Did Fort Hood Shooter And Radical Cleric Cross Paths At Falls Church Mosque

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (WUSA) -- An American born Imam with ties to Al Qaeda and two of the September 11th terrorists may have also crossed paths with Ft Hood shooting suspect Major Nidal Hasan.

Hasan attended the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Virginia in 2001 and 2002 when Imam Anwar al-Aulaqi was there.  Al-Aulaqi left the mosque and now lives in Yemen where he's been linked to numerous terrorism cases in the United States.

Today on his website, al-Aulaqi called Hasan a hero for the Ft Hood shootings.

Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, now the outreach director at Dar al-Hijrah condemned those remarks.

"Any sane person, of any religion would condemn the killing of unsuspecting men and women in uniform,"he says.

Leaders at the Mosque aren't certain if Hasan had contact with the radical cleric during his time in Falls Church, but they say, his teachings are widely available."

There's no evidence right now suggesting that Hasan carried out the shootings at Ft Hood after exposure to extremism. Authorities may have some help finding out his motivation. Doctors say Hasan is off the ventilator and able to speak.