Questions in shooting persist as Obama speaks at Fort Hood memorial

Investigators continue to probe accused Fort Hood gunman Major Nidal Hasan's possible links to terrorism as US President Barack Obama speaks at a memorial for the 13 killed in a Nov. 5 shooting spree.
   
The FBI said Major Hasan, a military psychiatrist, came to its attention in 2008 after he communicated with the target of an FBI-led counter-terror investigation.
   

The Observers: "I knew the shooter"

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 the 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 Center.
   
"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.
   
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 spokeswoman for the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio told AFP.
   
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.
   
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.
  
Defense 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.