Nidal Malik Hasan, Suspected Fort Hood Shooter, Was Called "Camel Jockey"
Fort Hood Shooting Suspect Harassed By Others In Military and Wanted Out, Family Said
By BRIAN ROSS, JOSEPH RHEE, ANNA SCHECTER, AVNI PATEL, ETHAN NELSON, and DESIREE ADIB
Nov. 6, 2009 —
Fort Hood shooting suspect, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, wanted out of the Army after being constantly harassed by others in the military and was called a "camel jockey," his family said.
As Hasan was about to be deployed to Iraq, he was suffering from some of the same stresses that he was trained as an Army psychiatrist to treat.
Although the 39-year-old had just been promoted to major in May, his family says he had hired a lawyer to help him get out of the Armed Forces.
"Apparently became very disgruntled in the mission in Iraq and Afghanistan and voiced that to a lot of his colleagues," said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX).
He also voiced it to the world in an Internet posting, where he compared suicide bombers to GI's who save their colleagues by throwing themselves on a grenade.
"Just keep in mind mass killers pretty much know they want to die and they tend to take as many people with them as they can in a shooting," said former FBI agent and ABC News consultant Brad Garrett, who also believes Hasan didn't want to survive the Ft. Hood shooting.
"It is one of those things where he went and wanted to kill a lot of people and commit suicide maybe in his own mind that he's saving peoples' lives," said Garrett. "As illogical as that sounds, in his mind, that would be quite logical."
Hasan is an American citizen of Palestinian descent and after the 9/11 attacks, his cousin says he was the target of constant harassment from others in the military. His tormentors called him a "camel jockey," said his cousin, Nader Hasan. He wanted out of the Army, so he paid back his military student loans and hired an attorney.
While the bullying irritated Hasan, Nader Hasan believes his upcoming deployment is what set him off. The cousin said, "My mom is his mom… and we didn't know he was being deployed until we heard it on the news today."
Hasan went to college at Virginia Tech and studied medicine at the military's medical school.
A Silver Spring, MD neighbor told ABC News she was interviewed Thursday by the FBI about Hasan.
"He's a quiet man, he looked like a nice person to me, so since I have been living here I never heard a noise in that house," said Vivian Tchangan, who added that Hasan wrote "Allah" on his door.
A devout Muslim, Hasan described himself as reserved and funny in an application for a Muslim marriage matchmaking program run by Imam Faizul Khan or the Islamic Society of Washington Area.
Khan told ABC News Hasan was looking for an equally devout wife. He said, "He wants someone who prays everyday, who adheres to the Quran, who is a good muslim woman."
According to military records, Hasan worked as a psychiatrist at the Walter Reed military hospital for six years until this July. Congressman McCaul says Hasan had a poor performance evaluation at Walter Reed, which resulted in his transfer to Ft. Hood and "while there received a lot of advanced training in weapons, shooting classes."