Trump Approves Execution of Palestinian Nidal Hasan, Perpetrator of the 2009 Fort Hood Attack

Washington - Afaq News - President Donald Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, a U.S. Army psychiatrist of Palestinian descent, who opened fire and killed 13 people at a military base in 2009, according to the Pentagon.

On September 5, 2009, Nidal Hasan opened fire with a semi-automatic pistol at Fort Hood in Texas, resulting in 13 deaths and 30 injuries. Hasan's execution will be the first carried out by the U.S. military since 1961.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell stated on the platform 'X' that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth 'recommended, and President Donald J. Trump approved, the execution by firing squad by a U.S. Army firing squad of the convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan.'

He added: 'The Secretary of the Army will determine the time and place of the execution. The day of reckoning has finally come for Hasan.'

According to the French Press Agency, 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 defend himself during the trial, but he did not call any witnesses or provide any testimony, nor did he attempt to deny the charges against him. The defense attorneys appointed by the court expressed concern that he was seeking to be sentenced to death.

On November 5, 2009, Hasan, an American Muslim of Palestinian descent, opened fire inside a medical facility at Fort Hood, which was being used as a deployment point for soldiers to combat zones.

All the victims, both dead and injured, were soldiers. Hasan was shot by a civilian police officer who responded to the attack and suffered partial paralysis.

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