Claim: Maj. Nidal Hasan, the man accused of the Fort Hood shootings, "was an ADVISOR to the Obama Administration.
Verdict: REFUTES

Retrieved passages:
title: 2009 Fort Hood shooting
text: today cannot be disputed. Nidal has killed soldiers who were about to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in order to kill Muslims." In March 2010, Al-Awlaki alleged that the Obama administration tried to portray Hasan's actions as an individual act of violence from an estranged individual, and that it was trying to suppress information for the American public. He said: Until this moment the administration is refusing to release the e-mails exchanged between myself and Nidal. And after the operation of our brother Umar Farouk the initial comments coming from the administration were looking the same – another attempt

title: Nidal Hasan
text: on August 6, Hasan—who was representing himself— admitted that he was the gunman during the Fort Hood shootings in 2009 and stated that the evidence would show that he was the shooter. He also told the panel hearing that he had "switched sides" and regarded himself as a Mujahideen waging "jihad" against the United States. By August 7, disagreements between Hasan and his stand-by defense team led Judge Osborn to temporarily suspend the proceedings. Hasan's defense attorneys were concerned that Hasan was trying to help prosecutors achieve a death sentence. Since the prosecution had sought the death penalty, his defense

title: Fort Hood
text: that day, including about two dozen who required medical attention." On 5 November 2009, a gunman opened fire in the Soldier Readiness Center of Fort Hood and killed 13 people while wounding 32 others. Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army Major and psychiatrist, was the gunman. He was shot and then arrested by Department of the Army police officers Sergeant Mark Todd and Sergeant Kimberly Munley. Eyewitnesses to the actual events said: "...Major Hasan wheeled on Sergeant Munley as she rounded the corner of a building and shot her, putting her on the ground. Then Major Hasan turned his back

title: Nidal Hasan
text: Nidal Hasan Nidal Malik Hasan (born September 8, 1970) is an American convicted of fatally shooting 13 people and injuring more than 30 others in the Fort Hood mass shooting on November 5, 2009. Hasan was a United States Army Medical Corps psychiatrist who admitted to the shootings at his court-martial in August 2013. A jury panel of 13 officers convicted him of 13 counts of premeditated murder, 32 counts of attempted murder, and unanimously recommended he be dismissed from the service and sentenced to death. Hasan is incarcerated at the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas

title: Michael Mulligan
text: the court-martial of Nidal Malik Hasan, the sole accused in the November 2009 Fort Hood shooting. Michael Mulligan Colonel Michael Mulligan is a prosecutor in the United States Army notable for serving as the lead prosecutor in the courts-martial of Hasan Akbar and of Nidal Malik Hasan, the sole accused in the November 2009 Fort Hood shooting. The son of a trucking company manager, Michael Mulligan was born in Niagara Falls, New York and grew up in Niagara Falls, Ontario. He enjoyed playing hockey, and played as a left winger in college at SUNY Oswego. After graduating, he played professionally

title: 2009 Fort Hood shooting
text: A spokesman for the Department stated, The Department of Defense is committed to the integrity of the ongoing court martial proceedings of Major Nadal Hasan and for that reason will not further characterize, at this time, the incident that occurred at Fort Hood on November 5, 2009. Major Hassan has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder, and 32 counts of attempted murder. As with all pending UCMJ matters, the accused is innocent until proven guilty. A group of 160 victims and family members have asked the government to declare the Fort Hood attack an act of terrorism, which

title: 2009 Fort Hood shooting
text: worked with Hasan, said the psychiatrist expressed the hope that Obama would withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and argued with military colleagues who supported the wars. A spokesman for the Defense Department called the shooting an "isolated and tragic case", and Defense Secretary Robert Gates pledged that his department would do "everything in its power to help the Fort Hood community get through these difficult times." The chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin, and numerous politicians, expressed condolences to the victims and their families. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano stated "we object to—and do not

title: Nidal Hasan
text: upcoming murder trial. His attorneys were to remain on the case but only if he asked for their help. Jury selection was set to start on June 5 and opening arguments were scheduled to begin on July 1. U.S. Army Judge Colonel Tara Osborn ruled on June 14, 2013, that Hasan could not claim as a part of his defense that he was defending the Taliban. In a statement released to Fox News, Hasan justified his actions during the Fort Hood shooting by claiming that the US military was at war with Islam. During the first day of the trial

title: 2009 Fort Hood shooting
text: the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, and the Texas Rangers Division. As a member of the military, Hasan is subject to the jurisdiction of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (military law). He was initially represented by Belton, Texas-based John P. Galligan, a criminal defense attorney and retired US Army Colonel. Hasan regained consciousness on November 9, but refused to talk to investigators. The investigative officer in charge of his article 32 hearing was Colonel James L. Pohl, who had previously led the investigation into the Abu Ghraib abuses, and is the Chief Presiding Officer of the Guantanamo military commissions.

