Posts Tagged ‘shooting’

Army psychiatrists who supervised psychiatrist/Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan face charges for failing to take action

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

NPR
By Daniel Zwerdling
January 21, 2010

The Army has told some of the psychiatrists who supervised Fort Hood shooting suspect Nidal Hasan that it’s investigating them — and they could face punishments from letters of reprimand to court martial.

The Army said it’s going to decide if the doctors at Walter Reed “failed to take appropriate action” against Hasan and were “derelict” in their duties.

Evidence shows a lot of doctors were worried about Hasan — some for years. Evidence also shows that only one supervisor, Scott Moran, actively tried to kick Hasan out of the psychiatry program. Now sources involved in the investigation say Moran is one of the officers who’s in big trouble. Moran wouldn’t comment, but the sources say the supervisors under investigation are fairly low level officers like Moran, who is a major.

“They’re attacking the wrong target,” says Gary Myers, a lawyer who’s representing Col. Charles Engel, another psychiatrist whom Myers says is under investigation.

Engel was Hasan’s main supervisor in the fellowship program at the military’s medical school, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Myers says the Army is trying to find scapegoats and that everybody knows officials in the nation’s intelligence agencies bear at least some responsibility for what happened at Fort Hood.

Read entire article:  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122778372

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Psychiatrist Peter Breggin on the Texas, Fort Hood Shooter “Let’s also see through yet another media smoke screen”

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Dr. Peter Breggin
The Huffington Post
Nov. 8, 2009

Before I begin to look at his role as a psychiatrist, I want to confirm that Major Nidal Malik Hasan was driven by religious ideology. For years he openly claimed that the War on Terror is a war on Muslims. He announced on the Internet and to his fellow soldiers in a course on public health that a Muslim suicide bomber should be praised for killing a hundred soldiers. It’s reported that fellow soldiers warned his superiors that he was a ticking time bomb.

One wonders how and why the army failed to relieve him from active duty. One ridiculous explanation is that they had a lot invested him–his complete medical and psychiatric training. Much more likely, the army was hamstrung by the political correctness that’s been imposed upon it.

Let’s also see through yet another media smoke screen–that Hasan was more a crazy person than a terrorist. During the American revolution Samuel Adams pointed out that he’d never seen a man commit treason without first losing his moral footing in his personal life. As for being a victim of prejudice, Hasan was instead a provocateur whom the army tried to ignore. Hasan is not only a terrorist, he’s a traitor–a man who turned on his nation; on the army that nurtured, educated and paid him; and on his comrades in arms.

Not Surprised He’s a Psychiatrist
Some in the media have expressed surprise that a man whose profession is about caring would turn to violence. According to one theory, poor Dr. Hasan was driven to the breaking point by the stress of counseling returning soldiers and having to listen to their horrific stories. Totally false. Psychiatrists are no longer trained to listen to or to counsel their patients. Nor do they care to.

I’ve given seminars to the staff at both hospitals where Hasan was trained, Walter Reed in DC and the national military medical center in Bethesda, Maryland. The psychiatrists had no interest in anything except medicating their patients.

Modern psychiatry is not about counseling and empowering people. It’s about controlling and suppressing them, and that’s a dismal affair for patients and doctors alike. The armed forces have been taken in by the false claims of modern psychiatry.

Read entire article:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-peter-breggin/the-fort-hood-shooter-a-d_b_349651.html

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In wake of shootings: Read what psychiatrist Peter Breggin said about psych drugs/military/violence & drug withdrawal

Saturday, November 7th, 2009

Dr. Peter Breggin
The Huffington Post
June 20, 2009

Here are the starting facts: Death by suicide is at record levels in the armed services. Simultaneously the use of antidepressant drugs is also at record levels, including brand names like Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa and Lexapro. According to the army, in 2007 17% of combat troops in Afghanistan were taking prescription antidepressants or sleeping pills. Inside sources have given me an even bleaker picture: During Vietnam, a mere 1% our troops were taking prescribed psychiatric drugs. By contrast, in the past year one-third of marines in combat zones were taking psychiatric drugs.

