Nidal Malik Hasan has been collecting his U.S. Army pension every month since 2009. He murdered 13 people and wounded 32 others at Fort Hood, Texas, shouting "Allahu Akbar" as he opened fire on unarmed soldiers in a gun-free zone on a military base. The Army kept paying him.

That arrangement just ended.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recommended — and President Donald J. Trump approved — death by U.S. Army firing squad for Hasan. Sean Parnell broke the announcement on October 5: "Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has recommended — and President Donald J. Trump has approved — death by U.S. Army firing squad for convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan." The execution must be carried out within 150 days.

Hasan received his death sentence in 2013. That was thirteen years ago. Every president between then and now — Obama, Biden — had the authority to move the process forward. Neither did. The appeals wound through the system at the speed of bureaucratic indifference. Hasan sought Supreme Court review in 2024. The high court declined to hear the case in 2025. The legal road ran out. All that remained was a signature.

Trump provided it.

The choice of firing squad is deliberate. The last military execution in the United States was in 1961, when a soldier was hanged for the rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old Austrian girl. The military hasn't put anyone to death in over six decades. Lethal injection was available. Trump and Hegseth chose the firing squad — the method traditionally reserved for military offenders, carried out by the institution Hasan betrayed.

Hasan was an Army psychiatrist. He was supposed to treat soldiers dealing with the psychological toll of combat. Instead, he became a jihadist who slaughtered them in a processing center where they couldn't shoot back. Fort Hood was a gun-free zone at the time of the 2009 attack. The soldiers Hasan targeted were unarmed on their own base.

Thirteen dead. Thirty-two wounded. And for seventeen years, the man responsible sat on death row while the United States government direct-deposited his military salary into his account. Three presidents had the file on their desk. Two left it there.

The 150-day clock is now running. No more appeals. No more delays. No more pension checks.