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Last Friday I wrote that "Hasan Akbar's jihad has reached its conclusion." That seems to have been premature: it has now come to light that he stabbed an MP last month, and I suspect he will go on looking for opportunities to kill. But Judge Stephen Henley is unmoved; it was, after all, just an "opportunistic stabbing." An "opportunistic stabbing"? What the heck does that mean? What about Akbar's stated motives, priorities, and values? I suppose 9/11 was just a case of "opportunistic building destruction." "Judge won't allow evidence of fight in Akbar sentencing," from AP, with thanks to the...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. | -- In the weeks after her husband's death in Kuwait, Terri Seifert did not have many answers. She was strong nonetheless. As the weeks turned to months and answers began to filter in about Army Airborne Capt. Christopher Scott Seifert's fatal shooting at Camp Pennsylvania, Terri Seifert seemed to get stronger for herself and for her son, Benjamin, Lt. Col. Kenneth Romaine said Monday. But, there was one thing she could not do, Romaine said, because it was a job her husband was expected to do with his first son. "It was somewhere around Benjamin's first...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) - A sergeant's attack on his own colleagues in the 101st Airborne Division in Kuwait made key planners unavailable just before the invasion of Iraq, a commander testified Monday. ``Everybody knew this would be a big fight,'' Col. Ben Hodges testified Monday at a sentencing hearing for Sgt. Hasan Akbar, convicted in a grenade and rifle attack that killed two soldiers and wounded 14. ``I never dreamed my first casualties would occur inside Camp Pennsylvania and they would be caused by one of my own soldiers.'' Hodges commanded the 101st's 1st Brigade Combat Team and was...

(FORT BRAGG) - The commander of the 101st Airborne Division brigade hit by a grenade and rifle attack two years ago says he never thought there was danger within the camp where the assault occurred. Colonel Ben Hodges opened testimony Monday morning in the sentencing phase of Sergeant Hasan Akbar's trial. Akbar was convicted last week of killing two officers and wounding 14 more, including Hodges. Akbar, 34, also could be sentenced to life in prison. Hodges, who commanded the First Brigade Combat Team as it prepared to invade Iraq, said he never thought the first casualties his five-thousand-person unit...

A jury has unanimously found Sergeant Hasan Akbar guilty in the attacks on fellow soldiers just days before the Iraq war. Akbar was charged with two counts of first degree murder and three counts of attempted first degree murder. Two officers died and 14 others were injured. A sentencing hearing will be held to decide his fate. Prosecutors say Akbar told investigators he launched the attack because he was concerned U.S. troops would kill fellow Muslims in the Iraq war.

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) — A military jury has convicted Sgt. Hasan Akbar on charges of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder stemming from an attack on an Army camp in Kuwait.

FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- A military jury in North Carolina has convicted an Army sergeant of murder and attempted murder in a grenade and rifle attack on his comrades in Kuwait as they prepared to invade Iraq. The court-martial determined that Sgt. Hasan Akbar murdered the two officers who were killed in the attack two years ago. Fourteen other troops were wounded. The jury's unanimous guilty verdict means Akbar could be sentenced to death. A sentencing hearing will be held on Monday. The jury deliberated the verdict for more than two hours Thursday. Akbar, 33, stood at attention as the...

Apr. 20, 2005 - The father of an Army sergeant accused of killing two officers at the start of the Iraq war urged the military Wednesday to investigate religious and racial harassment he said his son faced from fellow soliders before he unleashed the grenade and rifle attack. John Akbar's statement to The Associated Press titled "Concerned Father Seeks Justice For Loved Son" came as testimony wrapped up in Sgt. Hasan Akbar's court-martial on murder charges that carry a possible death penalty. Jurors were to return Thursday for closing arguments and the start of deliberations. The elder Akbar said his...

(FORT BRAGG) - The father of the army sergeant accused of murder is speaking out. Sergeant Hasan Akbar's father, John Akbar, issued a statement Wednesday concerning events leading up to his son’s court-martial. Akbar is accused of killing two people, and injuring 14 others during a grenade attack. The prosecution said Akbar is a murderer who deployed to Kuwait with a plan to attack his unit. But in a statement given to News 14 Carolina, John Akbar said that is not the son he knows. John Akbar explained, "He (Akbar) has always been a role model for his younger brothers...

