Plea deal involving 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed revoked by Secretary of Defense Austin in major about-face
A PLEA deal for the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and his accomplices has been revoked by the US Secretary of Defense.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin relieved the overseer of the war court at Guantanamo Bay before rescinding the plea deal announced earlier this week, making the matter a death penalty case once again.
"Effective immediately, in the exercise of my authority, I hereby withdraw from the three pretrial agreements that you signed on July 31, 2024."
Escallier approved the plea agreement on Wednesday after two years of negotiations between the prosecutors and the defendants.
A letter from the Office of Military Commissions outlined some of the conditions of the deal.
"In exchange for removal of the death penalty as a possible punishment, these three Accused have agreed to plead guilty to all of the charged offenses, including the murder of the 2,976 people listed in the charge sheet," the letter read.
The terror suspects also agreed to respond to any questions from the families of victims "regarding their roles and reasons for conducting the September 11 attacks."
Mohammed, bin Attash, and al-Hawsawi were expected to plead guilty at the military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as early as next week.
The full terms of the plea deal weren't released.
New York Representative Gregory Meeks told CNN the death penalty would be too easy "for the people that committed the evil they committed."
"They should suffer," he added.
NEVER FORGET
The development comes more than 16 years after the prosecution began against the al-Qaeda members.
On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda militants flew commercial planes into the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center in New York City.
A third plane hit the Pentagon, while a fourth was planned to strike Washington.
However, crew members and passengers tried to storm the cockpit and the plane ultimately crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.
The attack triggered the war on terror by President George W. Bush's administration, resulting in the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
US authorities believe Mohammed came up with the idea to use planes as weapons, gaining approval from al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, who was killed by US forces in 2011.
"And they just took away the justice I was expecting, a trial and the punishment."
Strada said the men were cowards when they planned the attack "and they're cowards today."
Meanwhile, congressional lawmakers slammed the plea deal, calling it a "national disgrace" and a "total miscarriage of justice."
"The Biden-Harris Administration’s weakness in the face of sworn enemies of the American people apparently knows no bounds," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
9/11 timeline of events
On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda operatives coordinated a terrorist attack against the United States, hijacking four commerical airplanes and crashing them into the Twin Towers and Pentagon.
Timeline:
- 5:45 am: Two hijackers get through security in Portland, Maine, and board a flight to Boston, where they will link up with three more hijackers and check in for American Airlines Flight 11 to Los Angeles.
- 7:59 am: American Airlines Flight 11 takes off. The plane is carrying 76 passengers, 11 crew members, and five hijackers.
- 8:15 am: United Airlines Flight 175, carrying 51 passengers, nine crew, and five hijackers, takes off from Boston to Los Angeles.
- 8:20 am: American Airlines Flight 77 takes off from Washington DC Dulles to Los Angeles. The plane is carrying 53 passengers, six crew members, and five hijackers.
- 8:42 am: United Airlines Flight 93 takes off from Newark. The plane is carrying 33 passengers, seven crew members, and four hijackers. The flight was bound for San Francisco.
- 8:46 am: Flight 11 crashes into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
- 9:03 am: Flight 175 hits the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
- 9:36 am: Vice President Dick Cheney is evacuated by Secret Service agents to an undisclosed location.
- 9:37 am: Flight 77 hits the Pentagon building in Washington DC.
- 9:45 am: The US Capitol and White House are both evacuated.
- 9:59 am: The South Tower is the first to collapse after burning for around 56 minutes.
- 10:03 am: United Airlines flight 93 crashes into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The passengers and crew got together and stormed the cockpit of the hijacked plane. All on board are killed.
- 10:28 am: The North Tower collapses.
- 8:30 pm: President George W. Bush addresses the US from the White House regarding the attacks. Almost 3,000 Americans died in the terror attacks.
"The plea deal with terrorists – including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks that killed thousands of Americans – is a revolting abdication of the government’s responsibility to defend America and provide justice," he continued.
"The only thing worse than negotiating with terrorists is negotiating with them after they are in custody."
McConnell said families would not get the "real justice" they've been looking for nearly 23 years."
"The families of their victims and the American people deserve real justice,"; he said.
"In the same week that Israel eliminated some of Iran’s most trusted terrorist proxies, the Administration’s decision to spare these mass-murderers from the death penalty is an especially bitter pill."
The Biden-Harris Administration "still seeks to release other Guantanamo terrorists back into the world," he said.
"The Administration’s cowardice in the face of terror is a national disgrace."
JD Vance who is running for the White House alongside Donald Trump has also slammed the Biden-Harris administration over the deal.
"We need a president who kills terrorists, not negotiates with them," he told supporters in Glendale, Arizona while on the campaign trail.
"Just today, I heard that the Biden-Harris Department of Justice cut a deal with al Qaeda terrorist Khalid Sheik Mohammed to avoid the death penalty," the 39-year-old said.
"As someone who enlisted in the Marines to serve after 9/11, that is ridiculous, but it’s not surprising.
"Just think about the point that we’ve gotten to: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have weaponized the Department of Justice to go after their political opponents, but they’re cutting a sweetheart deal with 9/11 terrorists."
Key figures behind 9/11
Here are some of the key figures involved in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
Hijackers on American Airlines Flight 11
- Mohamed Atta
- Abdulaziz al-Omari
- Wail al-Shehri
- Waleed al-Shehri
- Satam al-Suqami
Hijackers on United Airlines Flight 175
- Marwan al-Shehhi
- Fayez Banihammad
- Mohand al-Shehri
- Hamza al-Ghamdi
- Ahmed al-Ghamdi
Hijackers on American Airlines Flight 77
- Hani Hanjour
- Khalid al-Mihdhar
- Majed Moqed
- Nawaf al-Hazmi
- Salem al-Hazmi
Hijackers on United Airlines Flight 93
- Ziad Jarrah
- Ahmed al-Haznawi
- Ahmed al-Nami
- Saeed al-Ghamdi
Three suspects have also accepted a plea deal in the two decades since the attacks - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Bin Attash, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi.
The men along with Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Ramzi Bin al Shibh were jointly arraigned on June 5, 2008, and again on May 5, 2012.
Al-Hawsawi was charged with helping the hijackers with their finances and travel arrangements.
The vice-presidential nominees wrongly named the DOJ as the prosecuting organization. The Department of Defense is in charge of the military commission trials.
The White House said it only learned about the plea agreement on Wednesday, with a spokesperson for the National Security Council telling the New York Post that President Joe Biden played "no role in this process."
"The President has directed his team to consult as appropriate with officials and lawyers at the Department of Defense on this matter.";
However, Biden has said that one of his goals as president was to close the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay.
Kathy Vigiano, whose husband Joseph Vigiano was a detective with the New York Police Department killed on 9/11, said she was "angry and disappointed that enemy combatants who killed thousands of Americans in our homeland are now able to exploit the US judicial system to their benefit, receiving support from American taxpayers for shelter, food, and healthcare for the rest of their lives."
Retired police officer Jim Smith was married to his wife Moira, the only female police officer who died on 9/11.
He said the plea agreement made him feel as if it had been "kicked in the balls."
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"The prosecution and families have waited 23 years to have our day in court to put on the record what these animals did to our loved ones. They took that opportunity away from us," he told The New York Post.
"They committed the worst crime in the history of our country, they should receive the highest penalty."