A judge in Yemen on Saturday ordered the capture of U.S.-born militant cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, prompting the deployment of more troops to seize the man and bring him to court.
A Yemeni security official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told CNN that security forces sent hundreds of additional troops to the volatile Shabwa province to help in the ongoing search for al-Awlaki, now on a CIA and military hit list to be captured or killed.
Last week, security forces and local tribesmen began the hunt for al-Awlaki, regarded by the United States as a terrorist and propagandist who has become an important operational figure within al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP.
The court order, from Judge Mohsen Alwan, came during a trial of suspected militants in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. Prosecutors accused al-Awlaki and two others with "forming an armed gang" to target foreign officers and law enforcement.
Al-Awlaki and his cousin, Othman al-Awlaki, were charged along with Hisham Asim, who is accused of killing a French national last month who worked for an Austrian oil and gas company.
Earlier this week in court, the al-Awlakis were charged with inciting violence against foreigners and Asim was charged with the killing and with having ties to al Qaeda.
The al-Awlakis are at large and were charged in absentia, but Asim was present in court Saturday.
During questioning by Alwan, Asim claimed he was tortured during interrogation.
Prosecutors say Asim was incited to kill foreigners after months of correspondence with Anwar al-Awlaki.
Asim denied all charges against him.
The judge also suggested that Anwar al-Awlaki was a member of a terrorist organization, opening the door to formally charging al-Awlaki with being a member of al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing and trying him as an al Qaeda suspect in later hearings.
The session was later adjourned until next Saturday.
Al-Awlaki has been linked by U.S. authorities to Fort Hood shooting suspect Maj. Nidal Hasan and the suspect accused in the Christmas Day airline bombing attempt.
Investigators have not announced a link between him and the recent U.S. bomb plot tied to militants in Yemen.
AQAP on Friday claimed responsibility for the plot and a September UPS cargo plane crash in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Over the past several months, Yemen, which wants to be seen as a committed partner in the fight against terrorism, has launched several offensives against al Qaeda.
U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) met face-to-face Thursday in a town hall meeting with members of Charlotte's Muslim community, defending controversial comments she's made about Islamic extremists.
Myrick stepped into the fire last year when she began talking about her concerns that radical Muslims are "infiltrating" American institutions, including the U.S. government.
In the foreword to a book titled, "Muslim Mafia," Myrick wrote, "America is asleep to the danger that confronts us. Since the 1960s there has been a concerted effort on the part of radical Islamists to infiltrate our major institutions."
Myrick also publicly requested an investigation into the Council of American Islamic Relations, accusing the civil rights organization of "infiltrating" the offices of key members of Congress by placing interns there.
In November, when Army Major Nadal Hasan shot 13 people at Fort Hood, Myrick said some of her fears were realized.
Supporters call her words courageous. Several Muslim groups, including the American Islamic Forum for Democracy and it's founder Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, support her.
Myrick said the purpose of Thursday night's forum was to reach out and discuss those topics, especially with many Muslims who complained the congresswoman was painting their community with too broad a brush.
The Government Center auditorium where a forum was held was packed. Many people in the crowd wore traditional Muslim head coverings, but there were also dozens of non-Muslims who told NewsChannel 36 they came to learn or to support the congresswoman.
"When I talk about that, I talk about people who are supporters or sympathizers with a radical agenda that they would like to see implemented. It isn’t all Muslims are bad or that all Muslims are trying to do this," Myrick explained. "Radicalism is like a form of cancer that humanity has and we have the means to cure it...We need to stand up against it and find ways to solve it."
"I feel the hurt of Americans, but I also feel the hurt of Muslims who have nothing to do with what's going on," said Khalil Akbar, a local man. "No one has ever said to me, 'Blow up anything,' because if I heard that kind of rhetoric I would be the first one to deal with it."
"As citizens of a non-Muslim country, we have a contract with America, not a contract on America," Jibril Hough, spokesperson for the Islamic Center of Charlotte, said.
Hough and Akbar both encouraged Myrick to visit a mosque or Islamic center and continue the conversation.
As she left for Washington Thursday night, Myrick pledged to make this just a first step. "We'll see where we go from here," she said.
Bomb technicians discovered a "multitude" of explosives Wednesday at the home of a man suspected in the shooting deaths of eight people, and crews were detonating the devices as more details about the gunman came to light.
Christopher Bryan Speight, a 39-year-old security guard, surrendered to police at daybreak Wednesday after leading authorities on an 18-hour manhunt following the shootings at a house in rural central Virginia where deputies found a mortally wounded man and seven bodies.
As of late Wednesday, bomb squads had found and detonated seven explosives. The blasting was expected to continue into Thursday.
Speight had no weapons when he surrendered shortly after 7 a.m. Wednesday wearing a bulletproof vest over a black fleece jacket, camouflage pants and mud-caked boots.
Neither the sheriff nor a state police spokeswoman would disclose what Speight said when he gave up.
Authorities remained tightlipped on most details surrounding the slayings, including any possible motive. Nor did they immediately identify any of the victims or their relationship to the suspect. Authorities would say only that he knew his victims.
Speight was being held on one charge of first-degree murder Wednesday night, said Lt. J.D. Baker of the Lynchburg Adult Detention Center.