Several weeks ago, our president presented the first Medal of Honor since Somalia – posthumously – to the widow and orphans of Sgt. Paul R. Smith for heroic actions he took "above and beyond the call of duty" to save the men he was leading in Iraq. But as this is being written, another sergeant, Hasan Akbar, faces court-martial, charged with the murder of fellow members of an American brigade on the eve of the Iraq invasion. His lawyers say he's nuts, the same thing a shrink said when Akbar was 14. The rub is how this guy – whose...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. - A defense psychiatrist testified Tuesday that Sgt. Hasan Akbar was sane and knew the consequences of his actions when he threw grenades into tents occupied by fellow soldiers during a 2003 attack in Kuwait. Dr. George Woods Jr. initially testified under direct questioning that Akbar may have suffered from schizophrenia and depression at the time of the attack that killed two soldiers and wounded 14. But under cross-examination by lead Army prosecutor Lt. Col. Michael Mulligan, Woods acknowledged he had ruled out a diagnosis of insanity. Woods reluctantly said "yes" when asked if Akbar "understood the...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) -- Weeks before launching a deadly grenade attack on his comrades, Sgt. Hasan Akbar attended a camp screening of the movie "Apocalypse Now" and laughed during a scene in which U.S. troops were hit by a grenade, a soldier testified yesterday. The testimony came as Sgt. Akbar's attorneys opened their defense at his court-martial. Sgt. Akbar, 33, is accused of ambushing fellow troops from the 101st Airborne Division in their tents at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait in March 2003, during the opening days of the Iraq war. An Army captain and an Air Force major were...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. A defense psychiatrist says the Army sergeant accused in a fatal grenade attack in Kuwait had a history of mental illness in his family that hurt him as he got older. Testimony from Dr. George Woods of Oakton, California, came after a hearing with the jury out of the courtroom about his qualifications and diagnosis. Woods testified that Sergeant Hasan Akbar's (AK'-bahrz) relatives had problems going back to 1968 when an uncle was discharged from the Marine Corps because he had an emotionally unstable personality. The psychiatrist also testified that Akbar's half brother also exhibited paranoia in...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) - Defense lawyers opened their case Monday at the court-martial of a soldier charged with killing two officers, presenting a psychologist who said the defendant was incapable of relating to other people when he was a teenager. The trial of Sgt. Hasan Akbar court-martial entered its second week of testimony Monday, after prosecutors completed their case. Akbar, 33, is accused of ambushing fellow soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division in their tents at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait in March 2003, during the opening days of the Iraq war. An Army captain and an Air Force major...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) - Weeks before launching a deadly grenade attack on his comrades, Sgt. Hasan Akbar attended a camp showing of the movie ``Apocalypse Now'' and laughed at a scene of U.S. troops being hit by a grenade, a soldier testified Monday. The testimony came as Akbar's lawyers opened their defense at his court-martial. Akbar is accused of allegedly ambushing fellow soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division in their tents at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait in March 2003, during the opening days of the Iraq war. An Army captain and an Air Force major were killed. Akbar's lawyers...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- When soldiers go on the rifle range, they are told not to fire too far to the left or right, for safety reasons, says Fort Bragg spokesman Maj. Richard T. Patterson. And when journalists come to Fort Bragg, they also must agree to a series of ground rules that spell out the limits of media access, for safety reasons, Patterson says. "We don't have things to hide," Patterson explains. He says the Army wants the American public to see the military's fair and impartial justice system, in which those on trial enjoy more rights at an...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- The government rested its case Thursday in the court-martial of an Army sergeant accused of attacking his fellow troops in Kuwait two years ago. Sgt. Hasan Akbar is charged two counts of murder three counts of attempted murder in connection with the March 2003 grenade and rifle attack on members of the 101st Airborne Division. Two officers were killed and 14 other people were injured in the attack. Government witnesses testified Thursday about crime scene photos and evidence, forensics and Akbar's diary. Akbar has written in a diary for years, but prosecutors are limited to more...

Diary: Soldier Wrote About Killing Buddies By ESTES THOMPSON Associated Press Writer FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) -- An Army sergeant charged in a deadly grenade attack on his comrades wrote in his diary that his fellow soldiers were mistreating him, and that once he was sent to Iraq, "I am going to try and kill as many of them as possible," a jury was told Thursday. An FBI agent read four passages to the 15-member jury before the prosecution rested its case in the court-martial of Sgt. Hasan Akbar. His lawyers are scheduled to begin calling witnesses in their insanity...

(FORT BRAGG) - A sergeant on trial for a grenade attack at an Army camp in the Kuwait desert days before the Iraq invasion wrote in his diary before he was deployed about killing fellow soldiers. An FBI agent read four passages from Sergeant Hasan Akbar's computer diary Thursday. Akbar wrote about making the choice to kill Iraqis, whom he called his Muslim brothers, or "my battle buddies." He said in one passage that if the Army left him at Fort Campbell and didn't try to humiliate him, he wouldn't do anything. But the passage ended by saying that if...

(FORT BRAGG) - Almost a dozen eyewitness accounts marked the second day of testimony in the court martial of Sergeant Hasan Akbar. Akbar is the army sergeant accused of murdering two fellow soldiers during the opening days of the war in Iraq. Eleven former and present soldiers testified in a Fort Bragg courtroom about what they saw on March 22nd of 2003 at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait. One officer said that Akbar admitted to him that he threw grenades into tents where soldiers were preparing for bed. Akbar is accused of killing two people and wounding 14 others. A number...