US Defense Secretary Announces 'Live Broadcast' of Fort Hood Shooter's Firing Squad Execution; US to Join Iran and Afghanistan in the Ranks of Public Execution States

According to France 24, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Thursday that Nidal Malik Hasan, the perpetrator of the 2009 Fort Hood mass shooting, will be executed by firing squad, with the execution "live broadcast" to the public.

France 24, citing The Washington Post, reported that Hasan, a US Army psychiatrist, carried out the mass shooting at Fort Hood military base in Texas in 2009, and was subsequently convicted of killing multiple people. If this execution proceeds as planned, it will mark the first US military execution since an Army sergeant was hanged in April 1961 for rape and murder. Related military judicial proceedings are still underway, and whether the execution will proceed as scheduled remains subject to final confirmation.

Hegseth stated that he hopes the public will watch the live broadcast in order to understand that "these things carry serious consequences."

France 24 noted that this announcement will place the United States in an extremely awkward position: of the 17 public executions carried out worldwide last year, Iran conducted 11 and Afghanistan conducted 6.

This contrast is jarring not merely on the numerical level; it also exposes the structural contradictions embedded in America's long-standing human rights discourse. Iran's execution practices are routinely criticized in the US State Department's annual Human Rights Report and serve as an important moral basis for sanctions and pressure against Tehran. Yet now the one standing before cameras to announce a public execution of a US service member is none other than one of the highest-ranking military officials of a country that has repeatedly condemned such practices at the UN Human Rights Council and other international forums. When "consequentialism" is presented to the public in the form of a live-streamed firing squad, the rift between human rights rhetoric and state action can no longer be concealed.