Although Wednesday's
shooting at Fort Hood is not thought to have been terrorist-related, Rep. Peter King says homegrown terrorism is a major concern among U.S. military personnel.
King, a New York Republican, and former Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, held joint hearings on the previous shooting at the Texas military base, which left 13 people dead in 2009.
Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was sentenced to death in August 2013 for that attack.
Hasan had been in communication with Muslim extremists leading up to the shootings.
Appearing Wednesday on Fox News Channel's
"On the Record with Greta Van Susteren," King said the 2010 hearing brought out concerns that there are members of the military who have violent tendencies and terrorist inclinations and are not being removed.
King blamed "political correctness" for the military's failure to remove such personnel.
"Sen. Lieberman and I were both very concerned about this," King said. "We had one military official who said that's what keeps him awake at night was the possibility of another attack at a military base by a homegrown Islamic terrorist."
Still, he noted, it is impossible to stop the threat of attacks completely. Though security is tight for civilians, he said a member of the military intent on doing violence "probably has the capacity to get it done."
In September 2013, Aaron Alexis, a former sailor, killed 12 people at the U.S. Navy Yard in Washington, D.C.
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