On trial at Fort Hood

The military trial of Maj. Nidal Hasan got underway at Fort Hood, Texas, this week, nearly four years after the Army psychiatrist went on a deadly rampage at the base, killing 12 U.S. soldiers and one civilian and injuring 32 others. “The evidence will clearly show that I am the shooter,” said Hasan, who is representing himself. Addressing a panel of 13 senior officers, Hasan, a U.S.-born Muslim of Palestinian descent, said he had found himself on the wrong side of a war against Islam and had switched over, carrying out the mass shooting three weeks before he was to deploy to Afghanistan. He took part in proceedings from his wheelchair, having been shot and paralyzed by police officers responding to the attack.

The trial follows months of legal wrangling and a change in judges after an unsuccessful effort to force Hasan to shave his beard, grown in violation of Army regulations. More than 30 survivors are expected to take the witness stand and could be cross-examined by the defendant, who faces the death sentence.

This trial is “a parade of embarrassments,” said Steve Huntley in the Chicago Sun-Times. Not only has Hasan been allowed to keep his beard, but he also stands accused not of terrorism or “combat-related” murder, but of “workplace violence.” That charge goes against all common sense, and cruelly denies his military victims Purple Hearts and his survivors better medical care. Hasan, meanwhile, “has been able to collect more than $300,000 in pay” since the attack.

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Even worse, the attack was preventable, said Michael Daly in TheDailyBeast.com. According to a lawsuit brought against the government, “the Army and the FBI ignored repeated warnings that an increasingly militant Hasan was bent on jihadist violence.” Hasan openly condemned soldiers as “war criminals” during their psychiatric treatment sessions, and was allowed to communicate with al Qaida leader Anwar al-Awlaki under some notion of research. “How nuts is that?”

It’ll be a historic trial, whatever the outcome, said Josh Voorhees in Slate.com. If convicted in a unanimous verdict, Hasan is destined to become the first American soldier in 52 years to be executed. But that verdict would probably trigger a lengthy appeals process “that could last more than a decade.”