Are the pills helping? The army confirms that since 2002 the number of suicide attempts has increased six-fold. And more than 128 soldiers killed themselves last year.

One theory states that the increased prescription of drugs is a response to increased depression among the soldiers. In reality, the use of psychiatric drugs escalates when, and only when, drug companies and their minions target new markets. In this case, the armed services have been pushing drugs as a cheap alternative to taking genuine care of the young men and women in our military. Instead of shortening tours of duty, instead of temporarily removing stressed-out soldiers from combat zones, and instead of providing counseling–the new army policy is to drug the troops.

Read entire article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-peter-breggin/antidepressants-cause-sui_b_218465.html

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“Was Fort Hood Killer On Psychotropic Drugs?” – Media fails to ask if Hasan was on SSRI’s

Friday, November 6th, 2009

Paul Joseph Watson
Alex Jones’ Prison Planet.com
November 6, 2009

Despite the fact that Fort Hood gunman Nidal Malik Hasan was a psychiatrist, the media has failed to even raise the question of whether he was taking psychotropic drugs before he gunned down over a dozen of his colleagues during yesterday’s tragic rampage, a hefty indictment of how the establishment rushes to blame politics, religion, gun rights, or any other factor for mass shootings in order to hide the direct link between such massacres and the use of anti-depressant drugs.

It has been confirmed that Hasan was an Army psychiatrist at Fort Hood. Psychiatrists have a history of “self-medication” because of the easy access they have to psychotropic drugs.

In almost every major mass shooting over the past two decades, since anti-depressant drugs became popular, the killer has been on SSRI’s – serotonin reuptake inhibitors.

The establishment media, allied closely as it is with the pharmaceutical industry, uniformly fails to stress this common factor, preferring instead to blame shootings on gun rights or, as in the case of Hasan, political motives.

Read entire article: http://www.prisonplanet.com/was-fort-hood-killer-on-psychotropic-drugs.html

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Was Fort Hood Psychiatrist/Shooter on drugs that cause homicidal/suicidal reactions? 16% of psychiatrists “self medicate”

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

Richard Balon
Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics
Vol. 76, No. 5, 2007

Abstract

Background: Self-treatment and treatments of friends or relatives is a controversial issue, tolerated by some and discouraged by others, including professionals. The author studied the attitudes toward self-treatment of depression among psychiatrists in Michigan. Method: A questionnaire asking whether the psychiatrist would or did self-treat for depression was mailed to 830 members of the Michigan Psychiatric Society. Results: The response rate was 68.3% (567 psychiatrists). Almost 43% of responders would consider self-medication or would self-medicate if afflicted with mild/moderate depression. Seven percent would self-medicate or consider self-medication for severe depression or if suicidal ideation became a component of one’s depression. In the past, 15.7% responders treated themselves for depression. Conclusion: These results suggest that a considerable number of psychiatrists would treat themselves for depression, possibly because of fear of stigma or fear of a permanent record, or other reasons.

Click here for article

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Fort Hood Texas Shooter was Army Psychiatrist

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

Adam Arnold
Sky News
November 5, 2009

At least 12 people have been shot dead and 31 others wounded after a US soldier went on the rampage at a military base in Texas.

The suspect, named as Major Malik Nadal Hasan, was killed on site after opening fire at the massive Fort Hood complex in Killeen.

Major Hasan, who was armed with two handguns, was thought to be in his late 30s and was an army psychiatrist.

He was due to be sent to Iraq soon but had aired grievances about the planned deployment, Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson told CNN.

Two other soldiers are being held as suspects following the mass shooting.

It took place at the Soldier Readiness Centre, where troops preparing for overseas deployment were getting last-minute medical checkups.

The two suspects were detained at a nearby building on the base.

Read entire article

Shootings took place at Soldier Readiness Centre.  See this: http://www.crdamc.amedd.army.mil/default.asp?page=behavh

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