Senior Official: Hasan Had More "Unexplained Connections" To People Under Investigation By FBI Besides Jihadist Cleric Awlaki

ABC News reports that a "senior government official tells ABC News that investigators have found that alleged Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan had 'more unexplained connections to people being tracked by the FBI' than just radical cleric Anwar al Awlaki. The official declined to name the individuals but Congressional sources said their names and countries of origin were likely to emerge soon. Questions already surround Major Hasan's contact with Awlaki, a radical cleric based in Yemen whom authorities consider a recruiter for al Qaeda. U.S. officials now confirm Hasan sent as many as 20 e-mails to Awlaki. Authorities intercepted the e-mails but later deemed them innocent or protected by the first amendment. The FBI said it turned over the information to the Army, but Defense Department officials today denied that. One military investigator on a joint terror task force with the FBI was shown the e-mails, but they were never forwarded in a formal way to more senior officials at the Pentagon, and the Army did not learn of the contacts until after the shootings... The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Hasan gave a PowerPoint presentation to fellow Army doctors in 2007 in which he said, '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 recommended that Muslim soldiers be given the option of being released from the military as conscientious objectors to decrease what he called 'adverse events.' Under 'comments,' he wrote, 'We love death more than you love life.'" Tweet