FORT HOOD — A string of witnesses in an evidentiary hearing identified Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan as the triggerman at a Fort Hood deployment center that left 45 dead and injured.
As his trial nears almost three years later, few here argue over his guilt. They wonder why a psychiatrist would gun down fellow soldiers.
Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock can explain it. He calls Hasan a domestic terrorist, something prosecutors have never claimed, and says those avoiding the term are indulging in political correctness.
“Believe me, my friend, if somebody had jumped up and said, ‘Praise God and Jesus Christ!’ and started shooting,” he said, “the headline would have said, ‘Christian right-wing zealot kills soldiers.’”
Prosecutors last week inched closer to branding Hasan a terrorist. They sought to put terrorism consultant Evan Kohlmann on a list of witnesses when Hasan’s capital murder trial starts next Monday.
Testifying Thursday via phone, Kohlmann said Hasan is like the other home-grown terrorists he has studied. The judge in the case, Col. Gregory Gross, hasn’t decided if Kohlmann will testify, but putting him on the stand raises the stakes for Hasan.
Prosecutors didn’t respond when asked why they wanted to bring Kohlmann into the trial, or if he’s to be used to help prove the attack was a terrorist act. However, retired Army Lt. Col. Geoffrey Corn said they could call him as a rebuttal witness during the trial’s sentencing phase if Hasan testifies or gives a statement.
Corn, a professor at South Texas College of Law in Houston who closely follows the case, also said it was telling the Army didn’t create a charge based on a belief that the shooting was a terrorist act — as it could have done.
“It’s an interesting policy debate, public debate, maybe political debate but from a legal perspective, predominantly a distraction,” he said. “A prosecutor’s job is to make things as clear and as simple as possible.”
Still, Carter and others, some of them Fort Hood troops, point to the start of the melee as proof that Hasan declared jihad when he opened fire on a crowded post deployment center on Nov. 5, 2009.
Witnesses say Hasan jumped on a desk and cried out, “Allahu Akbar!,” Arabic for God is great. They said he mowed down GIs with two handguns and extended-round clips.
