A man walks near the entrance to the Dar Al Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va., Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009.The outreach director for the northern Virginia mosque where the suspected Fort Hood shooter sometimes attended prayer services says Maj. Nidal Hasan was not an active member.
Imam Johari Abdul-Malik of the Dar al-Hijrah (dahr al-HIDJ'-ruh) Islamic Center in Falls Church also is denouncing statements from a radical American imam living in Yemen who praised Hasan as a hero on his personal Web site Monday.
Abdul-Malik says the imam, Anwar al Awlaki (OW'-lahk-ee), was employed by the mosque from January 2001 to April 2002.
Abdul-Malik says staff members observed Hasan attend prayer services occasionally at the mosque following his mother's death in 2001. He says they noticed Hasan being "disoriented" and distant.
Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, director of outreach at the Dar Al Hijrah Islamic Center, speaks during a news conference, Monday, Nov. 9, 2009, in Falls Church, Va.
A pedestrian walks in front of 13 crosses and flowers in front of a church outside of Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, Monday, Nov. 9, 2009. Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is suspected of opening fire on fellow soldiers during a rampage on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009.
Soldiers from Fort Hood fold a American flag inside Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, Monday, Nov. 9, 2009 in preparation for President Obama's planned visit on Tuesday. Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is suspected of opening fire on fellow soldiers during a rampage that left 13 people dead on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009.
Flags and flowers are shown in front of the apartment, upper right, where Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan lived outside of Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, Monday, Nov. 9, 2009. Hasan is suspected of opening fire on fellow soldiers during a rampage that left 13 people dead on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009.
Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the U.S. Army doctor identified by authorities as the suspect in a mass shooting at the U.S. Army post in Fort Hood, Texas, is seen in this undated handout photo from a pdf file of the U.S. Government Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences downloaded on November 6, 2009.
U.S. intelligence agencies learned an Army psychiatrist tried to contact people linked to al Qaeda and they gave the information to federal authorities before the man allegedly went on shooting spree in Texas last week, U.S. sources said on Monday.
It is unclear what federal law enforcement authorities did with the information.
Thirteen people were killed in the Fort Hood shooting by the suspected gunman, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim born in the United States of immigrant parents.
The Army psychiatrist suspected of killing 12 soldiers and a civilian here last week was in e-mail contact earlier this year with a radical cleric in Yemen who has decried what he calls America's war against Islam, a federal law enforcement official said Monday.
U.S. intelligence agencies intercepted between 10 and 20 e-mails from Maj. Nidal M. Hasan to Anwar al-Aulaqi, a U.S. citizen who once was a spiritual leader at the suburban Virginia mosque where Hasan had worshipped, Rep. Peter Hoekstra (Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said later Monday. Aulaqi responded to Hasan at least twice, Hoekstra said, but he described the responses as "innocent."
The FBI dropped an inquiry into the matter after determining that the e-mails did not warrant further investigation, according to a law enforcement official, who spoke under the condition of anonymity.
"For me, the number of times that this guy tried to reach out to the imam was significant," Hoekstra said in an interview.
The revelations came as Hoekstra and other congressional leaders complained about a lack of information from the intelligence community in the days since Thursday's shooting and raised questions about the adequacy of the surveillance of Hasan in the month's leading up to the massacre.
On Capitol Hill, multiple congressional investigations of the shootings are taking shape, with a Senate committee announcing the first public hearings on the matter. Federal authorities pressed ahead with a methodical review of Hasan's computer, which officials believe could unearth more communications between him and extremists in recent months.
Hasan, who was shot four times on Thursday, is conscious and talking to medical personnel at a U.S. Army hospital in San Antonio, hospital officials said Monday.
But the lawyer hired by his family has asked investigators not to question the Army major without him present.
John P. Galligan of Belton, Tex., said he was hired Monday as Hasan's civilian lawyer. Galligan, a retired Army colonel, said he announced his hiring "because I wanted it on notice that Major Hasan has a lawyer and no one should be having contact with him without counsel."
Galligan's military career includes having servied as the chief circuit judge for the Army's Third Judicial Circuit, out of Fort Hood -- one of the busiest circuits in the Army -- and as division chief for the Army's litigation division. He said Monday evening that he had just arrived at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, where he said he was headed to speak with Hasan's doctors and then, with Hasan.
Hasan's family has not been permitted to speak to him and have not had a detailed medical briefing on his condition, Galligan said. "Let's put it this way: They have not been told more than you or I have been getting by watching TV," he said.
Hasan, 39, was flown to Brooke on Friday from a hospital in Temple, Tex., where he was taken following Thursday's shooting rampage at Fort Hood's Soldier Readiness Processing Center. The Army major, an American-born Muslim of Palestinian descent, is accused of opening fire Thursday with two handguns on soldiers preparing to deploy to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, killing 13 people and injuring 38 others before civilian police shot him four times.
