US defence secretary revokes plea deals for suspects behind 9/11 attack

The US defence secretary has revoked plea deals for the suspects behind the 9/11 attacks, two days after sixteen years of legally fraught prosecution processes reached a conclusion.

Llyod Austin’s announcement has reinstated the possibility of a death penalty for the alleged architect of the attacks on the Twin Towers, according to a memo sent to Susan Escallier, who is overseeing the war court proceedings.

Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, and his accomplices Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi had reached plea deals with the head of the military tribunal in Guntánamo Bay on Wednesday after lawyers had requested that the men receive life sentences in exchange for the guilty pleas.

In Friday’s memo, Mr Austin said that due to the “significance of the decision to enter into pre-trial agreements with the accused in the above-referenced case, responsibility for such a decision should rest with me as the superior convening authority”.

“I have determined that in light of the significance of the decision to enter into pre-trial agreements with the accused in the above-referenced case, responsibility for such a decision should rest with me as the superior convening authority under the Military Commissions Act of 2009,” he wrote in the memo addressed to Ms Escallier.

“Effective immediately, I hereby withdraw your authority in the above-referenced case to enter into a pre-trial agreement and reserve such authority to myself. Effective immediately, in the exercise of my authority, I hereby withdraw from the three pre-trial agreements that you signed on July 31, 2024”

The New York Times, citing unidentified Pentagon officials, said the terms included the men’s longstanding condition that they be spared the risk of the death penalty.

“In exchange for the removal of the death penalty as a possible punishment, these three accused have agreed to plead guilty to all of the charged offences, including the murder of the 2,976 people listed in the charge sheet,” the chief prosecutor, Rear Admiral Aaron Rugh, said in a letter to family members of victims, according to the outlet.

A senior Pentagon official told the New York Times that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had no involvement in the original plea deal, however, it ignited immediate backlash from top Republicans, accusing the pair of betraying their country.

Mitch McConnell and JD Vance, condemned the deal, along with New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik. McConnell called the decision “a revolting abdication of the government’s responsibility”.

J Wells Dixon, a staff attorney at the Centre for Constitutional Rights who has represented defendants at Guantánamo Bay who have been cleared of any wrongdoing, had welcomed the plea bargains as the only feasible way to resolve the long-stalled and legally fraught 9/11 cases.

On Friday Mr Dixon accused the defence secretary of “bowing to political pressure and pushing some victim family members over an emotional cliff” by rescinding the plea deals.

Captured in Pakistan in 2003, Mohammed confessed to masterminding the 9/11 attacks and multiple other terrorist incidents after being tortured during interrogations.

He was subjected to waterboarding 183 times while in CIA custody before coming to Guantanamo, along with other torture and coercive questioning.The use of torture has been one of the main obstacles in US efforts to try the men in the military commission at Guantanamo, owing to the inadmissibility of evidence linked to abuse.

However, families have since condemned the use of torture, according to The Washington Post. Terry Kay Rockefeller, 74, whose sister Laura was killed on 9/11, told the Post: “I would have liked a trial of men who hadn’t been tortured, but we got handed a really poor opportunity for justice, and this is a way to verdicts and finality.”

Ramzi bin al Shibh, was due to stand trial over charges of helping plan the attack but was ruled unfit for proceedings last year as due to the torture he was victim to in CIA custody leaving him delusional and psychotic.

Families of many of the victims have said they wanted to see the men formally admit guilt. Pentagon officials refused to immediately release the terms of the plea bargain.

The US agreement with the men to enter into a plea agreement comes more than 16 years after their prosecution began for al-Qaeda’s attack, and more than 20 years after militants flew commandeered commercial planes into buildings, killing nearly 3,000 people. All three men have been in custody since 2003.

Terry Strada, the head of one group of families of victims of the attacks, said: “They were cowards when they planned the attack. And they’re cowards today.”

Source: msn.com, Emilia Randall, August 3, 2024

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