Third Anniversary of the Fort Hood Shooting

November 5th marks the third anniversary of the tragedy at Fort Hood in which a single suspect, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, is accused of killing 13 Soldiers and civilian employees and wounding a further 29. This attack is still officially considered by the Department of Defense as an act of workplace violence, although some research organizations include it and the 2009 Little Rock recruiting office shootings as acts of terrorism. See, for example, the Bipartisan Policy Center's 2010 report entitled, "Assessing the Terrorist Threat". One of the main points in the push to have the attack classified as an act of terrorism is that Hassan allegedly had been in contact with al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki between December 2008 and June 2009, and he had reportedly asked for religious clarification such as whether one who "died while attacking fellow soldiers" would qualify for martyrdom. The Senate's Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs conducted hearings into the relationship between Hasan and al-Awlaki in February 2011. An in-depth profile of al-Awlaki from the Naval Postgraduate School can be accessed here.

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