Newsline 6 November, 2009: A tragic shooting incident at a US army base provokes some disturbing reactions, the Taliban’s leader in Afghanistan gets in touch with a NATO base in the Netherlands, and we explore the secrets of the Communist era secret police in the former Czechoslovakia.

Army base shooting: isolated crime or Jihad attack?
As the US comes to terms with the aftermath of a shooting by a soldier at a Texan army base, questions are being raised about the position of Muslims in the military.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan killed 13 people and injured at least 30 others when he walked into the Fort Hood compound and opened fire. He was shot by police and is in intensive care.

The army psychiatrist's family now say he was "mortified" at the prospect of going to Iraq and had been harassed by fellow soldiers about being a Muslim. Inevitably the incident has led to discussion about Muslim soldiers, many of whom are unhappy about being sent to war in Arab countries.

Daniel Pipes is an academic on radical Islam. He told Newsline's Marijke Peters this was not an isolated incident.

However, Robert Salaam, a former US Marine who is Muslim, said he thought Daniel Pipes' view was nonsense.

Taliban leader contacts Dutch NATO in the Netherlands
It's as if Adolf Hitler sent a message to Winston Churchill in the middle of World War II suggesting they get together and chat. Mullah Omar, the elusive leader of the Taliban movement, is reported to have sent a message through mediators to a NATO general in Brunssum here in The Netherlands.

The Taliban routinely describe the ISAF force as 'kafirs' and 'infidel crusaders, so why might they want to talk? General Egon Ramms, who oversees NATO operations in Afghanistan, told Radio Netherlands that Mullah Omar’s move could have been prompted by Taliban concerns that they might be losing public support. However, he makes it clear that negotiations with the Taliban are a matter for the Afghan government, not for NATO.

Czechoslovakia’s secret police files revealed
In the fifth report in our series looking at the Fall of Communism and life since it ended 20 years ago we go to the former Czechoslovakia. There's been a flurry of interest in the Czech Republic around an internet website that allows people to look up whether the communist-era secret police had a file on them or not.

The website was created by an amateur, rather than the official state body responsible for the secret police archives... and that's caused some problems.

Rob Cameron reports from Prague.