Soldiers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment storm the grounds of the Soldier Readiness Center in a show of force as they help in the apprehension of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan Thursday Nov. 5, 2009. Hasan, a psychiatrist set to be shipped overseas opened fire at the Fort Hood Army post Thursday, authorities said, a rampage that killed 12 people and left 31 wounded in the worst mass shooting ever at a military base in the United States.
(AP Photo/David Morris, Killeen Daily Herald)
Classmate: Hasan said terror fight a war on Islam
Soldiers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment storm the grounds of the Soldier Readiness Center in a show of force as they help in the apprehension of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan Thursday Nov. 5, 2009. Hasan, a psychiatrist set to be shipped overseas opened fire at the Fort Hood Army post Thursday, authorities said, a rampage that killed 12 people and left 31 wounded in the worst mass shooting ever at a military base in the United States.
(AP Photo/David Morris, Killeen Daily Herald)
WASHINGTON—A classmate of the Fort Hood shooting suspect says Maj. Nidal Hasan was an outspoken opponent of the U.S. war on terror and called it a "war against Islam."
Dr. Val Finnell was a classmate of Hasan's at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. Both attended a master's in public health program in 2007 and 2008.
Finnell says he got to know Hasan in an environmental health class. At the end of the class, students gave presentations. Finnell says other classmates wrote on subjects such as dry cleaning chemicals and mold in homes, but Hasan's topic was whether the war against terror was "a war against Islam." Finnell described Hasan as a "vociferous opponent" of the terror war.
Finnell says Hasan told classmates he was "a Muslim first and an American second."
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