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FORT HOOD, Texas: Investigators charged suspected Fort Hood gunman Nidal Hasan with 13 counts of pre-meditated murder on Thursday over last week's shooting rampage at the Texas military base.
Hasan, an army psychiatrist who is being investigated for links to militant Islam, will be tried in a military court for the fatal shootings of 12 soldiers and one civilian a week ago.
"US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan has been charged with 13 specifications of pre-meditated murder under the military code of justice," Chris Grey, a spokesman for the army's criminal investigation division, told reporters.
"We still believe that there was only one gunman at the scene involved in the actual shootings on November 5th."
Grey did not mention whether investigators also planned to charge Hasan over the 42 people wounded in the rampage but said other charges could be forthcoming.
The charges came after the White House announced that President Barack Obama had ordered a review of how intelligence agencies handled information they had gathered on Hasan prior to the rampage.
"I directed an immediate review be initiated to determine how any such intelligence was handled, shared, and acted upon within individual departments and agencies and what intelligence was shared with others," Obama said in a statement.
Preliminary results will be provided by November 30 to John Brennan, Obama's assistant for homeland security and counter-terrorism.
After regaining consciousness, Hasan, 39, has been able to talk since Thursday but has so far declined to discuss the day's events with investigators, his lawyer has said.
Obama vowed justice on Tuesday as he eulogised the dead of the Fort Hood shootings, promising in front of 15,000 tearful mourners that the killer would "be met with justice, in this world, and the next."
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has revealed Hasan had contacts with a firebrand Islamic cleric in Yemen and it has also emerged he had voiced doubts over the role of US Muslim soldiers.
Investigators are reportedly 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, who was born in Virginia to Palestinian parents and raised in the state, had attended the mosque in 2001.
Some analysts have questioned why Hasan was not more closely watched and US lawmakers have vowed to probe the handling of the case.
Intelligence and justice agencies were subjected to sweeping reforms after the September 11, 2001 attacks to ensure agencies shared information and avoided turf wars.
However, US agencies never told the Pentagon about the intercepted emails even though a joint terrorism task force that looked into the case included a Department of Defence analyst, a defence official who spoke on condition of anonymity told AFP.
Meanwhile, life on the largest US military base is attempting to return to normal a week after the rampage.
"Fort Hood has gotten its breath back and we continue to move forward," base spokesman Colonel John Rossi told reporters.
"As part of our healing process, Fort Hood continues to responsibly, respectfully resume normal mission and training activities," he said.
"Our security posture remains vigilant. Our Fort Hood home, the great place, remains safe and secure."
Twelve of the wounded remain hospitalised, but only one is in intensive care.
Rossi said the military was also working to ensure that psychological wounds were treated with the help of more than 100 counsellors.
"Our goal is to ensure that all who require or desire help get it. We are guarding against any premature determination that all is okay." - AFP/de
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