Trump Approves Execution of Nidal Hasan by Firing Squad

US President Donald Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, a US Army psychiatrist who opened fire and killed 13 people at a military base in 2009, the Pentagon announced on Monday.

On September 5, 2009, Nidal Hasan shot and killed 13 people and wounded 30 others at Fort Hood in Texas using a semi-automatic pistol.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Barnell stated on the X platform that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “recommended, and President Donald J. Trump approved, the execution by firing squad by a US Army firing squad of the convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan.”

A military jury sentenced Hasan to death in 2013 for carrying out a mass shooting at Fort Hood in an attack inspired by al-Qaeda.

He chose to represent himself during the trial, but called no witnesses, gave no testimony, and made no attempt to deny the charges against him. Court-appointed defense attorneys expressed concern that he was seeking the death penalty.

On November 5, 2009, Hasan, a Palestinian-American Muslim, opened fire inside a medical facility at Fort Hood, which served as a staging ground for deploying troops to combat zones.

All the victims were soldiers, either killed or wounded. Hasan was shot by a civilian police officer who responded to the attack, leaving him partially paralyzed.

The court was informed that Hasan opposed the US military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and that he had communicated online with the radical American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, a prominent al-Qaeda leader who was later killed in a US drone strike in Yemen.