Speight co-owned and lived in the home where some of the bodies were found. Reporters were allowed to see the home Wednesday. The two-story house had a big patio, where there was furniture, a children's bicycle and a plastic basketball hoop. The yard was landscaped and well-manicured.
Gun enthusiast
Neighbor Monte W. Mays said Speight's mother deeded the house to Speight and his sister in 2006, shortly before she died of brain cancer.
Mays, the county's retired commissioner of accounts, said Speight was a good neighbor. They waved as they passed each other on the road and sent their dogs out to play with one another.
"All the dealings I've ever had with him have been cordial and polite," Mays said. "We got along fine."
Speight long had been a gun enthusiast and enjoyed target shooting at a range on his property, Mays said. But the shooting recently became a daily occurrence, with Speight firing what Mays said were high-powered and automatic rifles.
"Then we noticed he was doing it at nighttime," and the gunfire started going deeper into the woods, Mays said.
Mays said the entire community is devastated and wondering what triggered the slayings.
"The only one who's going to know now is Chris," he said.
David Anderson, co-owner of the Sunshine Market grocery store in Lynchburg, where Speight sometimes provided security, said Speight was worried that his sister and brother-in-law wanted to kick him out of the house.
Speight never wanted to talk about it, but he "constantly paced the floor," Anderson said. "I thought he was going to wear a trench in it."
Clarence Reynolds, who also works at the market, said he recently discussed a personal family problem with Speight, and Speight told him "don't let your emotions get the best of you."
Reynolds said Speight was not married and had no children.
Experience with Weapons
Police were alerted to the bloodbath when they found the mortally wounded man on the side of a road. Then sheriff's deputies discovered seven more bodies — three inside the house and four just outside.
When officers converged on the area, the suspected shooter fired a high-powered rifle at a state police helicopter, rupturing its gas tank and forcing it to land.
The shots revealed his location, and more than 100 police swarmed into the woods until Speight gave up the following morning.
Police said Speight appeared to have had weapons training, but there was no information suggesting he had served in the military.
Speight's uncle, Jack Giglio of Tampa, Fla., told The Associated Press that his nephew was a deer hunter, but as far as he knew Speight did not have any specialized weapons training. Giglio said he had not seen Speight since 2006, when both attended the funeral for Speight's mother, who died of brain cancer.
"We're shocked, of course," Giglio said. "I'm not aware of any problems with him. It's kind of out of the blue. We're still trying to pick up facts, too."
Appomattox County court records show a concealed weapons permit was issued to a Christopher Bryan Speight three times between 1999 and last year.
Local, state and federal investigators scoured a university campus in Virginia for clues to what set off the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history after a gunman shot two people to death in a dormitory Monday morning before making his way to a classroom building where, silently and coolly, he killed 30 more people before turning his weapon on himself, authorities said.
At least 15 other people were wounded in the shootings, which took place over 2½ hours at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Some of them were injured as they leapt to safety from the windows of their classrooms.
The shootings, which came just four days before the eighth anniversary of the Columbine High School bloodbath, in which two students killed 13 people and themselves near Littleton, Colo., created panic and confusion at the university, which was already on edge after two weeks of bomb threats.
After the scope of the carnage was clear, angry students and employees demanded to know why the first e-mail warning from police and administrators did not go out to them for more than two hours, even though the killer of two people was at large. By then, the gunman had struck a second time.
Nearly 50 victims
In all, 33 people died Monday at Virginia Tech, including the gunman. The 15 who were wounded were treated for gunshots or other injuries, authorities said. Their conditions were not reported.
Campus Police Chief Wendell Flinchum would not officially confirm that the two incidents were related, pending the results of the investigation, but he referred to only one gunman and said no other suspect was being sought. Numerous federal and local law enforcement officials told NBC News that the events were the work of a lone gunman.
Federal investigators told NBC News’ Pete Williams that they believed the man was a Virginia Tech student in his early 20s. Their identification was delayed for several hours, they said, because the man’s face was disfigured when he shot himself, he carried no ID and an initial check on his fingerprints came up empty.
The man’s two guns, which were bought in Virginia and whose serial numbers had been obliterated, were to be examined at a laboratory of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Williams reported, citing federal law enforcement officials. That examination was also delayed because authorities had to drive the guns to the lab in the suburbs of Washington after high winds precluded them from using an airplane.
Early reports in the initial confusion said police had a suspect in custody, but Flinchum said later that the person was only being questioned for information because he knew one of the dormitory victims. Officers were interviewing him off-campus when reports of the second round of shooting came in, Flinchum said, and the man was not in custody.
Warnings came too late
Charles Steger, the university’s president, and law enforcement authorities gave this account of the day’s events in public statements and comments to NBC News:
The rampage began about 7:15 a.m. ET at West Ambler Johnston, a co-educational residence hall that houses 895 people. The gunman, armed with a 9-mm pistol and a .22-caliber handgun, killed a man and a woman there.
About 2½ hours later, police responded to a 911 call reporting that shots had been fired at Norris Hall, an engineering classroom building about a half-mile away on the opposite end of the 2,600-acre campus. They discovered that the front doors had been chained from the inside, apparently so victims could not escape and police could not enter.
