Pete Hegseth vows to make first firing squad execution in decades ‘public’

Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed in an interview this week that the execution of the man who killed 13 people in a mass shooting at Fort Hood in 2009 would be “public.”

“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things,” Hegseth told far-right podcaster Jack Posobeic in an interview aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on Wednesday. He did not offer details about how the execution would be publicized.

The Pentagon announced on Monday evening that Nidal Hasan would be executed by firing squad, which Hegseth recommended and President Donald Trump approved. Acting Secretary of the Army Adam Telle set the date for Hasan’s execution on December 3 at 2pm ET, 1pm CT, at Fort Hood.

Hegseth said the execution would occur on “a Thursday, we’re going to do it at one o’clock, which is when he did it, and it’s going to be soldiers with rifles executing the firing squad.”

The Pentagon referred questions about how the execution would be publicized to the Army. The Army has not yet responded to questions from CNN.

Hasan was convicted in July 2013 of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder. During his trial, he told the panel of 13 officers that he was targeting soldiers who would deploy to Afghanistan and “were going to engage in an illegal war.” On the day of the shooting, he started at the medical processing center at Fort Hood, firing on troops there to collect medical checks before they deployed. He then followed soldiers out the back door of the processing center as they fled and was confronted by police, with whom Hasan exchanged gunfire and was eventually struck.

The execution by firing squad would be the first of its kind carried out by the US Army since World War II. Hegseth said in the interview that he liked “the mentality we had in World War II, which was win. Which was understand when the enemy attacks you, you stand your ground.”

朱莉娅·德马雷·尼金森/美联社

美国国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯本周在一次采访中誓言，2009 年在胡德堡大规模枪击案中杀害 13 人的凶手将被“公开处决”。

“我们会确保所有人都能观看行刑过程，确保行刑过程公开透明，因为人们需要明白，这类行为会带来严重的后果，”赫格塞斯周三在“亚伯拉罕·林肯”号航空母舰上接受极右翼播客主持人杰克·波索贝克采访时表示。但他没有透露行刑将如何公开。

五角大楼周一晚间宣布，尼达尔·哈桑将被枪决，这一决定由赫格塞斯提出，并得到了唐纳德·特朗普总统的批准。代理陆军部长亚当·特勒将哈桑的行刑日期定于美国东部时间12月3日下午2点（中部时间下午1点），地点在胡德堡。

赫格塞斯说，行刑将在“星期四进行，我们将在下午一点执行，因为他就是在那个时间被杀的，行刑队将持步枪执行枪决。”

五角大楼将有关如何公布处决消息的问题转给了陆军。陆军尚未回复CNN的提问。

2013年7月，哈桑被判犯有13项预谋杀人罪和32项谋杀未遂罪。在审判期间，他告诉由13名警官组成的陪审团，他的目标是即将被派往阿富汗的士兵，“他们即将参与一场非法战争”。枪击案当天，他先是在胡德堡的医疗处理中心开枪，向在那里接受部署前体检的士兵射击。随后，他尾随士兵从处理中心的后门逃出，与警方交火，最终被击毙。

这将是二战以来美军首次以枪决方式处决死刑犯。赫格塞斯在采访中表示，他喜欢“二战时期我们秉持的那种必胜的信念。那就是，当敌人攻击你时，你要坚守阵地。”