New questions over US shooter

2009-11-10 15:36

Daphne Benoit

Fort Hood - Growing questions over the accused Fort Hood gunman's links to a terrorism suspect were raised ahead of President Barack Obama's visit to shaken military base on Tuesday.

The FBI said Major Nidal Hasan, a military psychiatrist, came to its attention in 2008 after he communicated with the target of an FBI-led counter-terror investigation.

Hasan has emerged from a coma after being wounded in the Fort Hood shootings last Thursday in which 13 people were killed and 42 wounded.

The FBI said investigators assessed that Hasan's communications with the suspect were "consistent with research being conducted by Major Hasan in his position as a psychiatrist at the Walter Reed Medical Centre.

"Because the content of the communications was explainable by his research and nothing else derogatory was found, the JTTF (joint terrorism task force) concluded that Major Hasan was not involved in terrorist activities or terrorist planning," it said.

The FBI added that "the investigation to date indicates that the alleged gunman acted alone and was not part of a broader terrorist plot".

But the Washington Post reported that investigators are examining possible links between the army psychiatrist and Anwar al-Aulaqi, who was a spiritual leader of the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Virginia.

'He is talking. He is conversing with the medical staff'

Hasan had attended the mosque in 2001, a year before Aulaqi left the United States and settled in Yemen.

The imam was said to have met with al-Qaeda associates, including two September 11 hijackers, and is now believed to have become a supporter of the terror network, the paper said, citing a senior US official.

Hasan has been able to talk for the first time since he allegedly opened fire on fellow soldiers until he was hit by a female police officer.

"He is talking. He is conversing with the medical staff," a spokesperson for the Brooke Army Medical Centre in San Antonio told AFP.

The shootings have set off nationwide soul-searching and worries about the motives of the Fort Hood gunman.

In a television interview on the eve of his visit to the base, Obama said the question being asked was: "'Is this an individual who's acting in this way or is it some larger set of actors?'"

Senator Joseph Lieberman, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said he would launch a probe into whether the army missed any warning signs which could have prevented the attack.

Conscientious objectors

While investigators believe 39-year-old Hasan, a devout Muslim, acted alone, he appears to have telegraphed his actions.

The Washington Post reported that Hasan warned a roomful of senior army physicians a year and a half ago that to avoid "adverse events" the military should allow Muslim soldiers to be released from duty as conscientious objectors.

"It's getting harder and harder for Muslims in the service to morally justify being in a military that seems constantly engaged against fellow Muslims," he was quoted as saying in the investigation.

FBI Director Robert Mueller, after meeting with Obama, ordered a full review of the shooting incident with the aim of determining whether "with the benefit of hindsight, any policies or practices should change based on what we learn", the FBI said.

Obama told ABC television that he was determined "to complete this investigation and we are going to take whatever steps are necessary to make sure that something like this doesn't happen again".

Some 5 000 people were expected to join Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at a memorial service for the victims.

"I'll be heading to there tomorrow so that I can personally express the incredible heartbreak that we all feel for - for the loss of these young men and women," Obama said.

Defence Secretary Robert Gates visited the base on Monday to meet the families of those killed and to visit some of the wounded, including police sergeant Kimberly Munley, hailed as a heroine for confronting the gunman.

The bloody spree left army officials still scrambling to understand how one of their own could turn on his fellow soldiers.

Officers must now keep an eye out for similar signs of disquiet "across our entire formation, not just in the medical community, but look hard to our right and left", said Lieutenant General Robert Cone, the Fort Hood commander.

- SAPA