Less than a year later, officials say Abdo has admitted planning to launch another attack on Fort Hood with a bomb in a backpack and weapons stashed in a motel room where he was arrested Wednesday, about 3 miles from the Texas Army base's main gate.

The 21-year-old's writings, including the essay obtained by The Associated Press in which he deplored the 2009 shootings, portray a devout infantry soldier struggling with his faith while facing the prospect of deployment and what he felt was the scorn of his peers.

"Overall, as a Muslim I feel that I will not be able to carry out my military duties due to my conscientious objection," Abdo wrote in his application for the status. "Therefore, unless I separate myself from the military, I would potentially be putting the soldiers I work with in jeopardy.

"In this instance, I would be failing in my duty to my unit, my army and my god."

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There is, for example, Charles Krauthammer's classic column on Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood. Krauthammer is a former practicing psychologist -- he's also a former practicing liberal -- and he used his considerable skill to argue that because he did not think Hasan was crazy, to call him crazy was dastardly political correctness. The correct diagnosis, according to Krauthammer, was that Hasan was a Muslim. He was driven to kill by Extremist Islamic rhetoric. He had, after all, e-mailed Anwar al-Awlaki, who sympathizes with al-Qaeda. He had even said frankly nutty things to his colleagues about nonbelievers having hot oil poured down their throats.

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Pvt. Justin Johnson said he was chatting with his mother on his cell phone as he waited to undergo pre-deployment medical exams when the shooting began. He threw himself down and started to crawl.

The gunman "was aiming his weapon on the ground and he started shooting, and he was hitting people that were trying to get away," Johnson told the Article 32 hearing via video link from Kandahar in Afghanistan.

"It didn't seem like he was targeting a specific person, sir. He was just shooting at anybody."

Johnson, who was shot three times in the attack and still has a bullet wedged in his lungs, could not identify the shooter.

In the first week of testimony, several witnesses said they made eye contact with Maj. Nidal Hasan, a 40-year-old American-born Muslim, and identified him as the gunman in the Nov. 5 shootings at the Texas Army post.

The hearing is to determine if Hasan will stand trial on 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the worst attack on an American military base.

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An Article 32 hearing, which starts Tuesday in military court and is expected to last at least three weeks, will determine whether there is enough evidence to put the Army psychiatrist on trial. It will also be the first time witnesses have testified about the worst-ever shooting on a U.S. military base.

Such hearings are unique to military court, where prosecutors and the defense can call witnesses, and both sides are able to question them and present other evidence.

Hasan, 40, is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. When the proceeding begins, he will be sitting just a few feet from the witnesses, who are expected to describe graphic details of the attack.

The shootings happened on a sunny autumn day at Fort Hood, one of the nation's largest Army posts. About 300 people were in the Soldier Readiness Processing Center, a facility where soldiers must go before they are deployed to update vaccinations, get vision and dental screenings, finalize their wills or sign up to talk to a chaplain.

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The probe is still in the planning stages, but would be a broad examination beyond the particulars of Army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan, officials said. Defense Secretary Robert Gates wants a unified probe that hits all corners of the Pentagon, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said.

"This is shaping up to be a DoD effort," Morrell said, using shorthand for the Department of Defense.

"This is larger than the Army. There are issues that need to be looked at department-wide, and the focus at this point is trying to figure out some of those questions," he added.

The investigation would consider some questions Morrell described as immediate, although he would not be specific, and some he said will take longer to frame and sort through.

Another official said there will be a fast look at whether the military has missed red flags that might signal there are other potentially dangerous service members out there. That official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still being organized.

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They weren't talking about Marines suffering from a tangle of mental and religious angst, like news reports suggest haunted the alleged Fort Hood shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. The risk they reported at Camp Lejeune was broader and systemic. Upon returning home, troops suffering mental health problems were getting dumped into an overwhelmed healthcare system that responded ineptly to their crises, the men reported, and they also faced harassment from Marine Corps superiors ignorant of the severity of their problems and disdainful of those who sought psychiatric help.

As Dr. Kernan Manion investigated the two Marines' claims about conditions at the North Carolina military base, the largest Marine base on the East Coast, he found they were true. Manion, a psychiatrist hired last January to treat Marines coming home from war with acute mental problems, warned his superiors of looming trouble at Camp Lejeune in a series of increasingly urgent memos.

