Outrage over US military plan to livestream firing squad execution

WASHINGTON — Condemnation of the Pentagon's plan to livestream the firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan, a convicted military base mass shooter, intensified on Friday. The United Nations declared the move would amount to torture, while U.S. lawmakers from both political parties vehemently opposed the decision. Hasan's execution, set for December 3 at Fort Hood, where he killed 13 people in 2009, marks the first such execution by a U.S. military firing squad since 1945.

Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican member of President Donald Trump's administration, maintained that Hasan should face death, but vehemently denounced the idea of streaming the execution as "beyond disgusting." Public executions, Tillis argued, are a hallmark of oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan.

Representative Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, described the plan as "disturbing" and a "mockery of our legal system." A Pentagon official confirmed to AFP that the execution would be streamed live, following Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's assurance that "people will be able to watch it, that it is public."

Hegseth later corrected his retweet of a media report regarding the execution plan.