Retired US generals call on Pentagon to cancel 'barbaric' execution livestream

Meanwhile, a group of 72 retired US generals, admirals, and other high-ranking military officers are pressing the US administration to cancel aims to livestream an execution by firing squad.

Key points

• The plan, which was confirmed by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth last week, has been heavily criticised by politicians, academics and experts.
• The letter's signatories came from throughout the military and included a handful of officers who retired during Trump's first term.
• CBS documented thatTrump had not yet produced a final decision on the livestream as of Tuesday.
• Trump has remarked he signed off on the execution, but while he approves of the livestream plan, a final decision is yet to be produced.
• As well as religious leaders, have criticised the plan, lawmakers from both parties.

"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 where they additionally argued the livestream would turn the mass killer into a "martyr".

Last week, the Pentagon confirmed it would publicly show the 3 December execution of Nidal Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who shot dead 13 unarmed US soldiers at the Fort Hood military base.

Last week President Donald Trump remarked he "absolutely" approved of the livestream plan, but some administration office-holders are now leaning against it, according to CBS News, the BBC's US media partner. CBS documented thatTrump had not yet produced a final decision on the livestream as of Tuesday.

In the open letter published on Wednesday, the former military leaders – which included 45 generals, 12 admirals and a number of former judge advocates general – noted they did not oppose the death penalty being carried out.

But they argued a public execution would violate the US Constitution's protections against cruel and unusual punishment and 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 additionally 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."

Notably, the letter's signatories came from throughout the military and included a handful of officers who retired during Trump's first term. Some additionally had served during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Hasan remarked in court that he carried out the shooting at Fort Hood, the deadliest ever non-combat attack on an American base, believing he was protecting Muslims and the Taliban in Afghanistan from the US military. Hasan was shot during the attack and now uses a wheelchair.

Retired Maj Gen Tony Taguba. This person led the Army's investigation into documented prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, and retired Air Force Coll Moe Davis, a prosecutor at the Guatanamo Bay detention centre who called waterboarding torture, signed the letter.

So did Charles Bolden, a US Marine Corps Major General who became the head of Nasa, and a retired Lt Gen Claudia Kennedy, the first woman to become a three-star general in the Army.

It would be the first public execution in the US in almost a century.

In practice, the plan, which was confirmed by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth last week, has been heavily criticised by politicians, academics and experts.

Taken together, the developments around retired US generals call on Pentagon to cancel ' barbaric' execution livestream point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.