Officers forced their way in and followed the sound of gunshots to the second floor, where they found the gunman, who had shot himself in the face. As they canvassed the building, they found dozens of gunshot victims. Eventually, they announced that 31, including the gunman, were dead in the classroom building.
“It’s probably one of the worst things I’ve seen in my life,” Flinchum said.
Shaken students said they believed many of the victims might have been spared if campus officials had taken more immediate steps to secure the campus after the first shootings at the dormitory.
The first e-mail warning to students and employees did not go out to students, faculty and staff until 9:26 a.m., more than two hours after the shooting at the dormitory, according to the time stamps on copies obtained by NBC News. By then, the classroom shooting was under way. The message warned students to be cautious but did not warn them not to go to class.
“I really thought they should have canceled classes sooner,” Sam Leake, a junior who lives in West Ambler Johnston, told the campus newspaper, The Collegiate Times. “If they had, maybe some of these deaths could have been prevented.”
Steger said administrators and police initially believed the first shooting was an isolated incident and did not see a need to close the university. He said they believed the gunman had fled the campus.
“We can only make decisions based on the information you had on the time. You don’t have hours to reflect on it,” he said.
Silent gunman strikes without warning
As the first warning was just going out, a bloody scene was unfolding inside the engineering building. Police could not monitor what was going on because the building is not equipped with surveillance cameras, Flinchum said.
Trey Perkins, a sophomore, told MSNBC-TV’s Chris Jansing in a telephone interview that the gunman never said a word.
“He didn’t say, ‘Get down.’ He didn’t say anything. He just started shooting,” Perkins said.
The gunman left that classroom and then tried to return, but students kept him out by bracing the door closed with their feet. “He started to try to come in again and started shooting through the door,” Perkins said, but hit no one.
“I got on the ground and I was just thinking, like, there’s no way I’m going to survive this,” Perkins said. “All I could keep thinking of was my mom.”
Derek O’Dell, a sophomore biology major, told MSNBC-TV’s Alison Stewart that it was “very surreal.”
“At first, I thought it was joke,” said O’Dell, who was shot in an arm. “You don’t really think of a gunman coming on campus and shooting people.”
Until Monday, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history was in Killeen, Texas, in 1991, when George Hennard plowed his pickup truck into a Luby’s Cafeteria and shot 23 people to death, then himself.
The deadliest previous campus shooting in U.S. history took place in 1966 at the University of Texas, where Charles Whitman climbed to the 28th-floor observation deck of a clock tower and opened fire. He killed 16 people before he was gunned down by police.
All entrances to the campus were closed Monday, and Tuesday’s classes were canceled. The university set up a meeting place for families to reunite with their children at the Inn at Virginia Tech. It also made counselors available and planned a convocation for Tuesday at the Cassell Coliseum basketball arena, which White House officials said President Bush was considering attending.
Bush said in a brief televised statement: “Schools should be places of sanctuary and safety and learning. When that sanctuary is violated, the impact is felt in every American classroom and every American community. Today, our nation grieves with those who have lost loved ones at Virginia Tech.”
Authorities knew about Fort Hood suspect. FBI officials admitted they knew months ago that Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was e-mailing a radical Muslim cleric overseas. A Morning Meeting panel discusses how authorities missed what appeared to be multiple red flags in the Fort Hood massacre.
Even before the shootings at this sprawling military post, Pfc. Nicolas Woodworth was wary of shipping out for Afghanistan in early January. As a combat engineer, he is supposed to serve on a route-clearance team, creeping down Afghan roads at 5 mph looking for bombs.
To steel himself for the dangerous and nerve-racking job, Woodworth relied on Pfc. Aaron Nemelka. Nemelka often slept on the couch in the small apartment that Woodworth and his wife had rented just outside Fort Hood. The two soldiers entered bowling tournaments together and spent hours watching Quentin Tarantino movies.
Woodworth didn't want to go to war, he said this week. But he also couldn't bear the thought of letting his best friend go without him.
Nemelka was among the first soldiers killed when Maj. Nidal M. Hasan allegedly opened fire on his fellow soldiers Nov. 5. Now Woodworth is wavering. "I am absolutely not ready to deploy," the 20-year-old said as he nervously gnawed on the edge of his black Army beret. "I don't know if I am mentally ready" to lose someone else.
His struggles pose a dilemma for his platoon leader, 2nd Lt. Ryan Corken. His two dozen soldiers, members of the 20th Engineer Battalion, were tense before the shootings. The 20th Engineers will replace a 700-member battalion that has lost 11 soldiers in Afghanistan. Four were killed in late October when a 1,000-pound bomb struck one of their mine-clearing vehicles.
"Is Woodworth kind of scared to deploy?" Corken, 24, asked rhetorically. "Yes. We are all scared. But you don't want to perpetuate that by making it an easy out. You have to balance those who truly need help with those who are getting cold feet and trying to avoid their responsibilities."
Corken's platoon, which began November with 27 soldiers, lost three in the Fort Hood attack. This week the platoon's troops finished their final tributes to the fallen. Soldiers loaded their belongings into shipping containers, completed their wills, and took inventory of the physical and emotional damage wrought by the shootings.
Waiting for his friend
On the day of the attack, Nemelka and five of his platoon comrades were getting immunizations and filling out pre-deployment paperwork at Fort Hood's Soldier Readiness Processing Center. Woodworth was in his car in the center's parking lot, waiting for his friend, when the shootings began. Nemelka was one of the first soldiers to die, witnesses said.
