A US military tribunal meets on Tuesday to decide if a Muslim Army major will stand trial for a killing spree at a Texas base last year that raised concern over the threat of "home grown" terrorist attacks. The accused, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, was expected to appear at his hearing in a wheelchair. He was left paralysed by bullet wounds inflicted during the November 5, 2009, shooting at the Fort Hood Army base that killed 13 people.
The so-called Article 32 hearing is the military equivalent of a grand jury hearing to determine if Hasan's case should be tried. Legal experts expect the case to proceed, and Hasan, a 40-year-old Army psychiatrist, could face the death penalty.
In the rampage at the world's biggest military facility, witnesses said they heard Hasan shout "Allahu Akbar" - Arabic for "God is Greatest" - just before opening fire on a group of soldiers preparing for health checks before being deployed. Fort Hood is a major deployment point for the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. US officials said Hasan had exchanged e-mails with Anwar al-Awlaki, an anti-American al Qaeda figure based in Yemen. There have been a number of recent cases of so-called "home-grown terrorism" in which US-born individuals mounted attacks on US soil.
Since the September 11 2001 attacks using hijacked planes in Washington and New York, US security officials have focused on attacks from al Qaeda that originate overseas, said Daniel Kaniewski, deputy director of the George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute.
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