Retired US generals call on Pentagon to cancel 'barbaric' execution livestream
Livestreaming the execution of Nidal Hasan "will taint the honor of the military that employs it, and a nation that allows it," 72 former officers said in a letter.
Retired US generals urge Pentagon to drop 'barbaric' execution livestream
Nidal Hasan in 2010
A group of 72 retired US generals, admirals and other senior military officers is urging the US government to abandon plans to livestream an execution by firing squad.
"We ask the President, our Congressional representatives, and our fellow citizens to act to prevent this barbaric abuse of authority," they wrote in a letter, adding that the broadcast would turn the mass killer into a "martyr".
The Pentagon said last week that it would publicly air the 3 December execution of Nidal Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who shot dead 13 unarmed US soldiers at the Fort Hood military base.
The proposal has drawn criticism from lawmakers in both parties, along with religious leaders.
President Donald Trump said last week that he "absolutely" approved of the livestream plan, though some administration officials are now opposed to it, CBS News, the BBC's US media partner, reported. CBS also said Trump had not yet made a final decision on the livestream as of Tuesday.
In the open letter released on Wednesday, the former military leaders — including 45 generals, 12 admirals and several former judge advocates general — said they were not against the death penalty being carried out.
However, they said a public execution would breach the US Constitution's protections against cruel and unusual punishment and would turn what should be a "solemn and grave punishment" into "a carnival for the enjoyment of voyeurs and spectators".
"This type of exploitative broadcasting - that debases human dignity- will taint the honor of the military that employs it, and a nation that allows it," they also wrote.
"It will be used by our nation's enemies to stoke hatred, harm American soldiers and citizens in the future, and will ensure that Hasan becomes a martyr for attacking and killing his fellow soldiers."
The signatories came from across the military and included a few officers who retired during Trump's first term. Some had also served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Hasan said in court that he carried out the Fort Hood shooting, the deadliest ever non-combat attack on an American base, because he believed he was protecting Muslims and the Taliban in Afghanistan from the US military. Hasan was shot during the attack and now uses a wheelchair.
Among those who signed the letter were retired Maj Gen Tony Taguba, who led the Army's investigation into reported prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, and retired Air Force Coll Moe Davis, a prosecutor at the Guatanamo Bay detention centre who described waterboarding as torture.
Also signing were Charles Bolden, a US Marine Corps Major General who later became the head of Nasa, and retired Lt Gen Claudia Kennedy, the first woman to become a three-star general in the Army.
Trump has said he signed off on the execution, but although he supports the livestream plan, a final decision has not yet been made.
It would be the first public execution in the US in nearly a century.
The plan, announced by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth last week, has been strongly criticised by politicians, academics and experts.