US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the US army psychiatrist and devout Muslim who shot dead 13 colleagues at Fort Hood army base, repeatedly visited a lapdancing club in the days before the massacre, says a report by Nick Allen in The Telegraph, London.
Hasan was a regular customer at a club close to the Texas military base and on one occasion spent six hours there watching women poledancing.
His behaviour in the run-up to the shooting spree is similar to that of some of the September 11 hijackers who also sampled Western decadence before committing their atrocity.
Mohamed Atta, the leader of the September 11 terrorists, and four accomplices spent time in a strip bar in Las Vegas, while others frequented one in Florida.
Starz, the club visited by Hasan, is just yards away from Guns Galore, the weapons store where he legally bought the semi-automatic pistol he used in the attack.
Jennie Jenner, 31, performed a lap dance for Hasan on Oct 30, six days before he killed 13 people and wounded 29 at America's largest military installation.
She told The Daily Telegraph: "He came in on his own about 7.30pm and was here until 2am. He wasn't like our normal crowd which is young solders. He seemed older, more mature, a bit shy and reserved and a little out of place but not abnormal.
He was the kind of guy you could sit and talk with. He told me he was a doctor at Fort Hood and he was being deployed.
He seemed more interested in the girls and our professional lives and didn't really answer any questions about himself. He asked me if I had any children and if I had been married. He asked another girl if she was married as well."
She said Hasan was dressed casually in jeans and a grey t-shirt. He brought in six cans of beer but gave them away and insisted on drinking water instead.
She claimed that after speaking to her Hasan ordered a $50 (£30) naked dance in a private room. "He kept his hands behind his head the whole time and didn't try to touch me. He was respectful," said Jenner.
After the massacre she saw Hasan's picture on television. "I thought 'Oh my God, that's a guy I gave a dance to.' He was unusual so his face stood out in my mind," she said. "I can't believe it. He seemed really calm and relaxed. He didn't seem like the type of person who would do something like that."
Matthew Jones, the club's general manager, said Hasan h ad been there at least three times in the past month.
Hasan had in the past complained about not being able to find a wife.
At the Muslim Community Centre in the Washington suburb of Silver Spring he signed up for an Islamic matchmaking service, specifying that he wanted a bride who wore the hijab and prayed five times a day.
