Accused Fort Hood gunman Major Nidal Hasan is expected to tell a military judge on Tuesday how he plans to argue he was protecting the Taliban when he opened fire on dozens of people at the facility in 2009.
The Army psychiatrist could face the death penalty if convicted of premeditated murder on charges he killed 13 people and wounded 32 in the worst shooting rampage on a U.S. military post.
Hasan, 42, told the presiding judge in the case, Colonel Tara Osborn, last week that he was defending the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the Taliban and its leader Mullah Omar when he fired on soldiers in a readiness facility, many of whom were getting ready to deploy to Iraq.
At the time of the shooting, Fort Hood was a major deployment point for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.