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Investigators believe Hasan acted alone

FORT HOOD, Texas (UPI) -- The massacre at Fort Hood, Texas, was not part of a terrorist plot, investigators have tentatively concluded.

But Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the U.S. Army psychiatrist accused in the shooting rampage, may have believed he was carrying out an extremist suicide mission, investigators told The New York Times reported Saturday.

Investigators said Hasan, 39, may have suffered emotional problems worsened by the stress of counseling returning veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress brought on by witnessing the horrors of war. The psychiatrist's work with veterans seems to have contributed to his anger and to his militant views as he adopted more extreme Islamic beliefs, investigators told the Times.

The investigators, the newspaper said, concluded such emotional, ideological and religious pressures appeared to "boil over" when Hasan was assigned to serve in Afghanistan. He has spoken openly about his opposition to U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Investigators who scoured Hasan's computer and interviewed family members, co-workers and neighbors focused on a key question: whether he had had contact with extremists. The investigators have found no evidence Hasan had e-mailed known terrorists or anyone who urged him to open fire at the military post or helped him plan the shootings, and he did not travel overseas to meet with extremists.

Hasan had visited Web sites that supported radical Islamic ideas and had e-mailed people with similar views and may have written postings, under his name, that indicated a favorable view of suicide attacks. But investigators remain uncertain whether he wrote the postings.

But a senior intelligence official, who requested anonymity, told the Times investigators knew of no co-conspirators. "Hasan is the only name that's emerged so far," the official said.

Fort Hood officials said Hasan opened fire Thursday, killing 13 people and wounding more than 30.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

This news arrived on: 11/08/2009

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