edit: I'm sure you all saw this on MSNBC yesterday, but I'll post it anyway
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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/24/in...al/24SERG.html
Army Offers a Few Details and a Theory of Motivation
By PETER T. KILBORN with DIANA JEAN SCHEMO
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky., March 23 ? The soldier suspected of killing a fellow soldier and wounding 15 others was identified today as Sgt. Asan Akbar, who, a military official said, had "an attitude problem."
Sergeant Akbar, a soldier in an engineer unit, is under investigation in a grenade and small-arms attack on the command tents of the 101st Airborne Division in Kuwait this morning. The Pentagon identified the soldier killed as Capt.Christopher S. Seifert, 27.
George Heath, the deputy public affairs officer at Fort Campbell, the division's base, provided few personnel details but said Sergeant Akbar had been in the Army long enough to have attained the rank of sergeant and to have commanded four to eight men.
"He was having what some people might call an attitude problem," Mr. Heath said, declining to provide further explanation. Asked about a motive for the attack, he said, "I've heard some people say it may have been retribution."
Standing nervously outside his brick house in Baton Rouge, the front door draped with an American flag, Sergeant Akbar's stepfather, William Bilal, 52, pondered what might have troubled his stepson. "His mother doesn't believe it's him, you know, the heart of a mother," Mr. Bilal said. "I'm not saying it's not him, but I don't know. I'd like to know."
The family spells Sergeant Akbar's first name "Hasan." His mother, Quran Bilal, was inside the house but declined to speak. Mr. Bilal said she worked as a driver. The two divorced about 15 years ago.
"I remember last Christmas he was complaining about the double standards in the military," Mr. Bilal said. "Hasan told me it was difficult for a black man to get rank in the military, and he was having a hard time."
In Kuwait, Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the 101st, said that 15 soldiers were wounded and one had died in the attack. It took place in a tent for the command and control area of the First Brigade. Sergeant Akbar was in custody but had not been charged in the attack, officials said.
Military officials had described Sergeant Akbar as a Muslim convert.
Mr. Heath said today that Sergeant Akbar might have adopted his name recently, but he could not provide an earlier name. He said he did not know the man's religion, but added, "I heard from a very reliable source that he may have converted to Islam."
The Tennessean, a Nashville newspaper, reported today on its Web site that Sergeant Akbar was named Mark Fidel Kools at his birth but that his mother changed his name to Hasan Akbar when he was a boy. Mr. Heath said he could not confirm the report.
As a soldier of the 326th Engineer Battalion, Sergeant Akbar was responsible for clearing land mines, razor wire and other obstacles to the division's advance.
Sergeant Akbar grew up in Baton Rouge and in Southern California. Today, Mr. Bilal said, "If he did do it, then it was either pressure of this or a combination of things. If they link Hasan to the grenades, after a proper investigation and leads and everything points to him, then we'll put it in the hands of God. We all have to try and uphold the law."
Mr. Bilal, an air conditioner salesman, rejected speculation that Sergeant Akbar felt uncomfortable in the Army because of his religion. "He never expressed those concerns to me," he said.
Mr. Bilal said that his stepson did not have a violent past and that his upbringing was "normal, with no problems."
Ishmael Akbar, Sergeant Akbar's brother, said he was "being prayerful and hopeful" but had not heard from his brother in months.
Experts on military law said today that a soldier accused in such an attack would probably face a range of charges. The most serious would be murder, which could carry the death penalty.
An attack on a command center, staffed by senior officers, could also bring charges of attempted manslaughter, maiming, housebreaking, misbehavior before the enemy and mutiny, said Eugene R. Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice, an independent nonprofit organization.
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