title: Nidal Hasan
text: relating to Hasan's early radicalization and evidence which presented the Fort Hood shooting as a "copycat" based on the actions of Hasan Akbar, a Muslim U.S. Army soldier sentenced to death for attacking fellow soldiers prior to the Iraq War. On August 20, 2013, the prosecution rested its case against Hasan. They had called nearly 90 witnesses over 11 days with the fast pace of proceedings being attributed to Hasan's refusal to cross-examine most of the witnesses. Throughout the proceedings, he only questioned three witnesses. While the defense had been scheduled to present its case on Wednesday, Hasan indicated that

title: Nidal Hasan
text: away furniture from his home on the morning of the shooting, saying he was going to be deployed on Friday. He also handed out copies of the Quran. Kamran Pasha wrote about a Muslim officer at Fort Hood who said he prayed with Hasan on the day of the Fort Hood shooting, and that Hasan "appeared relaxed and not in any way troubled or nervous". This officer believed that the shootings may have been motivated by religious radicalism. Hasan was initially hospitalized in the intensive care unit at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas,

title: III Corps (United States)
text: tactics it employed during its two tours in Iraq. Upon return to the United States, the corps conducted similar exercises at Fort Hood. On 5 November 2009, a gunman opened fire in the Soldier Readiness Center of Fort Hood, killing 13 people and wounding 30 others. Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim U.S. Army major and psychiatrist, was alleged to be the gunman. He was felled and then arrested by civilian police officers Sergeant Mark Todd & Sergeant Kimberly Munley. Much of the subsequent investigation was handled by III Corps, as the soldiers killed were under the corps' chain of command.

title: 2009 Fort Hood shooting
text: man might have a psychological problem; he may be a psychiatrist but he [also] might have had psychological distress, as he was being commissioned to go to Iraq or Afghanistan, and he was capable of refusing to work whatever the consequences were." The senior analyst at the NEFA Foundation described Ouda's comments as "a good indication of how far on a tangent Anwar al-Awlaki is. Soon after the attack, Anwar al-Awlaki posted praise for Hasan for the shooting on his website. He wrote, "Nidal Hasan is a hero, the fact that fighting against the U.S. army is an Islamic duty

title: 2009 Fort Hood shooting
text: to where he lived and worked. Army officials said, "Right now we're operating on the belief that he acted alone and had no help". No motive for the shootings was offered, but they believed Hasan had written an Internet posting that appeared to support suicide bombings. Sen. Lieberman opined that Hasan was under personal stress and may have turned to Islamic extremism. In pressing charges against Hasan, the Department of Defense and the DoJ agreed that Hasan would be prosecuted in a military court. Observers noted this was consistent with investigators' concluding he had acted alone. During a November 21

title: 2009 Fort Hood shooting
text: against the United States Government, Hasan, and the estate of Anwar al-Awlaki. Their lawsuit alleges there were due process violations, intentional misrepresentation, assault and battery, gross negligence, and civil conspiracy. The lawsuit was featured on "ABC News" on February 12, 2013, but was placed on hold pending the conclusion of Hasan's court martial. As of June 2016, the stay on the civil suit remains in place. 2009 Fort Hood shooting On November 5, 2009, a mass shooting took place at Fort Hood, near Killeen, Texas. Nidal Hasan, a U.S. Army major and psychiatrist, fatally shot 13 people and injured more

title: 2009 Fort Hood shooting
text: 2009 Fort Hood shooting On November 5, 2009, a mass shooting took place at Fort Hood, near Killeen, Texas. Nidal Hasan, a U.S. Army major and psychiatrist, fatally shot 13 people and injured more than 30 others. It was the deadliest mass shooting on an American military base. Hasan was shot and as a result paralyzed from the waist down. Hasan was arraigned by a military court on July 20, 2011 and was charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. His court-martial began on August 7, 2013.

title: Naser Jason Abdo
text: Fort Hood, by the US Army psychiatrist, Nidal Malik Hasan, has been characterized by the Department of Defense as "workplace violence" pending the major's court-martial. The U.S. Attorney in the Abdo case, Robert Pitman, compared the AWOL soldier's plot to mass murders in 2012 by two other American men: shootings "at a movie theatre near Denver and a Sikh temple in suburban Milwaukee. 'In the wake of the tragic events in Colorado and Wisconsin, this is yet another reminder that there are those among us who would use or plan to use violence to advance their twisted agenda,' Pitman said."

title: 2009 Fort Hood shooting
text: task force operating under the FBI was notified, and the information reviewed by one of its Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) employees, who concluded there was not sufficient information for a larger investigation. Senior officers at the Department of Defense stated they were not notified of such investigations before the shootings. Immediately after the shooting, analysts and public officials openly debated Hasan's motive and preceding psychological state: a military activist, Selena Coppa, remarked that Hasan's psychiatrist colleagues "failed to notice how deeply disturbed someone right in their midst was". A spokesperson for U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, one of the

title: Nidal Hasan
text: received counseling and extra supervision. He studied for a Master in Public Health degree at USUHS with a two-year fellowship in Disaster and Preventive Psychiatry at the Center for Traumatic Stress at USUHS, which he completed in 2009. In May 2009, Hasan was promoted from captain to major. Before being transferred to Fort Hood in July 2009, he received a poor performance evaluation from supervisors and medical faculty Despite these concerns, his former army boss, Lt. Col Ben Phillips, graded his performance as "outstanding", as revealed when Phillips was cross-examined during Hasan's trial. According to "The Washington Post", Hasan made

title: 2009 Fort Hood shooting
text: was defending the Taliban. The trial was scheduled to begin on August 6. During an exclusive interview with Fox News, Hasan justified his actions during the Fort Hood shooting by claiming that the US military was at war with Islam. This marked the first occasion that Hasan had talked to American media since his arrest. In the past, Hasan had only spoken via telephone with Al-Jazeera. During the first day of the trial on August 6, Hasan—who was representing himself— admitted that he was the gunman during the Fort Hood shootings in 2009 and stated that the evidence would show