"He is in stable condition, and he is conversing with the medical staff, the doctors and nurses who are assisting with his medical needs," said Maria Gallegos, a spokeswoman at Brooke Army Medical Center about 150 miles southwest of Fort Hood.
She said she could not say whether Hasan has spoken to investigators about the Fort Hood shooting. She also declined to discuss Hasan's injuries.
Another hospital spokesman said Hasan has been able to talk since he was taken off a ventilator Saturday.
Investigators from the Army's Criminal Investigation Command and the FBI have been waiting to question Hasan as they try to establish a motive for the shooting and determine whether the suspect had any assistance or instigation from anyone else.
In a news conference Monday in front of III Corps headquarters, Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone, Fort Hood's commanding general, said, "I believe this was an isolated incident, a very unfortunate isolated incident."
Aulaqi, an American-born Muslim prayer leader, wrote in a blog posting Monday, that Hasan was "a hero" and 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." He praised "the virtue" of the Fort Hood shooting and said the only way a Muslim could justify serving in the U.S. Army was if he intended to "follow in the footsteps of men like Nidal."
Aulaqi preached at the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Va., when Hasan was attending it in 2001. U.S. authorities say Aulaqi, who left the United States in 2002 and later settled in Yemen, has become a supporter and leading promoter of al-Qaeda.
Cone declined to discuss the investigation Monday. But in response to a question, he told reporters that Hasan, who arrived at Fort Hood in July from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, was primarily involving in "writing psychological profiles" of patients.
"He didn't have an extensive role in counseling soldiers," Cone said.
Cone spoke as Fort Hood prepared for Tuesday's service, which will be attended by Obama, top military brass, members of the victims' families and about 3,000 spectators.
Cone said 27 soldiers who were injured in Thursday's shooting have been released from hospitals and that most of them are expected to attend the service. Fifteen soldiers remain hospitalized, eight of them in intensive care, Cone said.
He said the service -- featuring remarks by Obama, prayers, a sermon, a roll call of the names of the dead and a 21-gun salute -- is aimed at facilitating "the grieving process" for soldiers, civilians and family members at Fort Hood, especially the estimated 600 people who "were somehow directly touched by this incident."
Cone said the Army is focusing on providing counseling to those who were traumatized by the massacre and is looking for other soldiers who may be under the same sort of stress that possibly could have affected Hasan.
"We are going to take a very hard look at ourselves and look at anything that might have been done to have prevented this," Cone said. "We have other soldiers that . . . might have some of the same stress and indicators that he has."
He said he was directing commanders to "immediately take a hard look and make sure, if there's anybody out there struggling, that we're going to address their issues."
Of the intensified security measures that have been implemented at the sprawling post since the shooting, Cone said, "Our intent is not to isolate ourselves from this great local community."
The three-star general added: "This cannot become, you know, a battlefield. . . . We will provide the right kind of security measures here on post to make sure that it doesn't."
Cone said he was generally less concerned about the impact of the shootings on soldiers, who are trained to deal with such stress, than about the effect on civilians and families who work or live on the post and who "had always previously considered this to be a safe place." He noted that many of the children who live on the post were locked down in schools for several hours after the attack while investigators tried to figure out whether the shooter had accomplices.
Another population he worries about is the group of returning war veterans who "have had behavioral problems, post-traumatic stress disorder, those types of things, in the past," Cone said. "And we don't really know what the impact of something like this [is] on them."
Cone said he has personally received messages of condolence and support from "the local Muslim community" around Fort Hood. He said he has asked commanders to be "vigilant" in protecting Muslim soldiers against any backlash. "I believe we have well over 100 Muslim soldiers, and they are valued members of our team," he said.
As he spoke, soldiers were stacking large shipping containers around the perimeter of Tuesday's memorial service site in what Cone said was a measure to provide both security and privacy.
Soldiers arrived at 4 a.m. to begin preparing Fort Hood's Sadowski Field for the service, which is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. Central time Tuesday. They stacked dozens of the nearly 4,700-pound steel containers three high around the perimeter, building what they dubbed "the Great Wall of Fort Hood."
Soldiers assigned to the task said they were looking forward to seeing Obama.
"It's always good when the boss comes to see you," said Spec. Matt Flynn, 27, of Sumter, S.C., who has served two tours in Iraq. "It's a shame he has to come for this reason."
"I've never seen any president," said Spec. Ricardo Rivera, 27, a native of Puerto Rico who has served in Afghanistan. "And I would like to see the president."
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