WASHINGTON – The Army psychiatrist suspected of carrying a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, had come to the attention of authorities six months ago because of Internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats, law enforcement officials said Thursday.

The postings appeared to have been made by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who was wounded during the shootings at the Army post that killed 12 soldiers and wounded at least 30 others. A Fort Hood spokesman had earlier said Hasan was killed.

The officials say they are still trying to confirm that Hasan was the author of the Internet postings. They say an official investigation was not opened.

One of the officials said late Thursday that federal search warrants were being drawn up to authorize the seizure of Hasan's computer. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.

One of the Web postings that authorities reviewed is a blog that equates suicide bombers with a soldier throwing himself on a grenade to save the lives of his comrades.

"To say that this soldier committed suicide is inappropriate. Its (sic) more appropriate to say he is a brave hero that sacrificed his life for a more noble cause," said the Internet posting. "Scholars have paralled (sic) this to suicide bombers whose intention, by sacrificing their lives, is to help save Muslims by killing enemy soldiers."

Military officials said Hasan, 39, had worked for six years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, where he had received a poor performance evaluation. He transferred to Fort Hood in July.

The officials, who had access to Hasan's military record, spoke on condition of anonymity because such records are confidential.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said Hasan was about to deploy overseas, but it was not known whether he was headed to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Retired Army Col. Terry Lee told Fox News that he worked with Hasan, who had hoped Obama would pull troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq. Lee said Hasan got into frequent arguments with others in the military who supported the wars, and had tried hard to prevent his pending deployment.

Hasan was single with no children. He was born in Virginia and graduated from Virginia Tech University, where he was a member of the ROTC and earned a bachelor's degree in biochemistry in 1997. He received his medical degree from the military's Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., in 2001. He did his internship, residency and a fellowship at Walter Reed.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091106/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_fort_hood_shooting_suspect

The US should get out of Iraq and Afghanistan and NOT send the troops there . Huh it is okay to kill Iraqis and Afghans.....?!!!.

This might just be the only thing you and I will ever agree on.

I believe when they complete this investigation, they will find that there were many Red Flags along the way and that if the Army Chain of Command was doing it's job, could have prevented this tragedy.

You can bet your butt that some heads will roll.

In all honesty, I hope that the military wasn't apprehensive about performing a thorough investigation based on the sensitivity of his being a muslim. I don't know if that was a factor, but it seems they knew something wasn't exactly right and didn't follow up with even a basic investigation. 6 months after they came across these postings and not knowing if he was even the one that posted them is a bit of a shock.

The guy was ordered to go to Iraq and he did not want to go according to some media reports .
Forcing a psychiatrist to do the dirty job of G.W. Bush in Iraq is more than crazy .

Oh gosh, that does not give him the right to murder someone in cold blood. sheesh

He is a psychiatrist he would have never been on thr front lines fighting.

Does anyone expect me to understand all the screwed up minds in this world ?. Just think again I can not even understand myself sometimes or most of the times..... .