US President Donald Trump has cast doubt on whether authorities will livestream the firing squad execution of the perpetrator of a deadly attack on American soldiers, a plan that has drawn broad and bipartisan condemnation, it emerged on Saturday.
asserted
it → cast → Saturday
Nidal Hasan’s execution — scheduled for December 3 at Fort Hood, Texas, where he gunned down 13 people in 2009 — is set to be the first by a US military firing squad since 1945.
asserted
he → schedule → 1945
A Pentagon official told AFP on Thursday that the execution would be streamed live, after US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said: “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public.”
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it → tell → it
But Trump, who supports the death penalty in this case, left it uncertain whether the execution would be publicly broadcast.
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execution → support → it
“They are making a determination about that, but he will be killed,” Trump said.
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Trump → make → that
“I really don’t care how he goes, as long as he goes.”
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he → care → ?
Earlier Friday, Vice President JD Vance told journalists who asked about the planned livestream that he does not “know that that’s actually going to happen.”
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that → tell → livestream
“This is a guy who committed, in my view, the worst terrorist attack on American soil outside of 9/11,” Vance said, but added that if the execution is broadcast live, “I’m not going to be watching it.”
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I → commit → it
Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Hasan should “face justice” but that public executions are “the kind of thing Iran and the Taliban do.
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Iran → say → thing
Is this who we want to be associated with?”
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we → want → who
Tech firms YouTube, Meta and X did not immediately respond to requests for comment on whether they would allow the execution to be streamed on their platforms.
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execution → respond → platforms
TikTok directed AFP to its policy banning depictions of “graphic incidents and violence” including “the shooting of an individual.”
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TikTok → direct → individual
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the plan, saying in a message sent to AFP on Friday that “the livestreaming of an execution is tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture.”
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livestreaming → condemn → torture
Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said it was a “barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered.”
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it → say → death
‘Compound the cruelty’
Hegseth said it would be the military’s first firing squad execution since World War II.
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it → compound → II
“People need to understand that… there’s serious consequence for these types of things,” Hegseth said in a video shared Thursday on official Pentagon X accounts.
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Hegseth → need → accounts
The last US military execution was carried out in 1961, when John Bennett was hanged for rape and attempted murder.
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Bennett → carry → rape
The Death Penalty Information Centre says 135 troops have been executed by the US military since 1916.
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troops → say → 1916
According to rights group Amnesty International, at least 17 public executions are known to have been carried out in 2025 — six in Afghanistan and 11 in Iran.
uncertain
executions → accord → Iran
Amnesty’s Justin Mazzola said Friday that the death penalty is “a violation of human rights,” and that streaming Hasan’s execution “would only compound the cruelty.”
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streaming → say → cruelty
Twelve of the 13 people Hasan killed and 30 of those he wounded were soldiers.
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he → kill → those
He was shot by a civilian police officer who responded to the attack and is paralysed from the waist down.
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who → shoot → down
Hasan chose to conduct his own defence during the trial but called no witnesses and gave no testimony, and made no attempt to deny the charges.
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Hasan → choose → charges
He was sentenced to death by a military jury in 2013.
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He → sentence → 2013
Court-appointed defence attorneys expressed concern that he was seeking execution.
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he → appoint → execution
The court that convicted Hasan was told he was opposed to the US military’s occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and that he had spoken online with an alleged Al-Qaeda figure, radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen subsequently killed in a US drone strike in Yemen.
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he → convict → Yemen
The Aporia
