against Moslems in the military." They are already a tiny minority, numbering just 4,000.
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