Woodworth watched as the gunman left the building, still shooting at fleeing soldiers. A few feet from Woodworth, a volley of bullets struck a soldier, who crumpled onto the hood of a car.
Woodworth removed his T-shirt to use as a bandage, and he handed his belt to a medic, who fashioned it into a tourniquet to save a major who had been struck in the leg.
In Woodworth's combat lifesaver classes, treating the wounded seemed relatively straightforward. "When blood is actually gushing from them, it is much harder," he said.
Since the shooting, he said, he has been unable to sleep more than a few hours a night. When he looks at his kitchen table, he sees Nemelka, a skinny 19-year-old, grinning back at him. To memorialize his friend, Woodworth went to a tattoo parlor and had a black rose with Nemelka's name inked into his rib cage, along with his friend's dates of birth and death.
Woodworth tries to talk to his wife, whom he met and married only a few months after moving to Fort Hood. She is seven months pregnant with their first child. "It feels like stuff is crashing down," he said.
Most of the other soldiers in his platoon aren't grieving in the same manner as Woodworth. Pfc. Nicholas Buchman was inside the readiness center and dived for cover when the gunfire began. Crawling on his belly, he hid in a hallway off the main meeting room. A sergeant handed him the plastic base of an oscillating fan for self-defense. "I guess I was going to hit [the shooter] with it," Buchman said.
There were only two ways out of the building. One exit ran through the hallway where Buchman was hiding. The gunman took the other exit.
Once the shooting stopped, Buchman rushed to help with first aid. He hopped into a pickup truck ferrying wounded soldiers to the hospital and was quickly drenched in their blood.
The experience, Buchman said, has left him more confident in himself and his training.
Last week, the platoon's soldiers gathered on the Fort Hood runway and stood at attention as transfer cases bearing their dead colleagues were loaded on a plane for Dover Air Force Base. Corken addressed his men on the edge of the tarmac. "These soldiers wanted to deploy and wanted to be in the Army," he said. "When we go to Afghanistan, we need to make them proud. We will carry their names with honor and pride."
A Leadership issue
Lt. Col. Peter Andrysiak said Corken told him that the shootings had increased anxiety about deploying among a few of the soldiers in his platoon. All of the affected soldiers, including Woodworth, have seen mental health counselors or psychiatrists.
But Andrysiak told Corken that he couldn't just rely on the counselors to get his troops mentally ready to go. "This is a leadership issue," he recalled telling the young officer. "You have got to be engaged in talking to your soldiers over and over. You have to talk to them every day and help them understand that what they are experiencing is normal. . . . This is not something I can solve for you in morning formation with the battalion."
The contrast between Woodworth and Buchman is particularly puzzling to Corken. "Buchman was more affected by the shooting than Woodworth, and he is ready to deploy," he said.
The lieutenant has spent a lot of time thinking about how he can reach Woodworth and whether it makes sense to force him to go, especially if he continues to say that he can't handle the mental strain. With the deployment drawing closer, Corken has thought about invoking Nemelka's name, telling his struggling soldier that his friend would want him to go.
So far he has resisted the urge. "I don't want Woodworth to feel that I am leveraging the death of one of our soldiers to get him to fight," Corken said. "Nemelka doesn't deserve that."
Major Nidal Hasan seemed worried about the results of an HIV blood test taken a week before the Fort Hood shooting rampage, according to federal investigators piecing together background details on Hasan's life.
The information came from a member of the Fort Hood medical staff who was in the building where Hasan is accused of opening fire on November 5 and killing 13 people.
The investigators said there was no indication that Hasan was HIV positive, although a bottle of medicine used to treat HIV-positive individuals, Combivir, was seen in Hasan's apartment by ABC News last week. Medical experts say many doctors also have Combivir on hand in case of an accidental needle stick. A second drug seen in the apartment, clarithromycin, is an antibiotic designed to treat respiratory infections. However, it can also be used to treat specific opportunistic infections in patients with HIV.
Hasan, who is not married, was a regular at a Killeen, Texas strip club which features nude dancers, according to employees there.
Gates: Pentagon to review internal policies. Defense Secretary Robert Gates announces a DOD review of procedures and policies in an effort to prevent incidents such as the shootings at Fort Hood from happening again.
For soldiers, channeling stress is constant battle. The psychological difficulties many U.S. troops face when returning home from combat is one reason violence has spiked in military communities. NBC's Janet Shamlian reports.
Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan called himself a "soldier of Allah" on business cards found in his apartment after the shooting rampage at Fort Hood in which he is accused of murdering 13 people.
Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, reportedly obtained the business cards over the Internet. In addition to listing his profession and contact information, the cards contain a discrete reference to his religion: "SoA(SWT)."
Watchdogs say the first letters are shorthand among militant Muslims to "soldier of Allah." The last letters refer to "Subhanahu Wa Ta'all," which means "glory to God."
The business cards were among numerous discoveries in Hasan's apartment of interest to investigators, who also are looking into whether Hasan wired money to Pakistan before last week's massacre.