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The fact that it was first incorrectly reported that Hasan died in the shootings, and that he was in cahoots with other perpetrators, may well be fairly chalked up to confusion during that first chaotic day. Other details, however, continue to unravel a week later. The media debate provoked by the Hasan incident is equally off-topic and unreliable. As someone who's been asked to talk about the shootings because of my work covering the poor psychological care given to returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, I've had a front-row seat on the way preconceived biases are distorting the debate.

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I will admit that as soon as I learned about Velez's death, I gasped. There is something especially tragic about a pregnant woman -- someone who ideally embodies all of the hope and idealism of bringing a new life into the world -- being senselessly gunned down. Upon hearing the news my imagination went wild conjuring up the joy of a soon-to-be father and expectant grandparents, and all of the potential they imagined within the fetus growing inside Velez. Then I pictured the family mourning the death of both this 21-year-old woman, a baby herself in the grand scheme of things, and her unborn offspring.

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Of course, you could always just cut off my microphone if you don't like what I have to say about that. It worked today.

(I didn't know who Ingraham was either. She is a right-wing radio host, sort of a poor man's Ann Coulter. I say poor man's Ann Coulter because, for example, earlier on Tuesday Ingraham's Web site featured photos of Nancy Pelosi and Steven Tyler side-by-side, with a caption that reads, 'Separated at Birth?' That's so funny. Get it? Nancy Pelosi looks like a man!)

Laura outlined my role as Straw Man within minutes of my picking up the phone for the interview. My part, it seemed, was to play the lefty who denied that Muslim extremism might have played a role in the motivation behind the Fort Hood massacre. I was the guy arguing that as an Army psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan suffered stress from counseling soldiers back from war and he snapped, simple as that.

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President Obama went to Fort Hood Tuesday in order to speak at a memorial service for the 13 people killed in the attack that happened at the Army post last week.

"This is a time of war. And yet these Americans did not die on a foreign field of battle. They were killed here, on American soil, in the heart of this great American community. It is this fact that makes the tragedy even more painful and even more incomprehensible," Obama told the grieving family members who'd come to the service, according to prepared remarks released by the White House.

"But here is what you must also know: your loved ones endure through the life of our nation. Their memory will be honored in the places they lived and by the people they touched. Their life’s work is our security, and the freedom that we too often take for granted. Every evening that the sun sets on a tranquil town; every dawn that a flag is unfurled; every moment that an American enjoys life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness -- that is their legacy."

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After the shooting, the FBI is doing a new assessment -- of its own conduct.

The Army psychiatrist is believed to have acted alone despite repeated communications -- intercepted by authorities -- with a radical imam overseas, U.S. officials said Monday. The FBI will conduct an internal review to see whether it mishandled early information about the man accused in the bloody rampage that killed 13 people and wounded 29.

President Barack Obama was joining grieving families and comrades of the victims Tuesday at a memorial service at the sprawling Texas Army base. Hasan, awake and talking to doctors, met his lawyer Monday in the San Antonio hospital where he is recovering, under guard, from gunshot wounds in the assault.

In Washington, an investigative official and a Republican lawmaker said Hasan had communicated 10 to 20 times with Anwar al-Awlaki, an imam released from a Yemeni jail last year who has used his personal Web site to encourage Muslims across the world to kill U.S. troops in Iraq. Despite that, no formal investigation was opened into Hasan, they said.

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Recent acts of mass violence have pitted liberals and conservatives against one another. Both sides have argued that the killers' ideologically laced statements prove the bankruptcy of the others' political views. Neither side, however, seems to understand or appreciate the deep psychosis that causes acts of mass violence.

While mass murderers often embrace extreme political or religious views, mental illness makes them susceptible to extremism in the first place. According to Dr. Steven Dinwiddie, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at the University of Chicago, commentators who blame religious zealotry for Hasan's killing spree miss the mark. Dinwiddie says:

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Was there a lesson here about women in combat, for instance, as Gawker asked? No, probably not. It wasn't military combat, for one thing, and one exceptional woman -- whether she's exceptionally good or bad at her job -- doesn't teach us squat about women in general. And without something more to add, it seemed almost unseemly for a feminist blog to call attention to Munley's gender as a story in itself. Aren't we all supposed to be beyond surprise that a woman can kick ass by now?

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In the months leading to Thursday's shooting spree that left 13 people dead and 29 others wounded, Hasan raised eyebrows with comments that the war on terror was "a war on Islam" and wrestled with what to tell fellow Muslim solders who had their doubts about fighting in Islamic countries.

