Dozens of retired generals and admirals this week signed an open letter calling on the Trump administration to cancel the planned livestream of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan’s execution by firing squad.
Turning the execution into a broadcast event would provide a global platform for jihadist propaganda and potentially result in harm to U.S. military personnel overseas, the 72 senior military leaders wrote in the letter.
“It will be used by our nation’s enemies to stoke hatred, harm American soldiers and citizens in the future, and will ensure that Hasan becomes a martyr for attacking and killing his fellow soldiers,” they wrote.
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Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist turned jihadist, was convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder for the Nov. 5, 2009, shooting at the massive Army post in central Texas.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authorized the public livestreaming of the execution to send a high-profile message about the consequences of mass violence against U.S. service members.
The letter’s signers included retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Charles F. Bolden, an astronaut and NASA administrator during the Obama administration, retired Army Maj. Gen. Tony Taguba, who led an investigation into accusations of prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and retired Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy, the first woman to reach the rank of three-star general in the Army.
“Hasan was convicted of 43 counts of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder, and the thirteen members of the general court-martial determining his guilt unanimously decided that death was the appropriate sentence for these crimes,” the letter said.
The retired generals and admirals said livestreaming his execution would violate the “basic human dignity of the condemned prisoner.
“It turns what should be the solemn and grave punishment of a member of our society for committing the most serious crimes into a carnival for the enjoyment of voyeurs and spectators,” it said.
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