Fort Hood gunman 'had extremist links'
Updated on 10 November 2009
The US authorities were aware that Major Nidal Malik Hasan had contacted a radical Muslim cleric before he allegedly killed 13 people at an army base in Texas, it has emerged.
President Obama is in Texas tonight to meet families of the 13 people shot dead at the Fort Hood air base last week and to offer words of condolence to the grieving community.
Mr Obama, together with his wife Michelle, will also meet some of the dozens of people who were injured when Major Nidal Malik Hasan allegedly went on the rampage.
He will now be charged at a military court on Tuesday, as more allegations emerge about his possible links with Islamic extremists.
Intelligence agencies said that the army psychiatrist had contacted a radical cleric sympathetic to al-Qaida last year.
While monitoring contacts with anti-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, they discovered communications with the shooting suspect, US authorities said.
The information was then given to the federal authorities, who determined that Hasan's communication was largely consistent with academic work and offered no hint that he was planning an attack, or that he was following orders from anyone.
Hasan, a US-born Muslin, will be charged in a military court following last Thursday's shooting at Fort Hood army base in Texas. 13 people were killed and 30 wounded when a gunman, believed to be Hasan, opened fire inside the base.
A row has now broken out as to whether the authorities should be blamed for not dealing appropriately with information that linked Hasan to an al-Qaida sympathiser.