Reporters including Fox News camera crews were shown inside Hasan's sparse one-bedroom apartment. Hasan, 39, who was wounded in the Nov. 5 massacre and has been talking to investigators since he regained consciousness in the hospital, was charged Thursday with 13 counts of premeditated murder.
Among the items reportedly found in his upstairs apartment: bottles of vitamins and medications stuffed in a shoebox for which Hasan had obtained prescriptions or, in some cases, that he had prescribed for himself.
Combivir, a drug used to treat HIV, was in the stash with about a dozen pills left in the bottle, the Dallas Morning News reported. It had been given to Hasan in 2001 at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, the newspaper said.
It wasn't known why Hasan had the HIV medication or whether he was taking it. Combivir also has been prescribed to medical workers to prevent exposure to HIV in needles.
Prescription cough suppressants were among the other bottles reporters said they saw.
A closed closet with a "Do Not Open" sign taped to it was photographed in Hasan's unit at the Casa Del Norte apartments. A manager there taped the closet door shut after inspecting it and letting the media in, according to the Morning News.
Israeli and Jordanian coins, a prayer rug, a psychiatric medicine manual, a green lockbox left in the kitchen sink, an empty paper shredder and a DVD burner also were seen in the apartment.
Officials investigating the murders confiscated other possessions.
Meanwhile, authorities say they're looking at whether Hasan was sending money to Pakistan --and if so, why. The Virginia-born soldier is the son of Palestinian immigrants, was raised in the United States and has some relatives still living in the West Bank.
Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., told the Morning News that sources "outside of the [intelligence] community" have information about Hasan's possible ties to Pakistan, which is battling a large Islamist insurgency movement.
Hoekstra, the House Intelligence Committee's ranking Republican, declined to identify the sources.
"They are trying to follow up on it because they recognize that if there are communications — phone or money transfers with somebody in Pakistan — it just raises a whole other level of questions," he told the paper.
Hasan's family has said he doesn't have ties to Islamic extremists.
In another development, the military psychiatrists who supervised Hasan at Walter Reed Army Medical Center reportedly tried to re-channel his growing focus on American-fought wars in Muslim countries.
A Walter Reed staff member familiar with his medical training told The Washington Post that Hasan was ordered to attend university lectures on terrorism, Islam and the Middle East in the hopes of redirecting his increasing preoccupation with the conflicts felt by Muslim American soldiers on the front lines.
U.S. military doctors overseeing Hasan's medical training reportedly had been worried he was "psychotic" and possibly capable of killing other American soldiers.
Medical officials at Walter Reed Army Medical Center held a series of meetings beginning in the Spring of 2008 to discuss serious concerns about Hasan's work and behavior, National Public Radio reported.
"Put it this way," one official told NPR. "Everybody felt that if you were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, you would not want Nidal Hasan in your foxhole."
An official who participated in the discussions reportedly told others he was worried that if Hasan was deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, he might leak covert military information to Islamic extremists, NPR reported.
Another official "wondered aloud" to colleagues whether Hasan might be capable of killing fellow soldiers in the same way a Muslim sergeant in 2003 had set off grenades at a base in Kuwait, killing two and wounding 14, the radio network reported.
The officials who discussed Hasan's status were unaware — as some top Walter Reed hospital officials were — that intelligence agencies had been tracking Hasan's e-mails to a radical imam since December 2008, NPR said.
Officials considered kicking Hasan out of the program but chose not to partly because firing a doctor is a "cumbersome and lengthy" process that involves hearings and potential legal conflict, sources told NPR.
Officials also believed they lacked solid evidence that Hasan was unstable and were concerned they could be accused of discriminating against him because of his Islamic identity or views.
Hasan is accused of spraying a Fort Hood soldier processing center with more than 100 bullets last Thursday before civilian police shot him. He is recovering, under guard, at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.
The Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people in a shooting spree at Fort Hood made or accepted wire transfers with Pakistan, a country wracked by Muslim extremist violence, a Republican congressman said Friday.
Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, the ranking GOP member of the House Homeland Security Intelligence Subcommittee, said people outside the intelligence community with direct knowledge of the transfers also told him Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan had communications with Pakistan.
“He may have friends or relatives or whatever and this could be totally (innocent),” McCaul said in a telephone interview. “But if he is wiring money to Pakistan, that could be terrorist financing. If he was receiving money from Pakistan, that is more significant.”
McCaul said he does not know the direction of the transfers and communications, only that they passed between Hasan and Pakistan. He said the lack of additional information is why Congress should launch an investigation.
Hasan, 39, was charged Thursday with 13 counts of premeditated murder in a military court, and Army investigators have said he could face additional charges. His attorney, John Galligan, has said prosecutors have not yet told him whether they plan to seek the death penalty.
Could be paralyzed A pair of civilian police officers responding to last week’s attack, in which 43 people were also injured, including 34 with gunshot wounds, shot Hasan four times. Recovering in the intensive care unit at San Antonio’s Brooke Army Medical Center, Hasan has told his attorney he has no feeling in his legs and extreme pain in his hands.
Galligan said doctors have told Hasan he may be permanently paralyzed from the waist down. He called his client’s medical condition “extremely serious” and said Hasan didn’t flinch when Galligan touched his leg during a meeting Thursday, when one of Hasan’s relatives was able to see him for the first time since he was hospitalized.
