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(CNN) -- Eleven people plus a gunman were dead and 31 wounded after the gunman opened fire Thursday on a soldier-processing center at Fort Hood, Texas, officials said.

The gunman was a soldier, and two other soldiers have been detained as suspects, Army Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said.

The slain gunman was Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan, according to a law enforcement source. The source believes he is 39 or 40 years old.

Ten of the other dead also were soldiers, while the remaining one was a civilian police officer who was working as a contractor on the base, Cone said.

Two of the injured were in "very serious" condition, Fort Hood spokesman Christopher Hogue said.

More than one shooter may have been involved, Cone said.

"All the casualties took place at the initial incident, that took place at 13:30 [1:30 p.m. CT], at the soldier readiness facility," Cone said.

The primary shooter had two weapons, both handguns, he said.

"The local police response forces were there relatively quickly and killed the confirmed shooter," Cone said.

President Obama called the shootings "tragic" and "a horrific outburst of violence." He expressed his condolences for the shooting victims.

"These are men and women who have made the selfless and courageous decision to risk, and at times give, their lives to protect the rest of us on a daily basis," Obama said. "It's difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas. It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil."

Officials at Fort Hood, which is the Army's largest U.S. post, were asking people there to stay away from windows, CNN affiliate KXXV said. The incident took place at the sports dome, now known as the soldier readiness area, the station reported.

A congressional aide said he was on the post to attend a graduation service when he saw a soldier with blood on his uniform near the building where the service was being held, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

Greg Schannep, an aide to U.S. Rep. John Carter, said the soldier ran past him and said a man was shooting. He said the soldier appeared to be injured in a shoulder, the American-Statesman reported.

FBI agents are headed to the scene to assist, said Erik Vasys, spokesman for the FBI office in San Antonio. He had no other details.

On the Fort Hood Web site, the word "closed" is posted with the statement, "Effective immediately, Fort Hood is closed. Organizations/units are instructed to execute a 100 percent accountability of all personnel."

Fort Hood, with about 40,000 troops, is home to the Army's 1st Cavalry Division and elements of the 4th Infantry Division, as well as the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and the 13th Corps Support Command. It is located near Killeen, Texas.

At least 25,000 people are at Fort Hood on any given day, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon said.

Fort Hood is home to the Warrior Combat Stress Reset Program, which is designed to help soldiers overcome combat stress issues.

In June, Fort Hood's commander, Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch, told CNN that he was trying to ease the kind of stresses soldiers face. He has pushed for soldiers working a day schedule to return home for dinner by 6 p.m., and required his personal authorization for anyone working weekends. At the time, two soldiers stationed there had committed suicide in 2009 -- a rate well below those of other posts.

"He said, 'Maybe the Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor." At first we thought he was talking about how Muslims should stand up and help the armed forces in Iraq and in Afghanistan, but apparently that wasn't the case."

"He would make comments to other individuals about how we should not be in the war in the first place… He made those comments and he stuck strongly to his faith, but, as soldiers we have a duty to follow orders from our commander in chief and our political views are set aside."

"He was hoping that President Obama would pull troops out. ... When things weren't going that way he became more agitated, more frustrated with the conflicts over there. ... He made his views well known about how he felt about the U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the suspect in last week's mass shooting at the Fort Hood Army Post, is conscious and talking, according to a spokesman for the Army hospital where he is being treated.

Authorities have not identified a motive in Thursday's attack that left 13 dead and 42 others wounded.

Hasan, a 39-year-old licensed Army psychiatrist who worked at a hospital on the post, has been identified as the suspected shooter. He was shot several times after the attack. On Sunday, he was listed in critical but stable condition and in intensive care at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Hasan's ventilator was removed over the weekend, and he began talking afterward, hospital spokesman Dewey Mitchell said. He is speaking with hospital staff, but Mitchell was unable to say whether Hasan has been speaking with Army investigators.

The development comes a day after Army investigators asked troops and civilians for help gathering clues about the shooting, saying some who fled the gunfire might have evidence.

"The Fort Hood office of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command is seeking any military or civilian personnel who may have left the scene ... with gunshot damage such as damaged privately owned vehicles, personal clothing, etc.," investigators said in a written statement. "CID is also seeking any military or civilian personnel who may have inadvertently left the scene of this incident with material that could be used as firearms residue-related evidence such as shell casings inside the boot, etc."

