US to livestream firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter; UN: We've said the same about Iran and Afghanistan

The US Department of Defense confirmed Thursday that Nidal Hasan, the perpetrator of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, will be executed by firing squad on December 3, and the entire process will be livestreamed online. According to DW, this will be the first time the US military has carried out a death sentence since 1961, and the first time it has done so by firing squad since World War II.

The announcement itself has triggered fierce backlash, but what is more damaging is the source of the criticism — the UN Human Rights Committee told AFP: "A livestreamed execution is tantamount to a public execution and would violate the absolute prohibition on torture." The committee further noted that it had previously made similar statements regarding public executions in Afghanistan and Iran, calling those practices "constitutes cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

In other words, the criticisms the UN had previously leveled against public executions in Tehran or Kabul are now being applied, word for word, to Washington itself.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth previewed the decision the previous day aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln — which concluded a deployment of nearly ten months that day — to right-wing online commentator Jack Posobiec. In a video posted by the Pentagon's official account on X, Hegseth said Hasan would be "executed by a firing squad made up of soldiers, as it should be, and we will make sure people can see, this is public." "People need to understand that these things have serious consequences," he added. Hegseth also said: "I kind of like our World War II mentality, which is to win."

Hasan was a US Army psychiatrist who opened fire on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas in 2009, killing 13 and wounding 32. A military court sentenced him to death in 2013. During the trial, Hasan claimed the assault was launched to protect Taliban members in Afghanistan from US military operations — a statement that directly tied his personal violence to the US military's two-decade-long war in Afghanistan.

According to DW, the choice of execution method comes amid an ongoing controversy over serious errors in Christa Pike's lethal injection execution.

The Pentagon said the specific streaming platform and technical details would be announced later. Controversy within the US legal and military ethics communities over the legality of livestreaming an execution has not yet appeared in public reporting.