The execution of an Islamic jihadist at Fort Hood will be broadcast live.
Pentagon officials told the New York Times that an execution of a former Army officer convicted of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting will be broadcast via livestream.
An Islamic terrorist who went on a shooting rampage at the U.S. Army base in central Texas will be executed by a U.S. Army firing squad on Dec. 3, The Center Square reported.
In August 2013, after being court martialed, a military jury unanimously convicted former Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder and sentenced him to death.
In the U.S. military justice system, death penalty cases are automatically appealed to the U.S. Army Criminal Court of Appeals and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. Hasan lost these appeals.
Hasan killed 13 people and wounded 32 after walking into a medical building where soldiers were waiting in a long line to receive immunizations and medical clearance to be deployed. Prior to opening fire, he shouted “Allahu akbar,” Arabic for “God is great,” used by jihadists including the 9/11 hijackers. The hijackers, Hasan, and the Islamic jihadist Boston Marathon bombers were all inspired by the same cleric based in San Diego, California, the FBI said.
Hasan’s rampage was the deadliest shooting at a U.S. military base in U.S. history.
Theresa M Long, MD, MPH, FS, who was there and treated patients, said, “Every patient I took care of that day had been shot 3-7 times. [Hasan] kept circling back and shooting them again and again. He executed Private Francheska Velez, a pregnant soldier. Leaders knew he was a problem and didn’t deal with him because it wouldn’t be politically correct.”
She also listed the names of the 13 service members who were killed, including Michael Grant Cahill, 62, of Cameron, Texas, a civilian physician assistant and retired chief warrant officer, “who died fighting back.”
The Obama administration classified the shooting as “workplace violence,” denying service members who were killed and wounded the opportunity to receive a Purple Heart.
In response, Texas Republicans U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, and U.S. Reps. John Carter and Roger Williams, sponsored legislation to expand the eligibility for the Purple Heart to include victims of attacks “inspired or motivated by the foreign terrorist organization,” including Fort Hood. It was enacted in 2015 and the U.S. Army announced it was awarding the Purple Heart and its civilian counterpart, the Medal for the Defense of Freedom, to eligible Fort Hood victims.
According to an FBI investigation, Hasan was radicalized by an American cleric and leader of Al-Queda, Anwar al-Awlaki. He was born to Yemeni parents in New Mexico before they returned to Yemen. He returned to the U.S. in the early 1990s to attend college in Colorado and graduate school in California.
While in San Diego, he became an imam at the Masjid al-Ribat al-Islami, where he is believed to have inspired at least two 9/11 hijackers, Saudi nationals Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar. According to multiple reports, the FBI had begun investigating al-Awlaki’s ties to terrorism as early as June 1999. They linked him to multiple terrorism plots in the U.S., including a December 2009 attempt to blow up a jetliner bound for Detroit.
According to declassified FBI documents, al-Awlaki, while he was a known terrorist at the time, spoke as an invited guest at a Pentagon lunch, Judicial Watch uncovered in an investigation.
“Anwar al-Awlaki helped radicalize the terrorist who attacked Fort Hood,” Judicial Watch’s director Tom Fitton said. He “had previously been invited to Pentagon during President George W. Bush admin. He was also almost certainly an FBI informant or source.”
According to FOIA documents Judicial Watch obtained from the FBI, the FBI was aware since at least Sept. 27, 2001, that al-Awlaki may have purchased airplane tickets for three of the 9/11 terrorist hijackers, including Saudi mastermind Mohammed Atta. On Oct. 10, 2002, al-Awlaki was detained at JFK International Airport in New York under a warrant for passport fraud, but the FBI ordered his release.
Al-Awlaki also inspired the Islamic Boston Marathon bombers, according to court records.
The Obama administration assassinated him in a targeted drone strike in Yemen in 2010.
The last time the U.S. Army executed a service member was on April 13, 1961. Pvt. John Bennett was hanged at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, after being convicted of rape and attempted murder.
Hasan will be the first Islamic jihadist to be publicly executed via livestream in U.S. history. His execution is the first the U.S. Army is carrying out for the public to view on a military base in the U.S.
The last non-military public execution in the U.S. was on August 14, 1936, in Owensboro, Kentucky, of Rainey Bethea. He was publicly hanged after confessing to and being found guilty of raping a 70-year-old wealthy white widow, Lischia Edwards.
