US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced that the execution of former US Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan will be streamed live when authorities carry it out later this year. Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people in a shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. Hegseth made the announcement on Thursday during an interview with Real America’s Voice. He said a firing squad would carry out the execution at Fort Hood at 1 PM local time on December 3. A Defence Department official later confirmed that authorities would make the execution a public event. The case has drawn attention because it would mark the first US military execution in more than 60 years. “It was a radical Islamist attack in uniform inside the ranks, and so he’s going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be, and we’ll make sure that people can watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand there are serious consequences for these types of things,” Hegseth said.

Nidal Hasan’s 2009 Fort Hood Shooting

On November 5, 2009, Hasan opened fire at a medical processing centre at Fort Hood, Texas. He killed 13 people and wounded dozens of others. A military jury convicted Hasan and sentenced him to death in 2013. Authorities have held him at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas since his conviction. Hasan exhausted his appeals last year. That development cleared the way for US President Donald Trump to approve the execution this week, following a recommendation from Hegseth. Investigators also discovered that Hasan had exchanged 18 emails with Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical cleric, in the months before the shooting. US forces later killed al-Awlaki in a drone strike. During his court-martial, Hasan said he had acted to prevent American soldiers from deploying to Afghanistan to kill fellow Muslims. He made this claim before his own expected deployment.

Hegseth Criticises Obama’s Response

During Thursday’s interview, Hegseth criticised former US President Barack Obama over the government’s initial handling of the Fort Hood shooting. Hegseth claimed that Obama had described the incident as "workplace violence". However, there is no record of Obama using that exact phrase himself. The Pentagon initially classified the shooting as a workplace-violence incident rather than a terrorist attack. That classification affected the victims’ eligibility for Purple Hearts and other combat-related benefits. At a Memorial Day event following the shooting, Obama described the victims as Americans who had been unable to escape “the horror of war”. He also called the shooting a tragedy and said the perpetrator would face justice. The difference in how officials classified the attack became a point of controversy because it affected how the military recognised the victims and their service-related injuries.

US Moves to Restore Military Executions

The planned execution would mark a significant development in the history of capital punishment in the US military. The last known US military execution by firing squad took place in November 1945. The Trump administration has sought to revive the method during its second term as part of efforts to expedite capital punishment cases. Firing squads remain a legal execution method in five US states: Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah. Internationally, Amnesty International’s latest annual review identifies Afghanistan, China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen among the places that continue to use firing squads. The planned execution has also drawn attention because authorities intend to make it publicly accessible through a livestream. Hegseth said the public should understand the consequences of attacks against members of the US military.

Hegseth Responds to Questions About Hasan

During the interview, Hegseth faced questions about whether Hasan had made a final request or attempted to contact Trump ahead of the scheduled execution. Hegseth dismissed the questions and responded: “Don’t care. We’ll see him on December 3.” The execution remains scheduled for December 3 at Fort Hood, Texas, where Hasan carried out the 2009 shooting.