I was asked to further comment on the event in which US Army Maj. Nidal Hasan shot and killed 13 people at Ft Hood, Texas. In particular, I was asked to point out what foreign media (i.e., other than American media) were saying.

I’ve spent the day looking, not always fruitfully. German papers, for instance, are taken up with the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Weekly magazines have not yet come out with their editions that would cover the story. Below is what I was able to find. I have generally not included papers which merely reported wire stories, as did the Turkish media I was able to access.

United Kingdom:

Writing in The Independent, Joan Smith asks How can religion not have played a part?

David Usborne, also at The Independent, offers us his look Inside the mind of the army killer

Economist seeks to find answers on its own. Comments to the piece will find supporters no matter what they think. After the horror at home

James Delingpole at The Telegraph reports on how the media seem to be pussy-footing around the fact that Maj. Hasan was a Muslim: mm. Can’t imagine what Major Malik Nadal Hasan’s motivation could have been

That paper also offers an exegesis on the words Hasan is said to have yelled prior to/during the shooting: Fort Hood shootings: the meaning of ‘Allahu Akbar’

Libby Purves at the London Times comments on authoritarianism in religion and how it needs to be toned down. The key to rubbing along in perfect harmony

Canadian newspaper The Gazette, from Montreal takes a decidedly negative tone against Maj. Hasan. Fort Hood shooter advocated beheading of infidels

The Post, also of Canada, pats itself on the back for what it considers its even handed coverage of the story: In praise of the Post, religious content & of course, Pepys

The Age, from Australia, offers a diagnosis: Why doctor snapped

The Australian may be a bit premature in is conclusion Terror motive ruled out for Fort Hood massacre

Le Figaro, out of Paris, says it will tell us how Maj. Hasan got to where he ended up and concludes that it was some sort of ’suicide attempt’: la piste d’un attentat suicide pas exclue

France’s Le Monde believes there’s no link to formal terrorism either: L’auteur de la fusillade de Fort Hood n’appartient à aucun groupe terroriste

Frankfurter Allgemeine has several stories. You can find the latest on this search link.

The Polish Gazeta also offers a variety of stories.

The Turkish Hurriyet’s coverage is strictly along the lines of the wire services.

The American law blog Crime & Consequences offers the following, which I thought worth quoting in full:

The Fate of Major Nidal Malik Hasan: At Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog, Ashby Jones wonders what will become of accused Fort Hood shooter, Major Malik Hasan once proceedings against him really begin. Jones points to a Houston Chronicle article by Lynsi Burton and Stewart M. Powell that reports much of Hasan’s fate rests in whether civilian prosecutors conclude he was part of a terrorist plot that might justify moving his case into the federal criminal courts under U.S. anti-terrorism laws. This does seem likely to either Jones or the Chronicle. They write that Hasan is most likely to be court-martialed under Article 2 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and punished for offenses allegedly committed by a man wearing a U.S. military uniform against other military personnel on a military base.

Unless is can be strongly demonstrated that Hasan’s actions were an act of terrorism, he will face a military court martial. I suspect that to be likely.