Key facts
- Pete Hegseth plans to stage a public execution of Nidal Malik Hasan.
- Hasan killed 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009.
- Hegseth stated the execution would be public for people to understand consequences.
- The author witnessed a public execution of serial killer Muhammad Bijeh in Iran in 2005.
- Bijeh was publicly hanged after being flogged.
- The author questions whether US values under Donald Trump are so different from Tehran's.
Pete Hegseth, who refers to himself as "secretary of war," has proposed staging a public execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, the former army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009. Hegseth stated that the execution should be public so that people understand the serious consequences of such actions. The author draws a parallel between this proposed event and a public execution witnessed in Iran over two decades ago. In March 2005, the Iranian authorities publicly hanged Muhammad Bijeh, a convicted serial killer, in the town of Pakdasht. The author, reporting for The Guardian at the time, described the event, including Bijeh receiving 100 lashes before the hanging, the crowd's chants, and the father of a victim urging the crane operator to swing the condemned man. The author reflects that this experience deeply imprinted on them the "ruthlessly repressive nature of the Islamic republic" and questions whether US values under Donald Trump are truly different from those of Tehran.