The statement said such objects would help Army investigators and the FBI "in their bullet trajectory analysis of the scene, to insure the comprehensiveness of the ongoing investigation."

Among the wounded in the shooting was Pvt. Joseph Foster, 21, who was hit in the hip as he sat at the base's military processing center, preparing paperwork for his January deployment to Afghanistan.

He said he "was sitting in about the second row back when the assailant stood up and yelled 'Allahu akbar' in Arabic and he opened fire," Foster said Monday on CNN's "American Morning."

Foster, 21, said he wasn't clear about whether the gunman said those exact words, noting that "with that much adrenaline, you tend to forget things."

Army officials have voiced concern about jumping to any conclusions about the gunman's motive, warning about a possible backlash against Muslim soldiers. Other bystanders have reported that Hasan shouted the phrase, which is Arabic for "God is great" and has been used by terrorists as a battle cry.

As of Monday, 15 gunshot victims remained hospitalized, including eight patients in intensive care, Fort Hood commander Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said.

The Army leadership at Fort Hood will "take a very hard look at ourselves and look at anything that might have been done to have prevented this," he said at a news conference.

"Hasan was a soldier, and we have other soldiers ... that might have some of the same stress and indicators that he has," Cone said. "We have to look across our entire formation, not just in a medical community, but really look hard to our right and left. That's the responsibility for everybody, from the top to the bottom, to make sure we're taking care of our own."

Cone said Monday that he has instructed commanders at Fort Hood to "immediately take a hard look and make sure if there's anybody out there struggling [that] we're going to address their issues."

Authorities have not identified a motive in the attack at the processing center, where soldiers report before they head to war.

Efforts to assist those affected by the incident, including family members of soldiers at the post, were ongoing, spokesman Col. John Rossi said. Fort Hood was awaiting the arrival of two specialists in child psychology and disaster management, he said. "This is not just for those directly affected by this tragedy," Rossi said, noting that effects from trauma sometimes are not immediately apparent.

However, he said, soldiers are trained to respond to violence by controlling and securing the scene.

"Their training kicks in, and that's what we saw," Rossi said. "The troubling part of it is it happened here in our own house."

Army Criminal Investigation Command spokesman Chris Grey said Saturday that all evidence indicates that the suspect acted alone and there was no indication of "friendly fire."

The processing center has been moved to another location so its work can continue while investigators work at the crime scene, Rossi said Sunday.

He told reporters he did not know Hasan's schedule on the day of the shooting, but "my understanding is that there was no purpose for him" to be in the processing center.

Rossi said he had visited with Fort Hood Police Sgt. Kimberly Munley -- the civilian officer who confronted and disabled Hasan in a shootout -- and with an injured soldier.

"Truthfully, it was an honor just to be in their presence," he said. But, he said, "I cannot tell you how many times they reiterated to me that this is not about them."

Munley has drawn national praise for her actions. Her husband has been brought in from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to be with her, Rossi said. In a statement Saturday, Munley's family said she had undergone a second surgery and was in good condition.

The suspect's brother, Eyad Hasan, released a statement Saturday saying the family was in a "state of shock and disbelief over this dreadful news."

He wrote, "I've known my brother Nidal to be a peaceful, loving and compassionate person who has shown great interest in the medical field and in helping others. He has never committed an act of violence and was always known to be a good, law-abiding citizen."

Eyad Hasan said the family has faith in the legal system.

An earlier statement from another family member said Hasan, a U.S.-born citizen of Palestinian descent, had been telling his family that he wanted to get out of the military but had been unsuccessful in doing so.

Rossi said Saturday that Hasan had a late November deployment date to Afghanistan. It was to have been his first overseas deployment.

President Obama will speak at Tuesday's memorial service for the shooting victims at Fort Hood, and will meet with victims' families, his spokesman said.

"The president will meet with families of those that lost a loved one last week, as well as speak to the larger memorial that will take place at the base," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in his daily briefing Monday.

First lady Michelle Obama will accompany the president on the trip, Gibbs said.

U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News.
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Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan tried to make contact with people linked to al Qaeda.

According to the officials, the Army was informed of Hasan's contact, but it is unclear what, if anything, the Army did in response.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said that he requested the CIA and other intelligence agencies brief the committee on what was known, if anything, about Hasan by the U.S. intelligence community, only to be refused.

In response, Hoekstra issued a document preservation request to four intelligence agencies. The letter, dated November 7th, was sent to directors Dennis Blair (DNI), Robert Mueller (FBI), Lt. Gen Keith Alexander (NSA) and Leon Panetta (CIA).

