Ft. Hood: Official Story Full of Holes

by Gregory Patin

Any topic that can be construed as a conspiracy theory is a writers' worst nightmare. That label has negative connotations and writing about anything that can be put in that category usually creates more problems than it is worth. It generates hate mail from both sides of the political spectrum and that is a headache that most writers would rather not deal with.

One of the ironies in dealing with the plethora of information that is available through print, television and electronic media is that it often does not add up and at times is contradictory. The more information there is, the more inconsistencies that can be found. That does not make any topic a conspiracy theory, it just makes it what it is...questionable. A good example is what allegedly happened at Ft. Hood last week.

For the record, any theories regarding what happened at Ft. Hood are up to readers to make. This commentary will not try to tell you what happened, but the information at hand does suggest what did not happen. Yet again it is the "official" story that should be questioned. You can come to your own conclusions. I must, however, start with a few conversations I have had with ex-military personnel since the incident.

After the horrible massacre at Ft. Hood, I spoke with a few people who served in the military. A retired army Capt. who served 7 years in the 173rd Airborne including time as a S-3 in a RSTA squadron said this: "There is no way a psychiatrist – basically an intellectual desk jockey – shot off hundreds of rounds with two pistols and hit about 40 people without being subdued by someone. Come on! He wasn't a trained assassin or a special ops commando shooting up a mall. He would have had to reload and that means putting one of the pistols down and reloading the other with seasoned combat vets in that deployment center. It only takes seconds to reload, but it only takes a second to subdue him."

A retired MP, Michael Martinez also said: "No way! That would be impossible. Even if he had two semi-auto pistols [according to early reports he used a 9mm and a .357 revolver to gun down over 40 people] he would still have had to stop to reload and someone would have jumped his ass. Most people on base aren't carrying [weapons], but MPs are and they would have been there in a heartbeat."

SFC Donald Buswell said, "I spent 10 years at Ft Hood. There is no way this 'official' story is legitimate. No way would a room full of combat vets allow this one shooter to get off over 100 rounds! And, it is not normal for the outside security guards to be there. They are at the MP station, and at the main gates. This means the room full of soldiers processing must have been pinned down; multiple shooters is the only plausible scenario. This sounds like Maj. Hasan has been used, and perhaps is a patsy."

Michael Gaddy, an army veteran of Vietnam, Beirut and Grenada writes: "The facts as presented by the Army and the media [about] the shooting at Fort Hood just don't compute. People on the ground have told me cell phone towers were jammed to prevent unauthorized dissemination of information after the shooting."

A look at these articles in chronological order paints a very confusing picture. I am not even going to speculate on what really happened at Ft. Hood, but my bovine excrement meter is maxing out at the official story. I encourage you to read and come to your own conclusions.

Lori Price, writing for Citizens for Legitimate Government, did an excellent job of compiling articles from the media that came out in the early moments and the aftermath of the shootings. Here are some of her articles as well as some that I have found.

Nov. 5, 2009: Lt. Gen. Bob Cone, the commander of III Corps, said that at least one gunman opened fire at the base's Soldiers Readiness Processing Center where soldiers were receiving medical and dental exams prior to deployment. The gunman's fire was returned (Cone did not say by whom) and the gunman was killed. "The shooter was killed. He was a soldier. We since then have apprehended two additional soldiers who are suspects, and I would go into the point that there were eyewitness accounts that there may have been more than one shooter."

Nov. 5, 2009: CNN reports that a senior officer who was playing golf near Fort Hood, Texas, told CNN he witnessed the arrest of one of the two surviving suspects of the shooting at the Army installation. After being told by MPs to clear the area, he ducked into a nearby house for cover as 30 to 40 cars carrying more MPs approached. He said he saw a soldier in battle-dress uniform, his hands in the air. The MPs ordered him to lie on the ground and open his uniform, presumably to ensure he was not carrying explosives, the senior officer said. He said an MP told him that authorities considered the man to be a suspect in the shootings after having overheard the man say he was with the shooter. The man was surrounded for 25 to 30 minutes, until a convoy of vehicles arrived, led by a Ford Crown Victoria and carrying men in suits, and he was taken away, the senior officer said.

Nov. 5, 2009: In an interview with Fox News, a man claiming to be the suspect's cousin, Nader Hasan, said that Major Hasan considered an upcoming deployment to Iraq "his worst nightmare." Nader Hasan added that his cousin wasn't violent, telling Fox News: "He wasn't somebody who even enjoyed going to the firing range." It was unclear whether Hasan acted alone. Lt. Gen. Cone said three soldiers who'd been taken into custody as possible accomplices had been released.

Nov. 5, 2009: Federal law enforcement officials say the suspected Ft. Hood shooter had come to their attention at least six months ago because of internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats. 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, Md., in 2001. At Walter Reed, he did his internship, residency and a fellowship.

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November 13, 2009

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