Hospital spokesman Dewey Mitchell said he could not confirm whether Hasan was paralyzed, since Hasan has directed hospital officials not to release any information about his condition or injuries.
The question of how Hasan spent his Army salary stems from the apparently frugal lifestyle he lived both in the small city of Killeen, Texas, outside of Fort Hood, and in the Washington, D.C., suburbs when stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In Texas, he lived in a rundown apartment that cost $350 a month and drove a 2006 Honda.
As an Army major with more than 12 years of service, Hasan earns just over $92,000 a year in basic pay and housing and food allowances, according to pay tables from the Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Hasan’s gross monthly salary is $6,325.50 a month, or $75,906 annually. He also gets $1,128 a month for a housing allowance and $223 a month for meals, which adds up to another $16,212 a year.
Pres. Obama orders review of Hasan files
Military psychiatrists may also receive as much as $20,000 a year in incentive pay, according to the tables. But to get the bonus, they must meet certain requirements, such as agreeing to remain on active duty for at least one year after accepting the award. Hasan’s Army records are sealed due to the ongoing investigation, and it isn’t clear if he was eligible for the bonus or agreed to the conditions.
President Barack Obama has ordered a review of all intelligence related to Hasan and whether the information was properly shared and acted upon within government agencies. Several members of Congress, particularly Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, have also called for a full examination of what agencies knew about Hasan’s contacts with a radical Muslim cleric in Yemen and others of concern to the U.S.
Hoekstra confirmed this week that government officials knew about 10 to 20 e-mails between Hasan and the radical imam, beginning in December 2008.
A joint terrorism task force overseen by the FBI learned late last year of Hasan’s repeated contact with the cleric, who encouraged Muslims to kill U.S. troops in Iraq. The FBI said the task force did not refer early information about Hasan to superiors because it concluded he wasn’t linked to terrorism.
U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan was attempting to make contact with an individual associated with al Qaeda, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News.
According to the officials, the Army was informed of Hasan's contact, but it is unclear what, if anything, the Army did in response.
Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said that he requested the CIA and other intelligence agencies brief the committee on what was known, if anything, about Hasan by the U.S. intelligence community, only to be refused.
In response, Hoekstra issued a document preservation request to four intelligence agencies. The letter, dated November 7th, was sent to directors Dennis Blair (DNI), Robert Mueller (FBI), Lt. Gen Keith Alexander (NSA) and Leon Panetta (CIA).
Hoekstra said he is "absolutely furious" that the house intel committee has been refused an intelligence briefing by the DNI or CIA on Hasan's attempt to reach out to al Qaeda, as first reported by ABC News.
"This is a law enforcement investigation, in which other agencies—not the CIA—have the lead," CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said in a response to ABC News. " Any suggestion that the CIA refused to brief Congress is incorrect."
Hasan charged with 13 counts of murder. Military officials announce they will pursue 13 counts of Premeditated Murder against accused Fort Hood shooter Major Nidal Malik Hasan.
The Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people in a shooting spree at Fort Hood made or accepted wire transfers with Pakistan, a country wracked by Muslim extremist violence, a Republican congressman said Friday.
Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, the ranking GOP member of the House Homeland Security Intelligence Subcommittee, said people outside the intelligence community with direct knowledge of the transfers also told him Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan also had communications with Pakistan.
“He may have friends or relatives or whatever and this could be totally (innocent),” McCaul said in a telephone interview. “But if he is wiring money to Pakistan, that could be terrorist financing. If he was receiving money from Pakistan, that is more significant.”
McCaul said he does not know the direction of the transfers and communications, only that they passed between Hasan and Pakistan. He said the lack of additional information is why Congress should launch an investigation.
Hasan, 39, was charged Thursday with 13 counts of premeditated murder in a military court, and Army investigators have said he could face additional charges. His attorney, John Galligan, has said prosecutors have not yet told him whether they plan to seek the death penalty.
Could be Paralyzed
A pair of civilian police officers responding to last week’s attack, in which 43 people were also injured, including 34 with gunshot wounds, shot Hasan four times. Recovering in the intensive care unit at San Antonio’s Brooke Army Medical Center, Hasan has told his attorney he has no feeling in his legs and extreme pain in his hands.
Galligan said doctors have told Hasan he may be permanently paralyzed from the waist down. He called his client’s medical condition “extremely serious” and said Hasan didn’t flinch when Galligan touched his leg during a meeting Thursday, when one of Hasan’s relatives was able to see him for the first time since he was hospitalized.
Hospital spokesman Dewey Mitchell said he could not confirm whether Hasan was paralyzed, since Hasan has directed hospital officials not to release any information about his condition or injuries.
The question of how Hasan spent his Army salary stems from the apparently frugal lifestyle he lived both in the small city of Killeen, Texas, outside of Fort Hood, and in the Washington, D.C., suburbs when stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In Texas, he lived in a rundown apartment that cost $350 a month and drove a 2006 Honda.
As an Army major with more than 12 years of service, Hasan earns just over $92,000 a year in basic pay and housing and food allowances, according to pay tables from the Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Hasan’s gross monthly salary is $6,325.50 a month, or $75,906 annually. He also gets $1,128 a month for a housing allowance and $223 a month for meals, which adds up to another $16,212 a year.
