FYI
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/06/justice/hasan-court-martial/index.html?hpt=hp_t3 Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- "I am the shooter." Maj. Nidal Hasan made that blunt declaration Tuesday at the outset of his court-martial in the 2009 massacre at Fort Hood. The Army psychiatrist is charged with killing 13 comrades and wounding more than 32 at a processing center for soldiers heading into combat zones overseas. "The evidence will clearly show that I am the shooter," Hasan told the panel of 13 senior officers who will decide his fate. "The evidence presented with this trial will show one side. The evidence will also show that I was on the wrong side. I then switched sides." Hasan is representing himself in his court-martial. He could be sentenced to death if found guilty. What is a court-martial? Prosecutors said Hasan turned the processing center into a combat zone himself. Investigators found 146 spent shell casings in the room where the attack began, Col. Michael Mulligan said. A U.S.-born citizen of Palestinian descent, Hasan had been scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan before the killings. Prosecutors hope to show that the devout Muslim had undergone a "progressive radicalization," giving presentations in defense of suicide bombings and about soldiers conflicted between military service and their religion when such conflicts result in crime. Hasan did not want to deploy to fight against other Muslims and believed "that he had a jihad duty to kill as many soldiers as possible," said Mulligan, the lead prosecutor in the case. He carried 420 rounds of ammunition, his pockets lined with paper towels to muffle the sounds of the magazines banging together, and opened fire in the processing center with two laser-sighted pistols, Mulligan said. Military death row: More than 50 years and no executions At the outset of his assault, Hasan cried out "Allahu Akbar ... and starts shooting at the soldiers sitting defenseless in chairs," Mulligan said. Internet searches on Hasan's computer used keywords like "terrorist killing," "innocent," "Quran," "fatwas" and "suicide bombings," Mulligan said. And Hasan told the panel, "We mujahedeen are trying to establish the perfect religion." But, he added, "I apologize for the mistakes I made in this endeavor." Hasan told his family he had been taunted after the al Qaeda attacks of September 11, 2001. Investigations that followed the killings found he had been communicating via e-mail with Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemeni-American radical cleric killed by a U.S. drone attack in 2011. The case was first set to begin in March 2012, but it has been delayed repeatedly -- notably over a previous judge's unsuccessful demand that the beard Hasan has grown while in custody be forcibly shaved. Hasan has said he plans to present two witnesses in his defense. But as his own attorney, he'll be cross-examining witnesses -- perhaps including some of those he has now admitted shooting. Other soldier on soldier attacks Those expected to testify include Chief Warrant Officer Christopher Royal, who survived the shootings with two bullet wounds to his back. The slugs left him with nerve damage that numbs his left arm and leg and sends streaking pains "shooting up and down my back." It's also left invisible scars as well -- post-traumatic stress that has hurt his ability to perform his duties as a computer specialist and left him unable to feel safe in his own country. "I really feel more comfortable downrange. I really do," said Royal, who served in Iraq four times and in Afghanistan once. "I think I would be more comfortable living in Iraq right now than living in the United States." Royal escaped the gunfire only to go back into the processing center in an attempt to tackle Hasan. "I had escaped without being wounded," Royal said. "I got ... in the parking lot, and then I said, 'I can't let him get away with this.' And I wasn't even thinking that I didn't have a weapon. I just knew that I couldn't let him get away." At 41, Royal is preparing to leave the Army at the end of September. Meanwhile, he copes with his pain and stress by taking near-scalding baths and running, including a roughly 70-mile jaunt from Fort Hood to Austin. But he says he can't deal with crowds any more, not even on the post. "I don't even really go to the mall anymore," he said. "I can't take my child to Disneyland, because I can't deal with it." As for Hasan, he said, "I have forgiven him." "I can't hold that grudge," Royal said. "It's just too much. I won't allow him to consume any more energy from my life than he has already done, and so I have released him. "I have forgiven him completely," he said. "It's not up to me to punish him. 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