Pete Hegseth announced that Nidal Hasan’s execution will be livestreamed as a public event at Fort Hood, Texas, on December 3, carried out by a firing squad. This case involves the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood where Hasan killed 13 people and wounded dozens more; he was sentenced to death in 2013 after exhausting his appeals last year. The Pentagon plans this execution, the first military one since 1945, amid debate over its classification as a terrorist act versus workplace violence.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-08,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
President Donald Trump approved the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, a U.S. Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people and wounded 32 others during a shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas in 2009. The decision came after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recommended the execution, which will be carried out by the U.S. military for the first time since 1961. Hasan was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 2013 but chose his own defense during trial without contesting the charges. The Army is responsible for setting the date and location of the execution, which must occur within 150 days from Trump's approval but not sooner than 60 days. During the attack, Hasan shouted "Allahu Akbar," and he was found to have communicated with radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki prior to the incident. This marks a significant move in U.S. military justice as mass shootings at military facilities are rare events.
Written for “Fort Hood Shooter Execution Approval” on 2026-10-09,
grounded in this article and the 40 other(s) covering the same event.
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Leaning: leans right for article 66924 (high confidence, 1 verified quote) · logged 2026-10-08
Pete Hegseth has said the execution of Nidal Hasan, the former army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, will be a public event when the sentence is carried out later this year.
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sentence → say → Hood
Officials later clarified the execution will be livestreamed and that more details would follow, the Associated Press reported.
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Press → clarify → ?
In an interview with Real America’s Voice, the Pentagon secretary said the firing squad would carry out the sentence at Fort Hood, Texas, at 1pm on Thursday, 3 December.
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squad → say → Thursday
“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 are able to watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand there’s serious consequences for these types of things
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people → go → things
,” Hegseth said.
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Hegseth → say → ?
Hasan opened fire at a medical processing center on the Texas base on 5 November 2009, killing 13 people and wounding dozens more.
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Hasan → open → dozens
A military jury sentenced him to death in 2013, and he has been held at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas ever since.
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he → sentence → Kansas
He exhausted his appeals last year, which cleared the way for Donald Trump to approve the sentence this week on a recommendation from Hegseth.
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Trump → exhaust → Hegseth
Investigators had found that Hasan had exchanged 18 emails with Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical cleric who was subsequently killed in a US drone strike, in the months before the attack.
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who → find → attack
At his court martial, Hasan said he had acted to stop American soldiers from deploying to Afghanistan to kill fellow Muslims, before his own impending deployment.
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he → say → deployment
A review led by William Webster, a former FBI director, concluded that the bureau should have investigated his correspondence more thoroughly.
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bureau → lead → correspondence
In the interview, Hegseth said Barack Obama had called the attack “workplace violence”.
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Obama → say → attack
The Pentagon initially treated the shooting as a workplace-violence incident rather than a terrorist attack, a classification that affected the victims’ eligibility for Purple Hearts and other combat-related benefits.
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that → treat → Hearts
But there is no record of Obama himself using the phrase.
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Obama → be → phrase
At a memorial days after the attack, he instead described the victims as Americans who had been unable to escape “the horror of war”, while calling the shooting a tragedy and saying the killer would face justice.
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killer → describe → justice
The last known case of a military firing squad in the US was in November 1945, but the Trump administration has sought to bring it back in his second term to expedite capital punishment cases.
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administration → know → cases
Five states in the United States allow for firing squads – Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah.
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states → allow → squads
Abroad, Amnesty International’s most recent annual review lists Afghanistan, China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen among the countries that still use firing squads.
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that → list → squads
Asked whether Hasan had made a final request or reached out to Trump, Hegseth replied: “Don’t care.
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Hegseth → ask → Trump
We’ll see him on December 3.”
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We → see → December