(Thumbnail image from the Daily Telegraph)

"This fella apparently had been increasingly unraveling and it’s starting to appear as if this was a domestic terrorist attack on fellow soldiers by a Major in the Army who we educated for six years while he was giving off these vibes of disloyalty to his own force." (CNN)

That was former Army General Barry McCaffrey on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360."  More questions than answers are emerging after the tragic shootings at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas late last week.

At Newsy, we’re focusing on media perspectives debating whether the actions of Major Nidal Malik Hasan were terrorism or mental illness.  

Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman is calling for a probe into if the shootings were actually a terrorist attack. ABC News is reporting Hasan tried to contact people connected with al-Qaeda last year.   

“Officials say they suspect Hasan was in contact with a former Imam of a mosque in Falls Church, Virginia who now operates out of Yemen.  Anwar Awlaki, an American, runs an English language Web site that advocates worldwide Jihad and overnight called Major Hasan a hero and man of conscience who did the right thing.”   

The Daily Telegraph highlights a link between Hasan and two of the 9/11 terrorists.
 
“Hasan... attended the controversial Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Great Falls, Virginia, in 2001 at the same time as two of the September 11 terrorists.”

CBS News shares accounts from Hasan's acquaintances that shows he was disillusioned with the U.S.’s presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.  

“According to those who knew him, including soldiers, Nidal Milak Hasan repeatedly proclaimed the U.S. war on terror was a war on Islam, that he thought the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were proof of that view and that he wanted nothing to do with his pending deployment to Afghanistan later this month.  Strong, potentially alarming views for an Army psychiatrist to be expressing out loud.”

With a different perspective, media watchdog website True/Slant says Hasan had to deal with many soldiers who experienced post-traumatic stress disorder, and that might have caused him to be traumatized and stressed himself.  

“Imagine a work day spent bearing witness to traumas so horrific media outlets won’t even show the videos. Imagine every day trying to help young men and women somehow put their lives back together despite their night terrors, flashbacks, and chronic sleeplessness.”

ABCnews.com brings in a view from a psychiatry professor at the University of Chicago.  He explains Hasan's extreme actions likely stemmed from mental illness, not religion.

 “I think it would be a mistake for people to theorize [he did this] because he is an adherent of this or that religious faith…The mental illness comes first, then flowing from that is the adoption of perhaps, unusual, religious beliefs.”

So what do you think?  Was this the work of a terrorist or a mentally-ill person?