Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the upcoming execution of Nidal Hasan — the former Army major who killed 13 people in a 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood in Texas — will be open for the public to watch. Hegseth made the announcement this week, saying Americans need to see that serious crimes carry serious consequences.

"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 Posobiec in an interview aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on Wednesday (October 7). He did not offer details about how the execution would be made public.

The Pentagon announced Monday (October 5) that Hasan would be executed by firing squad. Hegseth recommended the method, and President Donald Trump approved it. Acting Secretary of the Army Adam Telle set the execution date for Thursday, December 3, at 1 p.m. CT, at Fort Hood.

Hegseth said the timing was intentional. "It's going to be 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," he said.

Hasan's Deadly Attack

On Thursday, November 5, 2009, Hasan opened fire inside a crowded medical processing building at Fort Hood, where soldiers were waiting for health checks before deploying overseas. He then followed soldiers out the back of the building as they fled and exchanged gunfire with police before being shot and wounded. The attack killed 13 soldiers and injured more than 30 others, making it the deadliest non-combat attack ever carried out on an American military base.

Hasan, a U.S. Army psychiatrist from Virginia, was convicted in July 2013 of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder. During his court-martial, he told a panel of 13 officers that he targeted soldiers who were set to deploy to Afghanistan because they were "going to engage in an illegal war."

Vicki McKenna