The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has announced the suspension of the streaming broadcast of the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, who will be shot by a firing squad in December at Fort Hood, the same base where he killed 13 people and injured 32 more in 2009. 10 days ago, the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, caused an enormous commotion throughout the country, and around the planet, by saying that anyone could watch his death live, drawing comparisons with the methods of terrorist groups such as the Islamic State.
Trump, who just 48 hours earlier had confirmed that Hasan would face a platoon, had immediately downgraded the soufflé, showing his reservations. And the vice president, JD Vance, did the same, not only doubting that it would happen, but stating that under no circumstances would he witness this macabre spectacle.
"Broadcasting the execution live for all to see could have been a strong deterrent for the world to witness how the United States treats terrorists and scum like Hasan, but many good and well-intentioned people would prefer not to see him die, either by live broadcast or by any other visual means. He will die, as planned, by firing squad, but this event will not be broadcast. That said, the execution can be witnessed in person by the immediate family of the victims, if they wish. "They deserve to witness JUSTICE!" the president wrote on his social networks.
The last state-sanctioned public execution in the United States took place in 1936 in Kentucky, when 20,000 people witnessed the hanging of Rainey Bethea, a young black man who had been convicted of raping an elderly white woman. Execution by firing squad is very rare in the United States. Formally it is only allowed in Idaho, Oklahoma, Utah, South Carolina and Mississippi. Three people were executed by this method last year in South Carolina. Before that, only three people had been executed this way since 1977, all in Utah.
In the last week, the Administration had received a lot of criticism, including figures from its own party and religious and civil society leaders. But also warnings from his advisors about the unpopularity of shooting someone who is in a wheelchair and the probable effect that this would create on the Internet. Hasan wanted to have died during his attack to "become a martyr," he explained to interrogators. And critics believe that his execution could turn him into something similar within the jihadist world.
Trump's decision leaves Hegseth even more exposed, perhaps the most controversial figure in the Government right now, who accumulates almost weekly scandals, fights with his team and who may be one of those who pay the consequences of the war in Iran if the November legislative elections go badly for the Republicans. "Last week, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth promised to make the execution public and confirmed that it would be broadcast live: "The secretary is right. It will be broadcast live. "More details will be given soon," the Pentagon said yesterday when asked by journalists about the internal debate on the issue within the Executive.
In the US it is common for the families of victims to attend the execution of a murderer, even 20 or 30 years after the crime. And there are usually some witnesses, such as researchers or journalists. But nothing like that. The only exception was Timothy McVeight, the man responsible for the 1995 Oklahoma attacks, whose execution was broadcast on closed-circuit television so that a few hundred witnesses could witness it. Then, a company wanted to broadcast it online, but the court rejected it.
The Republican leader of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, had also warned of his colleagues' concerns about the possibility that the execution of a disabled person was a great recruiting asset for future terrorists. Johnson also claimed that he would not see it. "I need to tell the White House what some of my colleagues think about it, and not all of them are in favor of the idea," he insisted.
"Nidal Malik Hasan, a former US Army major turned traitor, is an evil and evil man who murdered 13 people, including a pregnant soldier who died along with her unborn child, and seriously injured 32 other innocent people. The FBI, under the direction of Barack Hussein Obama, intercepted electronic communications between Hasan and radical Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. After review by the task force "This assessment of the Obama administration's actions was later considered a serious intelligence failure," Trump wrote on his social network, trying to change the damaging narrative of the last week to blame his predecessor for the massacre at the base.
