President Trump has approved death by U.S. Army firing squad for Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan, clearing the way for the first military execution in more than six decades after a jihadist massacre that killed 13.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recommended the method and that President Donald J. Trump signed off, ending years of delay for the convicted terrorist who opened fire on unarmed American soldiers.
Breitbart News reported the decision ties directly to the November 5, 2009, attack at the Fort Hood military base in Texas, where Hasan killed 13 people and wounded 32 others while shouting “Allahu Akbar.”
The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution. Parnell framed the moment in plain terms.
Parnell stated:
"Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has recommended, and President Donald J. Trump has approved, death by U.S. Army firing squad for convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan, the jihadist who opened fire on unarmed American soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009,"
He added the casualty toll and the words Hasan shouted during the attack, then declared that judgment day for Hasan had finally come.
Hasan, a former U.S. Army major and psychiatrist, was found guilty in 2013 on all charges of murder and attempted murder. A jury convicted him after a court-martial that featured more than 80 witnesses and hundreds of pieces of evidence.
Fox News reported the execution is set for 1 p.m. CT on December 3 at Fort Hood, Texas. That schedule would make this the first successful presidential approval of a U.S. military execution since 1961.
Hegseth answered Parnell’s announcement with a single word on X: “Justice.”
The victims included 12 soldiers and one civilian, according to the trial record cited in earlier reporting. Unarmed troops were gunned down on their own base by one of their own officers.
At trial, Hasan represented himself. He wanted the jury to hear that he murdered the soldiers to keep them from killing al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. He cast the killings as a religious duty.
Judge Col. Tara Osborn threw out that original defense and related motive evidence. Hasan stayed mostly quiet while prosecutors built their case over two weeks. He spoke up to challenge the definition of jihad and to cross-examine Staff Sgt. Juan Alvarado. He rested his case and declined a closing argument.
The prosecution still closed strong. The jury returned guilty verdicts on every murder and attempted murder count.
Just The News noted Hasan has sat under a death sentence since that 2013 conviction. Appeals failed. The sentence stood. What remained was the will to carry it out.
Parnell’s statement left no soft edges. He called Hasan a convicted terrorist and a jihadist. He listed the dead and the wounded. He said the Secretary of the Army would lock in the final logistics.
For families of the fallen, the timeline has been brutal. The shooting happened in 2009. The guilty verdicts came in 2013. The death sentence followed. Yet the sentence sat unexecuted for years while the man who shouted “Allahu Akbar” over dying American soldiers remained alive on military death row.
Trump’s approval, on Hegseth’s recommendation, breaks that stalemate. The method is explicit: death by U.S. Army firing squad. No chemical protocol. No further bureaucratic fog. A military formation will carry out a military sentence for a soldier who turned his weapon on his own ranks.
The Fort Hood attack was never a workplace dispute. It was a targeted slaughter of unarmed troops by an officer who cast the murders as service to jihad. Court records and the trial record made that plain even after the judge limited some motive evidence.
Prosecutors put more than 80 witnesses on the stand. They introduced hundreds of exhibits. The jury did not hesitate on the core charges. Guilty on all counts of murder and attempted murder.
If carried out on the reported December schedule, Hasan’s death would be the first U.S. military execution in more than 60 years. That gap itself tells a story about hesitation at the highest levels when the defendant wraps mass murder in religious rhetoric.
This administration is not hesitating. Hegseth recommended the firing squad. Trump approved it. Parnell announced it. The Army secretary will set the clock.
Parnell put the stakes in one line after listing the dead and wounded.
Parnell said:
"Judgement day for Hasan has finally come,"
The soldiers killed at Fort Hood reported for duty on a domestic base and never came home. Their killer used an Army rank and an Army post as cover for a jihadist attack. A jury heard the evidence and condemned him. A president has now approved the method that will finish the sentence.
Lawful order, earned verdict, and a clear chain of command finally aligning on the only penalty that matches the crime is how a serious country treats terrorists who murder American troops.
