HOUSTON, (Reuters) – The U.S. Army has charged a military psychiatrist with 13 counts of murder in last week’s shooting spree at the Fort Hood Army base, which shocked the country as it prepared to celebrate Veterans Day.
An Army spokesman said yesterday that Major Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, a Muslim born in the United States of immigrant parents, was charged with murdering the 13 victims of the Nov. 5 rampage at Fort Hood, the world’s biggest military facility.
He could face the death penalty and the case has drawn criticism of army intelligence after it it became known that Hasan had been in contact with an Islamic figure sympathetic to al Qaeda.
President Barack Obama has ordered a review of how U.S. intelligence agencies handled information they may have gathered about Hasan following questions about whether authorities may have missed warning signs about him.
Hasan is undergoing treatment at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas for wounds from the gunshots that took him down during the attack.
If convicted of premeditated murder by a military court he could face the death penalty, a U.S. military official said.
The Army is not ruling out bringing future charges against Hasan. “We are doing everything possible and we are looking at every reason for this shooting,” said Chris Grey, a spokesman for the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division.
Hasan’s lawyer, retired Col. John Galligan, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Intelligence agencies learned that Hasan had contacts with an Islamist sympathetic to al Qaeda and relayed the information to law enforcement authorities before last week’s attack. Officials have said no action was taken.
Obama sent a memorandum to the secretary of defense, directors of National Intelligence and the Federal Bureau of Investigation dated Nov. 10 and released on Thursday. In it he said he ordered the review the day after the shooting.
“I directed that an immediate inventory be conducted of all intelligence in U.S. Government files that existed prior to November 6, 2009, relevant to the tragic shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, especially anything having to do with the alleged shooter, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, U.S. Army,” Obama said.
The president also ordered an immediate review of how intelligence was handled and shared between the intelligence agencies and other government departments.
