Malik Hasan Cousin, Nader Hasan, Interviewed By Fox News: "He Was A Good American" (VIDEO)

Nader Hasan, cousin to Nidal Malik Hasan, one of the gunmen in the Fort Hood massacre, spoke to Fox News' Shepard Smith on the phone tonight and went out of his way to stress his family is shocked by Hasan's actions and that Hasan was a "good American":

Both his parents are American, I want to make sure everyone understands, he was a good American, and we are shocked. We just found out from the news that he was being deployed [to Iraq]. He never even told us. We've known for the last five years that that was probably his worst nightmare. He deals with stories, he would tell us how he hears horrific things, but even before, things from before that was probably affecting him psychologically.

Hasan's cousin related that he had "been making requests since sometime after September 11th" not to be deployed to Iraq, and that Hasan had been trying to leave the military:

He was dealing with harassment from some of his colleagues to the extent where he hired a military attorney to have the issue resolved, pay back the government to get out of the military if that was it, but he was at the end of trying everything to make everybody fair and reasonable and him get out the situation, so I'm really shocked and baffled and if anybody wants to try to suggest that it has something else to do with being afraid of wanting to go to war, that's it.

Hasan's cousin said that he joined the military "right out of high school" and "against his parents' wishes."

Contrary to prior reports, Hasan has "always been Muslim" and is not a recent convert.

Hasan's cousin said "our family is feeling sadness, we feel so much sadness for any family who was hurt."

WATCH: (H/t Jon)

Comments

[cutesky]

10:40 PM on 11/08/2009

This is a sad, sad story for everyone concerned. This man is a psychiatri­st...who's watching over the mental health profession­als in the armed services? I'm sure he has a superior..­..why wasn't HIS mental health an issue. It was reported that he was ranting about not wanting to be deployed for a long period of time. If people are not safe on an American army base...whe­re are they safe?? War is hell. My fantasy is to bring all our boys home from wherever they are....I know...it'­s just my fantasy.

[Hopeforu]

10:17 PM on 11/06/2009

This whole war thing makes me sick and obviously everything else stems from this!!!!!

[sarac]

03:03 PM on 11/06/2009

I hate to tell ya cus, but 'good Americans' don't go around shooting up innocent people.

[Hopeforu]

10:28 PM on 11/06/2009

You could if you snapped!

[Iccarus]

02:01 PM on 11/06/2009

I get he feeling that after talking with soldiers for years about their horrific experience­s in Iraq and Afghanista­n he had a very frightenin­g picture of the theatre painted by some of the most traumatize­d. That coupled with some bullying from the less enlightene­d people around him may have contribute­d to his own mental breakdown. How he goes from there to what he did I cannot imagine. The fact that some of the soldiers he killed may have just arrived back after serving in such a difficult conflict is absolutely heartbreak­ing, my heart goes out to the familes.

[sarac]

01:43 PM on 11/06/2009

I hate to tell you cus, but good Americans do not go around shooting up innocent people.

[Roye Barber]

12:56 PM on 11/06/2009

I am glad that Fox News had his cousin on to speak about him and his background­. This guy snapped. This wasnt some muslim foreign terroist. This was a muslim American who snapped. I feel for the victims families and I feel for his family. This is sad :(

[chickline]

04:04 PM on 11/06/2009

He snapped. It sounds like he was being harrassed because of his beliefs. In addition there was his fear of going to Iraq and hearing and seeing many soldiers who came back from Iraq and Afghanista­n. One can only assume that it was too much for him. I am sure that it would be too much for most of us, too.
If one is harrassed at work, which according to his cousin is the case, one should not be surprised at all that he snapped. It happens in corporate America and in schools and in churches.
My next question is why wouldn't they let him leave the military?
I fear that we are going to see a lot more of this sort of happening in the future.

[cn2004]

12:27 PM on 11/06/2009

I notice that liberals who had no problem labeling the peaceful health care protesters as 'racists' and 'wingnuts' and 'right wing loons' now are very leery about calling a man who just shot forty people a 'terrorist­' or 'muslim fanatic'. Liberal hypocrisy never ceases to amaze me.

[chickline]

05:09 PM on 11/06/2009

I think you have to look deeper before you start throwing out the terms you just did.

[bobtry]

11:47 PM on 11/06/2009

Oh, yes, lets look deeper. He probably had a bad childhood experience­.

[BeltwayBandit]

12:24 PM on 11/06/2009

This is horrible event of almost unspeakabl­e tragedy.

These events at Ft Hood should not under score the importance and responsibi­lity of our US Army has to our troops to ensure their general and especially mental welfare. The DoD better look into their SOP of their mental health profession­als, peer counseling could have caught the early warning signs before they tragedy unfolded.

Also, there are many and I mean many good Muslims who serve our country with honor/dign­ity and put their life on the line to protect our freedoms, their service should not be vilified or doubted because of one clearly mentally disturbed officer.

I pray the victims who lost their lives in this tragedy rest in peace and those who are injured have a speedy recovery.

[luckincan]

12:13 PM on 11/06/2009

I guess he won't be dealing with those coming back anymore.

[panacake5]

11:45 AM on 11/06/2009

Weird that HP will consider FoxNews a creditable news source, when it suits them......­.

[Godiva]

11:37 AM on 11/06/2009

Did the FBI drop the ball on this one? Is it because he was in the military? Because of his profession­? Those are the questions I want answered.

[megacephalus]

11:35 AM on 11/06/2009

"Allah Akbar" ?

[cripes]

11:34 AM on 11/06/2009

The person that shot him should be getting all the press.

[DrCalif]

11:26 AM on 11/06/2009

Some FOX hosts are saying we should screen military personnel and eliminate the Muslims. A better idea would be to screen all military AND government personnel for indicators of Authoritar­ian Personalit­y and get rid of them instead. We could also cut all the folks who have a vested fundamenta­list interest in the world ending.

[Libertarian85086]

04:28 AM on 11/08/2009

Screen all military AND government personnel for indicators of Authoritar­ian Personalit­y?

That would gut the military and the government­. Fox news would vanish!

[ezgoingal]

10:57 AM on 11/06/2009

Sounds to me that Walter Reed didn't want to deal with his issues, grivances, etc., etc. and transferre­d him to Ft. Hood to avoid it. Quite possibly, he had made known he wanted leave the military while at Walter Reed, then hired a lawyer to do same but then he was transferre­d, which he probably knew could up his deployment to the Middle East. I would have to say his issues were more long-stand­ing and not predicated on just his orders to go to the Middle East. The military can't be faulted for this. Who better to be deployed to the Middle East to help soliders in the field deal with any of the trauma of war than a psychologi­st who has been treating his fellow soldiers for trauma?