Pres. Obama orders review of Hasan files
Military psychiatrists may also receive as much as $20,000 a year in incentive pay, according to the tables. But to get the bonus, they must meet certain requirements, such as agreeing to remain on active duty for at least one year after accepting the award. Hasan’s Army records are sealed due to the ongoing investigation, and it isn’t clear if he was eligible for the bonus or agreed to the conditions.
President Barack Obama has ordered a review of all intelligence related to Hasan and whether the information was properly shared and acted upon within government agencies. Several members of Congress, particularly Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, have also called for a full examination of what agencies knew about Hasan’s contacts with a radical Muslim cleric in Yemen and others of concern to the U.S.
Hoekstra confirmed this week that government officials knew about 10 to 20 e-mails between Hasan and the radical imam, beginning in December 2008.
A joint terrorism task force overseen by the FBI learned late last year of Hasan’s repeated contact with the cleric, who encouraged Muslims to kill U.S. troops in Iraq. The FBI said the task force did not refer early information about Hasan to superiors because it concluded he wasn’t linked to terrorism.
Authorities have been examining whether Fort Hood massacre suspect Nidal Malik Hasan wired money to Pakistan in recent months, an action that one senior lawmaker said would raise serious questions about Hasan's possible connections to militant Islamic groups.
Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., said sources "outside of the [intelligence] community" learned about Hasan's possible connections to the Asian country, which faces a massive Islamist insurgency and is widely believed to be Osama bin Laden's hiding place.
Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, would not identify the sources. But he said "they are trying to follow up on it because they recognize that if there are communications – phone or money transfers with somebody in Pakistan – it just raises a whole other level of questions."
Much remains unknown about the 39-year-old Hasan, born in Virginia to Palestinian immigrants. He lived alone near the Army base in Killeen, Texas, and would sometimes use a neighbor's computer even though he had his own.
"With what I know about Hasan to date ... I would expect we will learn more about him that will make us concerned," Hoekstra said, "rather than information that says, 'Oh man, we got that all wrong and this had nothing to do with terrorism.' "
Mystery of Money
Hasan's finances have been a mystery since last week, when the Army major and psychiatrist allegedly shot and killed 13 colleagues at the sprawling Central Texas military base. Hasan earned more than $90,000 a year and had no dependents, yet lived in an aging one-bedroom apartment that rented for about $300 a month.
"You can bet there is an ongoing, extensive investigation into every single financial transaction he made," said Matt Orwig, a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas who has no direct knowledge of the Hasan case. "Federal investigative agencies are very good at tracing the flow of money, both to him and from him."
Authorities know that Hasan sent repeated e-mails, starting some time in December 2008, to a radical Muslim cleric in Yemen. That cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, formerly served as imam of a large northern Virginia mosque where Hasan worshipped. The U.S.-born cleric praised Hasan after the massacre as "a hero."
In January, al-Awlaki told readers of his blog about "44 ways to support jihad" – a term often translated as "holy war." Many of his points dealt with ways to fund such efforts.
"Probably the most important contribution the Muslims of the West could do for Jihad is making Jihad with their wealth," al-Awlaki wrote. "In many cases the mujahideen are in need of money more than they are in need of men."
He also stressed the importance of "avoiding the life of luxury."
A spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department referred questions Wednesday to the FBI, which didn't return a message seeking comment. FBI officials have said they studied Hasan's communications with an unnamed radical Muslim and concluded they were a harmless part of his academic research.
Hoekstra said he wants to know whether authorities knew about Hasan's behavior when they decided his contacts with the Yemeni imam were essentially harmless.
"The conclusion based off just the e-mails might have been perfectly legitimate," Hoekstra said. "But if the [terrorism] analyst for some reason didn't have access to all this other information, that might be where the problem is."
Strange, lonely guy
Some of Hasan's former colleagues in the Washington area said his behavior raised red flags that should have been addressed. While pursuing a master's degree in public health, Hasan lectured a class about suicide bombers and the conflicts faced by Muslim U.S. soldiers fighting against other Muslims.
Doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, where Hasan trained and studied, questioned whether he was mentally unstable and a possible danger to fellow soldiers, according to National Public Radio. Discussions began in spring 2008 and continued over the next year.
"Put it this way," NPR quoted one unnamed source as saying, "everybody felt that if you were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, you would not want Nidal Hasan in your foxhole."
S. Ward Casscells, former assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, told The Dallas Morning News that Hasan had trouble connecting with patients and colleagues at Walter Reed.
"Doctors at Walter Reed I worked with say he was a strange and lonely guy who did not really earn the trust of his patients and fellow doctors," said Casscells, vice president for external affairs and public policy at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. "They attribute that to his personality, not to religious discrimination."
Despite concerns about Hasan, his views and his poor job performances, the consensus was to send him to Fort Hood after he finished his medical training, The Associated Press reported. Fort Hood was considered the best assignment for Hasan because other doctors could handle the workload if he continued to perform poorly, and his superiors could document any continued behavior problems, the AP quoted an unnamed military official familiar with the discussion as saying.
Family members said shortly after last week's rampage that Hasan opposed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, wanted out the Army and had sought legal advice. But Pentagon officials said they found nothing to indicate that Hasan formally sought to leave the Army, the AP said.
