US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the planned firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan, the former US Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009, will be open to public viewing.
Hegseth made the statement during an interview with right-wing influencer Jack Posobiec aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier. A video of the conversation was shared on Thursday through official Pentagon accounts on X.
“He’s going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be, and we’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public,” Hegseth said.
He argued that making the execution public would reinforce the consequences of carrying out such attacks.
“People need to understand that… there’s serious consequence for these types of things,” he added.
Pentagon Yet to Clarify Public Viewing Arrangements
Hegseth’s comments have raised questions about how the proposed public execution would be conducted and who would be allowed to witness it.
When asked to explain what the defence secretary meant by describing the execution as “public,” a Pentagon spokesperson referred questions to the US Army. The Army, in turn, directed the inquiry back to the Pentagon.
The issue comes amid wider international concerns over public executions. Amnesty International reported that at least 17 public executions were known to have taken place in 2025, including six in Afghanistan and 11 in Iran.
Trump Approves Execution Over 2009 Fort Hood Attack
The Pentagon announced earlier this week that US President Donald Trump had approved Hasan’s execution for the deadly shooting at Fort Hood, a US Army installation in Texas.
The November 2009 attack left 13 people dead and 30 others wounded. Twelve of those killed and all 30 wounded were soldiers.
Hasan, who was also an Army officer, was shot by a civilian police officer who responded to the incident. He survived but was left partially paralysed.
A military jury sentenced him to death in 2013 after finding him guilty of carrying out the attack.
Links to Al-Qaeda-Inspired Ideology
During Hasan’s trial, the court heard evidence that he opposed the US military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Prosecutors also presented information about his online communications with Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born radical cleric linked to Al-Qaeda who was later killed in a US drone strike in Yemen.
The attack was described as inspired by Al-Qaeda, and the case has remained one of the most significant instances of deadly violence at a US military installation.
First US Military Execution in Decades
If carried out, Hasan’s execution would mark the first execution by the US military since 1961.
His case has drawn renewed attention following Trump’s approval of the execution and Hegseth’s comments about making the process public.
However, the Pentagon has not yet clarified the arrangements for public access to the execution.
Source: AFP
