Fort Hood suspect, 9/11 hijackers link studied

Lieberman calls for inquiry into extremism cues

November 09, 2009|Allen G. Breed, Associated Press

FORT HOOD, Texas - Federal investigators are looking into links between the Fort Hood shooting suspect and a radical imam who preached at a Virginia mosque attended by two Sept. 11 hijackers in 2001.

Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut yesterday called for an investigation into whether the Army missed signs that the accused killer, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, had embraced an increasingly extremist view of Islamic ideology.

Whether Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, associated with the hijackers is something the FBI will probably look into, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Hasan’s family held his mother’s funeral at the Dar al Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va., on May 31, 2001, when Anwar Aulaqi was an imam, or spiritual leader of the mosque.

Aulaqi told the FBI in 2001 that, before he moved to Virginia in early 2001, he met with 9/11 hijacker Nawaf al-Hazmi several times in San Diego. Hazmi and another hijacker, Hani Hanjour, attended the Virginia mosque in early April 2001.

Aulaqi, a native-born US citizen, left the United States in 2002, eventually traveling to Yemen. He was investigated by the FBI in 1999 and 2000 after it was learned that he may have been contacted by a possible procurement agent for Osama bin Laden. The FBI also learned that Aulaqi knew people involved in raising money for Hamas, a Palestinian group on the US terrorist list.

Classmates participating in a 2007-2008 master’s program at a military college complained to superiors about what they considered Hasan’s anti-American views. Dr. Val Finnell said Hasan gave a presentation at the Uniformed Services University that justified suicide bombing and told classmates that Islamic law trumped the US Constitution.

Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, wants Congress to determine whether the shootings constitute a terrorist attack.

“If Hasan was showing signs, saying to people that he had become an Islamist extremist, the US Army has to have zero tolerance,’’ Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, said on “Fox News Sunday.’’ “He should have been gone.’’

Authorities continue to refer to Hasan, 39, as the only suspect in the shootings that killed 13 and wounded 29, but they won’t say when charges would be filed. They have not revealed a possible motive. Hasan, who was shot by civilian police to end the rampage, was in critical but stable condition at an Army hospital in San Antonio.

He was breathing on his own after being taken off a ventilator on Saturday, but officials won’t say whether Hasan can communicate. Sixteen victims remained hospitalized with gunshot wounds, and seven were in intensive care.