Representative Ro Khanna said the United States is not Rome with a Colosseum for public executions as spectacle, and that a public execution has no basis in modern humanitarian law. He said a livestream of the Fort Hood shooter’s death would be a recruiting tool for more terrorism. The Army has ordered a firing squad. It has not ordered a broadcast.
“We are not Rome with a Colosseum where we have public executions for spectacle and entertainment. The livestream video will be a recruiting tool for more terrorism,” Khanna, a California Democrat who represents the 17th District, wrote Saturday. A clip with the post went further. His office site did not carry a separate release.
In the clip he said Pete Hegseth “says he has a mentality of winning, but he is presiding over a war which we’re losing.” He called the reported plan “the spectacle of the Colosseum for entertainment and for shaming people,” said it has “no basis in modern humanitarian law,” and that it would “make us an outlier” and “glorify the terrorists who did this.” The Colosseum comparison, the humanitarian-law claim, the recruiting-tool claim, and the claim that the United States is losing the Iran war are his. He did not cite a treaty or a statute.
The Army’s order is narrower. An Oct. 7 release said Acting Secretary of the Army Adam Telle directed on Oct. 6 that Nidal Hasan be executed by firing squad at Fort Hood, Texas, at 1 p.m. CST on Dec. 3, 2026. It said President Donald Trump approved the death sentence on Oct. 2, after a full appellate process upheld the conviction. The release does not mention a livestream, a public viewing, humanitarian law, or a recruiting effect.
The regulation describes a closed viewing, not a public one. Army Regulation 190-55 says the method is designated by the secretary of the Army, and that the identities of the execution team are kept confidential to the extent the law allows. It says the execution area is cleared of nonessential personnel, then opened to assembled witnesses, who are escorted from a witness assembly area and briefed on decorum. It says media representatives may not interview witnesses in the assembly or viewing areas. It does not mention a livestream, a public broadcast, or a waiver of those limits. Khanna’s post treats a public stream as the plan. The regulation on the books does not provide for one.
The Pentagon spokesman had announced the method earlier. Sean Parnell, assistant to the secretary of war for public affairs, wrote that Hegseth had recommended, and Trump had approved, death by Army firing squad. He said Hasan opened fire on unarmed soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009, killed 13 people, and wounded 32 others while shouting “Allahu Akbar.” He said the secretary of the Army would set the time and place. The Army release is that setting. Parnell’s post does not mention a livestream or terrorism recruitment.
On the war Khanna called a loss, the administration’s account is the opposite. In a Sept. 30 address, Hegseth said U.S. forces had destroyed Iran’s navy, air force, air defenses, and military industry, and that Iran’s conventional shield had been crippled. A March 12 White House release set the objectives as destroying Iran’s missiles and the capacity to build more, annihilating its navy, preventing a nuclear weapon, and stopping it from arming forces outside its borders. Neither document addresses an execution broadcast or a claim about humanitarian law.
The conviction is on the 2013 record. A Sept. 3, 2013, Army release said a court-martial panel at Fort Hood found Maj. Nidal M. Hasan guilty of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder for the Nov. 5, 2009, shooting, and sentenced him to death on Aug. 28, 2013. The 2026 release says the jury found him guilty of all 42 counts on Aug. 23. The 2013 release said the last service member executed by the military was Pvt. John A. Bennett, hanged on April 13, 1961, at Fort Leavenworth. The Supreme Court docket shows Hasan’s petition was denied on March 31, 2025.
“Colosseum,” “spectacle,” “no basis in modern humanitarian law,” and “recruiting tool” are Khanna’s. The firing squad, the date, and the place are the Army’s. The livestream is in the report he was answering, not in the Army order or the regulation. The department has not posted a response. The firing squad is confirmed. The broadcast is not.