Hegseth says Nidal Hasan’s execution will be livestreamed next month

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Nidal Hasan’s firing-squad execution will be livestreamed next month. He said the public should be able to watch it so the consequences of such acts are understood.

Hasan opened fire at a medical processing centre at Fort Hood, Texas, on 5 November 2009. Thirteen people were killed and dozens wounded.

Verdict after the Fort Hood attack

A military jury sentenced Hasan to death in 2013. He has since been held at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

The last known US military firing-squad execution took place in November 1945. The source does not give an exact date for Hasan’s planned execution.

Hegseth’s statement came amid criticism from Democratic senator Chris Murphy, who accused him of hiding the war with Iran’s costs and consequences from the public. Murphy also said the Pentagon blocked him from visiting a US base in Qatar and that an Iranian strike on the US embassy in Riyadh was more serious than the public had been led to believe.

President Donald Trump has promised not to attack Iran before November’s US midterm elections, describing a pause in a war that had lasted almost eight months. A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in late September found that about one-third of Americans approved of the strikes on Iran.