Fort Hood suspect's contact with Yemeni cleric 'disturbing'

Nov 18, 2009, 19:01 GMT

Washington - The Fort Hood shooting suspect's contacts with an American-born Yemeni cleric ahead of the deadly rampage at an Army base in Texas are 'disturbing,' the top US law enforcement official said Wednesday.

The alleged gunman, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, had reportedly exchanged emails with Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical imam who was born in New Mexico and preached at a mosque in Virginia before relocating to Yemen.

'I will say that on the basis of what I know so far, it is disturbing to know that there was this interaction between Hasan and other people,' Attorney General Eric Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Holder said the investigation into Hasan's motive was ongoing. Terrorism has not been ruled out. Hasan had reportedly expressed misgivings about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and how he was treated as a Muslim in the US Army.

Hasan was nearing a deployment to Afghanistan when he allegedly walked into a facility at Fort Hood on November 5, unleashing two handguns and killing 13 people. Hasan remains hospitalized and has been charged with 13 counts of murder.

Al-Awlaki has praised Hasan as a 'hero' for the attack, saying it was justified under Islam because it was carried against a military waging wars in two Muslim countries.

'He is a man of conscience who could not bear the contradiction of being a Muslim and fighting against his own people,' al-Awlaki wrote.