FORT HOOD, Texas, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- An Army psychiatrist accused of killing 12 people at Fort Hood, Texas, feared going to Iraq and resented being harassed for being Muslim, his relatives said.
Possible motives for the Thursday massacre, which also left 31 wounded at the sprawling Army base, remained elusive as a sketchy, often puzzling portrait of the alleged shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, began to emerge.
Hasan, 39, had spent more than half his life in the military. He signed up for the Army out of high school, over his parents' objections, after growing up in Arlington, Va., and the military paid his way through college and medical school, family members said.
Yet by Thursday, he had spoken openly against the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and appeared to want out of the military desperately.
His aunt, Noel Hasan of Falls Church, Va., told The Washington Post he had been harassed about his Muslim faith since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and had sought a discharge from the Army for several years.
"Some people can take it, and some cannot," she said. "He had listened to all of that (harassment), and he wanted out of the military, and they would not let him leave even after he offered to repay" for his medical training.
Hasan graduated in 1997 from Virginia Tech University, where he was an ROTC member, and received his medical degree at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. He completed his residency at Walter Reed Medical Center and worked there until being transferred to Hood this year.
CNN, citing military records, said he had received a poor performance evaluation at Reed.
His aunt said Hasan, who is single and has no children, is a devout Muslim who prayed daily at a Maryland mosque while at Reed.
"He must have snapped," the aunt said.
She said Hasan had consulted with an attorney about getting out of the service. An Army spokesman could not confirm the discharge request.
Nader Hasan told Fox News his cousin, who specialized in treating post-traumatic stress, had turned against the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan after hearing stories of those who returned from service in those countries.
Nader Hasan released a statement on behalf of the family Thursday night, saying: "We are shocked and saddened by the terrible events at Fort Hood today. …We are filled with grief for the families of today's victims."
The FBI became familiar with the name Nidal Hasan after Internet postings by someone using that name discussed suicide bombings, The New York Times and CNN reported.
"If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off guard, that would be considered a strategic victory," the man wrote, The Times said.
The newspaper stressed it could not confirm the writer was Maj. Hasan.
About six months ago, CNN said, the FBI began looking at the postings under the name Nidal Hasan on a site called "Martyrdom in Islam," which reportedly discussed suicide bombings favorably.
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, told CNN she had been informed by a military source Hasan had targeted specific individuals in the attack.
The military stressed the investigation into the shootings remains preliminary and no one should rush to judgment about motives.
Thursday night, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the Fort Hood shootings as a "cowardly attack."
"No religious or political ideology could ever justify or excuse such wanton and indiscriminate violence," the council said in a statement. "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."
