Army shooter had 9/11-linked cleric

Texas/Houston, Nov. 8: Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the sole suspect in the massacre of 13 fellow US soldiers in Texas on Thursday, was linked with a radical imam who was a “spiritual adviser” to three of the hijackers who attacked America on September 11, 2001.

Radical Imam Anwar al-Awlaki and Hasan attended the controversial Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Great Falls, Virginia, in 2001 at the same time as two of the September 11 terrorists, the Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

His mother’s funeral was held there in May that year.

Hasan’s eyes “lit up” when he mentioned his deep respect for al-Awlaki’s teachings, accor-ding to a fellow Muslim officer at the Fort Hood base in Texas, the scene of Thursday’s horrific shooting spree.

Relatives said that the death of Hasan’s parents, in 1998 and 2001, turned him more devout.

His failed search for a wife also seemed to haunt Hasan. Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the US Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people in a shooting rampage in the worst such incident at a US military base, was on Sunday taken off ventilator even as investigators looked for clues to ascertain the motive for the killings. Hasan, who went into coma after being shot several times in exchange of fire, is now stable.