Fort Hood shooter planned to 'kill as many soldiers' as he could

Major Nidal Malik Hasan opened his defense, Tuesday, before the court martial where he's charged with killing 13 fellow soldiers by asserting that "evidence will clearly show I am the shooter." Not only that, the former U.S. Army psychiatrist said he had planned "to kill as many soldiers" as possible in the 2009 shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas.

Hasan is representing himself at his court martial, which began Tuesday, on charges of killing 13 of his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, potentially allowing him to cross examine some of those he's accused of having wounded. The 2009 mass shooting at a military facility, and Hasan’s reported claims of support for the Taliban, had been a focus of a national debate that could be revived by the dramatic moments when the alleged shooter comes face to face with more than 30 of his alleged victims.

Hasan doesn't deny that he carried out the November 2009 rampage at Fort Hood, one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history. After dismissing his court-appointed attorneys, the former Army psychiatrist was granted permission to represent himself, putting him in the unusual position of asking questions of the very people he admits targeting if they are called to testify. That could be a traumatic experience for some of the casualties in the shooting.

Retired Staff Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford told the Associated Press he has trouble getting out of chairs and warns his family to wake him gently. Col. Kathy Platoni can't shake the image of the man who died in a pool of blood at her knees. Staff Sgt. Shawn Manning, who was about to deploy with Hasan to Afghanistan, still has two bullets in his body and gets easily unnerved by crowds.

Hasan is facing 13 charges of murder and 32 charges of attempted murder. His case will be a heard by a jury comprising 13 officers from around the country who hold Hasan's rank or higher. The trial is expected to last at least a month, but Col. Tara Osborn, the judge overseeing it, told jurors Monday to prepare for several months.

Hasan, a Muslim who argues he was protecting the Taliban from American aggression, was shot by a civilian police officer and is now in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the abdomen down.

Witnesses say the attack occurred in a building where hundreds of unarmed soldiers, some about to deploy to Afghanistan, were waiting for vaccines and routine checkups.

Hasan walked inside with two handguns, climbed onto a desk and shouted "Allahu Akbar!'' -- an Arabic phrase meaning "God is great!'' -- then he fired, pausing only to reload.

For the victims, facing Hasan in the courtroom is unnerving.

"I have to keep my composure and not go after the guy," said Manning, a mental health specialist who was preparing to deploy to Afghanistan with Hasan. "I'm not afraid of him, obviously. He's a paralyzed guy in a wheelchair, but it's sickening that he's still living and breathing," he said according to the Associated Press.

Lunsford -- a now-retired staff sergeant who was shot seven times -- relishes the thought of staring at Hasan and telling him that he did not win. Like Manning, he carries two bullets with him - one in a small wooden box, the other in his back.

Hasan's defense strategy remains unclear. John Galligan, Hasan's former lead attorney, said Monday that he still keeps in touch with Hasan but wasn't sure what he would say Tuesday morning, if anything.

If Hasan is convicted and sentenced to death, it will most likely be decades before he makes it to the death chamber, if at all. The military has not executed an active-duty soldier since 1961. Five men are on the military death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., but none is close to an execution date.

The Fort Hood shooting trial has been delayed several times, often due to requests from Hasan.

Al Jazeera and wire services