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Hasan tied to radical cleric

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By DAVID JOHNSTON and SCOTT SHANE

The New York Times

Published: November 10, 2009

WASHINGTON - Intelligence agencies intercepted communications last year and this year between the military psychiatrist accused of shooting to death 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, and a radical cleric in Yemen known for his incendiary anti-American teachings.

Federal authorities, however, dropped an inquiry into the matter after deciding the messages from Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan warranted no further action, government officials said Monday.

Hasan's exchanges with Anwar Awlaki, once a spiritual leader at a mosque in suburban Virginia where Hasan worshipped, indicate that the troubled military psychiatrist came to the attention of the authorities long before the shootings Thursday at Fort Hood.

It is not clear what was said in the exchanges, thought to be e-mail messages, or whether they clarify Hasan's views or offer insight on his emotional state.

The communications, the subject of an inquiry by FBI and Army investigators, provide the first indication that Hasan was in direct communication with the cleric, who on Monday praised Hasan on a Web site, saying the Army psychiatrist "did the right thing" in attacking soldiers preparing to deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq.

The posting on the Web site of Awlaki, who was a spiritual leader at two mosques where three 9/11 hijackers worshipped, states that American Muslims who condemned the attacks on the Texas military base last week are hypocrites who have committed treason against their religion.

Awlaki says the only way a Muslim can justify serving in the U.S. military is if he intends to "follow in the footsteps of men like Nidal."

"Nidal Hassan (sic) is a hero. He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people," Awlaki wrote.

Hasan's family attended the Dar al Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va., where Awlaki was preaching in 2001.

Hasan's mother's funeral was held at the Falls Church mosque on May 31, 2001, according to her obituary in the Roanoke Times newspaper, about the same time that two 9/11 hijackers worshipped at the mosque and while Awlaki was preaching.

Awlaki is a native-born U.S. citizen who left the United States in 2002, eventually traveling to Yemen.

He was released from a jail in Yemen last year, and his location is not known. He is on Yemen's most-wanted-militant list.

Officials say Awlaki was arrested in 2006 with a small group of suspected al-Qaida militants in the capital, San'a.

They say he was released more than a year later after vowing he would not break the law or leave the country.

A former senior U.S. intelligence official said Awlaki is well known in the intelligence community.

The Homeland Security Department's intelligence division became concerned about Awlaki late last year when he published a new group of violent lectures targeting U.S. audiences, according to an intelligence note released Jan. 22.

Awlaki 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.

Al-Hazmi at the time was living with Khalid al-Mihdhar, another hijacker. Al-Hazmi and another hijacker, Hani Hanjour, attended the Dar al Hijrah mosque in Virginia in early April 2001.

Federal officials say the communications between Hasan and Awlaki do not alter the prevailing theory that Hasan acted by himself, lashing out as a result of combination of factors, including his outspoken opposition to U.S. policy in Iraq and Afghanistan and his deepening religious fervor as a Muslim.

Hasan, who is at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, has regained consciousness and is able to talk, though it is unclear whether he has spoken to federal investigators about the shootings.

"He is critical but stable," a hospital spokeswoman said.

She added that Hasan came out of a coma on Saturday and has been conversing with his doctors. He was in a coma when he arrived in San Antonio on Friday.

Senior U.S. investigators said Monday night that Hasan will be charged in military court based on an agreement reached between the Justice Department and the Defense Department.

Hasan's attorney, Col. John P. Galligan, said he spoke with his client for about 30 minutes Monday night. He asked investigators not to question his client and expressed doubt he could get a fair trial.

Many questions remain about Hasan's state of mind; a revelation Monday didn't help.

The manager of a strip club about a quarter mile from the mosque where Hasan prayed five times a day, and next door to the gun shop where he bought a pistol used in the shootings, said Hasan was a customer.

The club manager, Matthew Jones, said Hasan had been in the Starz strip club at least three times in the past month.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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