"The system is not doing what it's supposed to do," said Dr. Val Finnell, who complained to administrators at a military university about what he considered Hasan's "anti-American" rants. "He at least should have been confronted about these beliefs, told to cease and desist, and to shape up or ship out."

Finnell studied with Hasan from 2007-2008 in the master's program in public health at the military's Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., where Hasan persistently complained about perceived anti-Muslim sentiment in the military and injected his politics into courses where they had no place.

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But with the U.S. fighting two wars, an acute shortage of trained personnel has left these therapists emotional drained and overworked, with limited time to prepare for their own war deployments.

An Army psychiatrist is suspected in the shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, and the rampage is raising questions about whether there's enough help for the helpers, even though it's unclear whether that stress or fear of his pending service in Afghanistan might be to blame.

An uncle of Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan said Saturday that Hasan was deeply affected by his work treating soldiers returning from war zones. "I think I saw him with tears in his eyes when he was talking about some of patients, when they came overseas from the battlefield," Rafik Hamad told The Associated Press from his home near the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., a psychologist in the Navy Reserves, said the toll is sometimes described as "compassion fatigue" or "vicarious trauma."

"They may not see combat themselves ... but they see the outcome of it and they hear the stories of it day in and day out," Murphy said. "It can be very real when you are dealing with people's difficulties every day."

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On "Fox and Friends" Friday morning, Brian Kilmeade cut right to the chase, asking Geraldo Rivera the following question:

Do you think it’s time for the military to have special debriefings of Muslim army officers, civilians, of anybody enlisted, because if I’m gonna be deployed in a foxhole, if I’m gonna be sticking in an outpost, I gotta know that the guy next to me isn’t gonna kill me?

(Video, via Media Matters, is below.)

To his credit, Geraldo initially backed away, instead discussing the value and achievements of Muslims in the military. For a moment, it seemed like some modicum of reason had crept in. That feeling didn't last long. Gretchen Carlson immediately shot back with the following question:

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Much will be written in the days to come of the mind-set of the alleged Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a psychiatrist who counseled military personnel and was reportedly distressed over his own imminent deployment. Though Schiesari's film predates the horrifying violence at the fort yesterday, it reveals a military culture rarely seen. By following both returning and deployment-bound young soldiers and the stories told on their bodies, she gets under their skin.

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The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.

Records indicate Hasan bought the FN 5.7 at store called "Guns Galore" in Killeen, Texas, well before the attack that left 13 people dead. The pistol has been dubbed a "cop killer" by those who have tried to stop its use.

The most powerful type of ammunition for the gun is available only to law enforcement and military personnel. Gun control advocates call it a "cop killer" weapon because that ammo can pierce bulletproof vests, and its use by Mexican drug cartels worries police.

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A federal law enforcement official said investigators have not been able to talk to Hasan since the deadly rampage that left 13 people dead and injured 30 others at the sprawling Army post in Texas on Thursday.

The initial investigation shows that Hasan allegedly used only one gun during the attack -- a 5.7-caliber semiautomatic pistol.

Army officials said Hasan also was carrying another handgun. But the law enforcement official said there's nothing so far to indicate the second weapon was fired.

The law enforcement official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- His name appears on radical Internet postings. A fellow officer says he fought his deployment to Iraq and argued with soldiers who supported U.S. wars. He required counseling as a medical student because of problems with patients.

There are many unknowns about Nidal Malik Hasan, the man authorities say is responsible for the worst mass killing on a U.S. military base. Most of all, his motive.

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The neighbor, Patricia Villa, said Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan came over to her apartment Wednesday and Thursday and offered her some items, including a new Quran, saying he was going to be deployed on Friday. She wasn't sure if he was going to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Authorities said the 39-year-old Hasan went on a shooting spree later Thursday at the sprawling Texas post. He was among 30 people wounded in the spree and remained hospitalized on a ventilator on Friday. All but two of the injured were still hospitalized, and all were in stable condition.

Investigators were still trying to piecing together how and why an Army psychiatrist facing deployment allegedly gunned down his comrades in one of the worst mass shootings ever on an American military base.

"This was an individual who took it upon himself to attack and murder his colleagues, people who were on the base with him," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told Sky News from Brussels, Belgium. "That investigation is under way by law enforcement authorities, and let's let that be the No. 1 priority in terms of ascertaining what motivations he had."

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