Even if Hasan had sought a discharge, the Army almost certainly would have denied it, senior Army officials told The Washington Post. Hasan had a continuing obligation to the Army because it provided his medical training and promoted him in May to the rank of major.
Colleagues and associates have described Hasan as a loner who voiced his opposition to the wars, including his assertion that Muslims were justified in fighting American troops. Hasan's family has said he became more distressed as he learned he was about to be deployed to Afghanistan.
"He is a kind of fundamentalist. He thinks a Muslim must defend themselves," said Golam Akhter, a civil engineer from Bethesda, Md., who said he spoke with Hasan on several occasions at the mosque where they worshipped.
He said he knew Hasan was a doctor but didn't know he was a member of the Army.
"He used to dress in long dresses just like Pakistanis, and that made me also concerned," Akhter said. "Usually only the imam uses those loose and long shirts and sleeves. That made me [wonder], being very educated, why he is using the imam's dress."
Hard trail to follow?
Matthew Levitt, director of counterterrorism and intelligence at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said wire transfers to Pakistan would be "extremely significant in terms of a potential network for this particular case."
Tracing money to Pakistan could be easy if Hasan used a formal bank or wire service. It would be more difficult if he sent money under another name or used an informal channel known as hawala that is popular in Pakistan and doesn't involve paperwork.
"If it turns out the person was radicalized to the point he was sending money to other insurgents or other terrorists, that takes it to another level still," Levitt said.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, has long been accused of having ties to terrorists. Now the group may be facing its most serious charges yet.
Four Republican lawmakers, led by Rep. Sue Myrick of North Carolina, are calling for a federal investigation into CAIR. At a press conference on Capitol Hill, they cited explosive new documents contained in a new book about CAIR called "Muslim Mafia."
Curry’s extended interview with Ahmadinejad. Watch Ann Curry’s exclusive interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Federal prosecutors Thursday took steps to seize four U.S. mosques and a Fifth Avenue skyscraper owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization long suspected of being secretly controlled by the Iranian government.
In what could prove to be one of the biggest Counter Terrorism seizures in U.S. history, prosecutors filed a civil complaint in federal court seeking the forfeiture of more than $500 million in assets of the Alavi Foundation and an alleged front company.
The assets include Islamic centers in New York City, Maryland, California and Houston, more than 100 acres in Virginia, and a 36-story office tower in New York.
Seizing the properties would be a sharp blow against Iran, which has been accused by the U.S. government of bankrolling terrorism and seeking a nuclear bomb.
A telephone call and e-mail to Iran's U.N. mission seeking comment were not immediately answered.
Religious backlash possible
It is extremely rare for U.S. law enforcement authorities to seize a house of worship, a step fraught with questions about the First Amendment right to freedom of religion.
The action against the Shiite Muslim mosques is sure to inflame relations between the U.S. government and American Muslims, many of whom are fearful of a backlash after last week's Fort Hood shooting rampage, blamed on a Muslim American soldier.
The mosques and the office tower will remain open while the forfeiture case works its way through court in what could be a long process. What will happen to them if the government ultimately prevails is unclear. But the government typically sells properties it has seized through forfeiture, and the proceeds are sometimes distributed to crime victims.
There were no raids Thursday as part of the forfeiture action. The government is simply required to post notices of the civil complaint on the property.
Prosecutors said the Alavi Foundation, through a front company known as Assa Corp., illegally funneled millions in rental income back to Iran's state-owned Bank Melli. Bank Melli has been accused by a U.S. Treasury official of providing support for Iran's nuclear program, and it is illegal in the United States to do business with the bank.
Government officials have long suspected the foundation was an arm of the Iranian government; a 97-page complaint details involvement of several top officials in foundation business, including the country's deputy prime minister and ambassadors to the United Nations.
"For two decades, the Alavi Foundation's affairs have been directed by various Iranian officials, including Iranian ambassadors to the United Nations, in violation of a series of American laws," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.
The skyscraper, known as the Piaget building, was erected in the 1970s under the shah of Iran, who was overthrown in 1979. The tenants include law and investment firms and other businesses.
The sleek, modern building, last valued at $570 million to $650 million in 2007, has served as important source of income for the foundation over the past 36 years. The most recent tax records show the foundation earned $4.5 million from rents in 2007.
Rents collected from the building help fund the centers and other ventures, such as sending imprisoned Muslims in the U.S. educational literature. The foundation has also invested in dozens of mosques around the country and supported Iranian academics at prominent universities.
Extremely rare
If federal prosecutors seize the skyscraper, the Alavi Foundation would have almost no way to continue supporting the Islamic centers, which house schools and mosques. That could leave a major void in Shiite communities, and hard feelings toward the FBI.
Legal scholars who specialize in religious liberty issues said they know of only a few cases in U.S. history in which law enforcement authorities have seized a house of worship. Marc Stern, a religious-liberty expert with the American Jewish Congress, called such cases "extremely rare."
The Alavi Foundation is the successor organization to the Pahlavi Foundation, a nonprofit group used by the shah to advance Iran's charitable interests in America. But authorities said its agenda changed after the fall of the shah.
In 2007, the United States accused Bank Melli of providing services to Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs and put the bank on its list of companies whose assets must be frozen.
The United States has imposed sanctions against various other Iranian banks and other businesses.
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