SDJW staff report
President Trump reversed himself Thursday saying the scheduled Dec 3 execution of former Army major and psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan will not be livestreamed.
On Nov. 5, 2009, Hasan walked into a Fort Hood, Texas, medical center and fatally shot 13 soldiers and wounded 32 others. His explanation: He wanted to stop them from going to Afghanistan and killing his fellow Muslims.
Hasan was stopped from his killing spree by a bullet that left him paralyzed from the waist down.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ignited a multi-sided controversy when he stated that Hasan would face a firing squad and that his execution would be livestreamed.
Asked then if he approved of Hegseth’s plans for Hasan, the President said yes. Subsequently, Trump said he didn’t know that Hasan would be in a wheelchair when facing his executioners.
Critics of the plan said that public executions were symbolic of terror groups like ISIS and terror-sponsoring countries like Iran, and not western democracies.
Other critics of publicly executing Hasan said the livestreamed execution could give terrorists a recruiting tool.
Still others said Hasan wanted to be viewed in the Muslim world as a martyr, and his public execution would be a reward for murdering 13 soldiers and wounding 32 others, not a punishment.
So, Trump’s reversal put an end to that debate.
Now, the only people who will witness Hasan’s execution will be members of the firing squad, officials in their chain of command, and close family members of the soldiers whom Hasan cut down when he switched sides.
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San Diego Jewish World staff report.