Hoekstra said he is "absolutely furious" that the house intel committee has been refused an intelligence briefing by the DNI or CIA on Hasan's attempt to reach out to al Qaeda, as first reported by ABC News.

"This is a law enforcement investigation, in which other agencies—not the CIA—have the lead," CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said in a response to ABC News. " Any suggestion that the CIA refused to brief Congress is incorrect."

Investigators want to know if Hasan maintained contact with a radical mosque leader from Virginia, Anwar al Awlaki, who now lives in Yemen and runs a web site that promotes jihad around the world against the U.S.

In a blog posting early Monday titled "Nidal Hassan Did the Right Thing," Awlaki calls Hasan a "hero" and a "man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people."

According to his site, Awlaki served as an imam in Denver, San Diego and Falls Church, Virginia.

The Associated Press reported Sunday that Major Hasan attended the Falls Church mosque when Awlaki was there.

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The Telegraph of London reported that Awlaki had made contact with two of the 9/11 hijackers when he was in San Diego.

He denied any knowledge of the hijacking plot and was never charged with any crime. After an intensive investigation by the FBI , Awlaki moved to Yemen.

People who knew or worked with Hasan say he seemed to have gradually become more radical in his disapproval of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

On Sunday, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) called for an investigation into whether the Army missed signs as to whether Hasan was an Islamic extremist.

"If Hasan was showing signs, saying to people that he had become an Islamist extremist, the U.S. Army has to have a zero tolerance," Lieberman told Fox News Sunday.

A fellow Army doctor who studied with Hasan, Val Finell, told ABC News, "He would frequently say he was a Muslim first and an American second. And that came out in just about everything he did at the University."

Finell said he and other Army doctors complained to superiors about Hasan's statements.

"And we questioned how somebody could take an oath of office…be an officer in the military and swear allegiance to the constitution and to defend America against all enemies, foreign and domestic and have that type of conflict," Finell told ABC News.

Smirking Chimp wrote:I don't want to go too deep down the Fort Hood Rabbit Hole Of Weirdness, so I'm just going to get off my chest some of the incredibly weird shit that's being thrown around in the media to confuse us or throw us off. It's looking pretty clearly like there’s a cover-up in progress, and not a very professional cover-up either. But the sad thing is that all the confusion and bullshit thrown our way will probably succeed in its goal of steering the public away from whatever it is the military doesn’t want us to find out about the shooting massacre.

Anyway, here's my list of The Top Twelve Disinformation Tales to keep an eye on:

1. A ridiculous story planted in London's Daily Telegraph makes Hasan out to be an old pal of the 9/11 terrorists. The Telegraph also reported that a mysterious Arab-looking visitor came to Hasan's apartment 2 days before the shooting, like something out of a bad TV show:

“It was very unusual because he had never had anyone round before. He had long black hair and a moustache and a dark complexion."

frigidmagi wrote:Yes a conspiracy theory blog should defintely outweigh actual news sights! Sorry Sweepy, but no, this is just 'OMG I don't trust them over there!' I'm still leaning on there being a religious element to this. He could have been just popping off from stress, that happens, but more often then not folks who do that just eat their gun (look at how suicide rates have gone up for the military since Jr committed us to 2 wars without any support). Then there's the fact that these things are showing up at different news stations. Alot of the stuff being brought up is crap. I won't deny that. Enough of it isn't and the conspiracy scream up there seems to be mostly made of knee jerk distrust.

Reporting from Al Birah, West Bank - When Rafik Ismail Hamad last traveled from the West Bank to visit relatives in the United States, he was struck by the pressures one of his nephews was facing.

The younger man, a U.S.-born Muslim of Palestinian descent, spoke to his uncle of ethnic taunts by Army colleagues. A sensitive man, he was haunted by the wartime disabilities of soldiers he treated as an Army psychiatrist, Hamad recalled, and was overwhelmed by a growing caseload he felt unable to manage.

Late Thursday, Hamad was home in the West Bank town of Al Birah when he heard the news on television: A gunman in Ft. Hood, Texas, had killed at least a dozen people, and his nephew, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, was being accused of the horrific attack.

"The whole family is in a state of denial," Hamad said Saturday. "We don't believe he is capable of doing something like that. I was amazed and shocked, because it's not him. He's very quiet, gentle.

