Claims of suspect's extremism spur probe
FORT HOOD MASSACRE | Lieberman says Army may have missed key signs
FORT HOOD, Texas -- A key U.S. senator said Sunday he would begin an investigation into whether the Army missed signs that the man accused of opening fire at Fort Hood had embraced an increasingly extremist view of Islamic ideology.
Sen. Joe Lieberman's call for an investigation came a day after classmates in a 2007-08 master's program at a military college said they complained to superiors about Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan and what they considered his anti-American views, including a presentation justifiying suicide bombing and telling classmates that Islamic law trumped the U.S. Constitution.
"If Hasan was showing signs, saying to people that he had become an Islamist extremist, the U.S. Army has to have zero tolerance," Lieberman (I-Conn.) said. "He should have been gone."
Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, wants Congress to determine if the shootings constitute a terrorist attack.
Meanwhile Sunday, mourners at Fort Hood were asked to pray for Hasan, and an Army chaplain exhorted his congregation to draw together even if the accused gunman's motives may never be fully known.
"Lord, all those around us search for motive, search for meaning, search for something, someone to blame. That is so frustrating," Col. Frank Jackson told about 120 people at the post's chapel.
Jackson asked the congregation to pray for the 13 dead and 29 wounded Hasan is accused of shooting Thursday. The chaplain also called for prayers for Hasan and his family "as they find themselves in a position that no person ever desires to be."
At least 16 victims remained hospitalized with gunshot wounds, and seven were in intensive care. Hasan is in critical but stable condition.
Investigators have learned Hasan apparently attended the same Virginia mosque as two Sept. 11 hijackers in 2001, at a time when a radical imam preached there.
The FBI probably will look into whether he associated with the hijackers, an official said.
Hasan's family held his mother's funeral at the Dar al Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va., on May 31, 2001, according to her obituary.
At the time, Anwar Aulaqi was an imam at the mosque. Aulaqi told the FBI in 2001 that he had met with 9/11 hijacker Nawaf al-Hazmi in San Diego. Al-Hazmi and another hijacker, Hani Hanjour, attended the Dar al Hijrah mosque in early April 2001. AP