Obama to lead Texas army shooting memorial

FORT HOOD, Texas (AFP) - – President Barack Obama was to lead a poignant memorial service Tuesday and console grieving relatives at an army base as questions mount over the accused gunman's links to militant Islam.

Obama, shouldering his role as leader of national mourning and commander-in-chief, left the White House early Tuesday with his wife Michelle. Both looked somber and were dressed in black as they boarded his Marine One helicopter.

The president was set to address the memorial service and meet privately with relatives of 12 service personnel and one civilian killed in the bloody shooting spree on the base last week which also left 42 wounded.

"The president will use the opportunity to honor 13 men and women, to talk a little bit about each of them and to discuss their contributions they made," his spokesman Robert Gibbs said aboard Air Force One.

Today is "very important, especially with President Obama being here. It shows people around the world that we stick together. He is our commander in chief, it shows the world that he cares for soldiers," said Jenni Yucub, a civilian from New Jersey who has worked at Fort Hood since 1994.

Intrigue over troubled military psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan deepened after the FBI revealed he had contacts with a firebrand Islamic cleric in Yemen and it emerged he had voiced doubts over the role of US Muslim soldiers.

The FBI said Hasan, a devout Muslim, came to its attention in 2008 after he communicated with the target of an FBI-led counter-terror investigation.

The bureau said investigators assessed the contacts were "consistent with research being conducted by Major Hasan in his position as a psychiatrist at the Walter Reed Medical Center.

"The JTTF (joint terrorism task force) concluded that Major Hasan was not involved in terrorist activities or terrorist planning," the FBI said.

The FBI added "the investigation to date indicates that the alleged gunman acted alone and was not part of a broader terrorist plot."

The Washington Post reported investigators were examining possible links between the army psychiatrist and Anwar al-Aulaqi, who is now in Yemen but was a spiritual leader of the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Virginia.

Hasan had attended the mosque in 2001.

The imam was said to have met Al-Qaeda associates, including two September 11 hijackers, and is now believed to have become a supporter of the terror network, the paper said, citing a senior US official.

The Post also said Hasan had shocked fellow army medics more than a year ago by saying that Muslim soldiers should be allowed release as conscientious objectors rather than being ordered to go to war against fellow Muslims.

"It's getting harder and harder for Muslims in the service to morally justify being in a military that seems constantly engaged against fellow Muslims," he was quoted as saying in a presentation.

After regaining consciousness, Hasan has been able to talk for the first time since he allegedly opened fire on fellow soldiers until he was shot by a female police officer, but he has declined to discuss the events with investigators.

The shootings have set off nationwide soul-searching and worries about the motives of the Fort Hood gunman.

FBI Director Robert Mueller, after meeting with Obama, ordered a full review of the incident with the aim of determining whether "with the benefit of hindsight, any policies or practices should change based on what we learn," the FBI said.

The bloody spree left army officials still scrambling to understand how one of their own could turn on his fellow soldiers.

Officers must now keep an eye out for similar signs of disquiet "across our entire formation, not just in the medical community, but look hard to our right and left," said Lieutenant General Robert Cone, the Fort Hood commander.

Obama's trip comes just two weeks after he consoled grief-stricken relatives as fallen US soldiers were flown home from Afghanistan.

Vice President Joe Biden was performing a similar role at a service in Washington state Tuesday.