"Maybe it built up together -- the harassment, too many patients, the workload, the tragedies his patients brought to him," said the 65-year-old retired real estate broker. "Whatever it was, it must have been big pressure, something terrible he couldn't handle."

Hamad and another West Bank relative, Mohammed Munif Hasan, said they learned recently that Maj. Hasan had consulted a lawyer about securing a discharge from the Army.

Hamad said he had not seen or spoken to his nephew since that visit in the early part of last year, when Maj. Hasan was stationed in Washington. But the West Bank branch of the family had kept up with him through relatives in the United States.

The major's octogenarian maternal grandparents, Salha and Ismail Hamad, live in Al Birah with Rafik Hamad, their son. In an interview outside the family's three-story apartment building, he declined to make his parents available to reporters.

Rafik Hamad, a heavyset man with a trim white beard, described his nephew as a gentle soul who once, as a young adult, mourned for three months after rolling over during a nap and crushing his pet parakeet. During medical school, his uncle said, Hasan switched his major to psychiatry after fainting at the sight of blood while delivering a baby.

The young man became more religious after the death of his parents, who were Muslims but not observant, Hamad said. He noticed the change during the visit last year, when his nephew urged him to accompany him to pray at a mosque.

His turn to religion had nothing to do with political identity, Hamad and other West Bank relatives said. He never traveled outside the United States except for two brief visits to the West Bank, the last more than a decade ago, they said.

"He never knew anything about politics," Hamad said. "He didn't know who is the president or the king of any Arab country. He's American. . . . He once told me, 'The chances I have in the United States I couldn't have in any other country in the world, so I appreciate what this country has done for me.' "

Hamad said that although his nephew complained last year about ethnic slurs, he appeared to be handling them well.

Fellow soldiers once handed him a diaper and told him to wear it around his head, the uncle said; another time they sketched a camel on a piece of paper and left it on his car with a note that said, "Here's your ride."

"He told me: 'They're ignorant. I'm more American than they are. I help my country more than they do. And I don't care what they say.' He felt sorry for them. He didn't feel grudges; he felt sympathy."

Hamad said that during their time together last year, the major seemed more afflicted by his caseload of physically disabled and traumatized war veterans.

"He didn't have time even to breathe," Hamad said. "Too much pressure, too many patients, not enough staff. He would say, 'I don't know how to treat them or what to tell them,' because he didn't have enough time. They just kept coming one after the other.

"Sometimes he cried because of what happened to them. How young they are, what's going to happen to the rest of their lives. They're going to be handicapped; they're going to be crazy. He was very, very sensitive."

Mohammed Munif Hasan, 24, a cousin of the major, said he heard the same story from relatives in the U.S.

Maj. Hasan brought his caseload home, he said, seeing patients at his house when the clinic wasn't open.

"He was a good doctor, and he liked working with soldiers and helping them," Mohammed Hasan said as he absorbed the news of the shooting. "We're the first to wonder how he could have done something like this. It's baffling."

The uncle said: "I think he snapped. Something big happened and he snapped."

Hasan is in a coma after being shot during the attack, and his West Bank relatives said they were uncertain whether they would travel to Texas.

"I'd like to go visit the families [of the shooting victims] and apologize to them and give them my sympathies," Hamad said.

"But for him, I don't know what I can do. If he wakes up, I want to ask him, 'Did you do it, and why?' I want to know. Otherwise, I have nothing to say to him."

frigidmagi wrote:Depends what you mean as home grown terrorism. Keep in mind the KKK qualify as terrorist. You can operate alone or in a small group (D.C Sniper much?) but if you're committing these kind of acts for political or religious ends it's terrorism. That's why an abortion bombing by a radical fundamentalist is a terror attack. That's why a lynching is a terror attack. Most abortion bombers or shooters tend to act alone. They're still terrorist.

frigidmagi wrote:That said, it isn't impossible that he has grown more sympathetic to extremist views, especially given some events (there's a certain prison in Iraq that springs to mind). I could be totally wrong but bluntly I'm pretty sure that the fact that he was a Muslim played a role here.

frigidmagi wrote:One: Preventing a replay. Either by finding people like him and removing them from the field of play before they kill anyone or changing the conditions that led to this and therefore getting rid of the possibility of making more of him.
Two: Keeping this from splashing all over the other Muslim Soldiers, Marines, Airmen and Seamen out there. Troops should catch shit for someone else's deeds.