Excerpt:
The prosecutors pursuing the death penalty against the Army psychiatrist accused in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting rampage will soon begin trying to answer a difficult but key question: Why did Maj. Nidal Hasan attack his fellow soldiers in the worst mass shooting ever on a U.S. military base?
Both sides offered a few hints so far. Although he's been mostly silent in the courtroom, Hasan used his brief opening statement to tell jurors he had "switched sides" in what he called America's war with Islam and he later leaked documents to the media showing he believed he could be a martyr.
On Sunday, the Killeen Daily Herald published contents of a three-page letter it received last week from the American-born Muslim in which he said he was "defending my religious faith" when he carried out the attack.