Plea deal for alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and 2 others revoked
In a surprising turn of events, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has nullified the contentious plea agreement for alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two partners that was announced on Wednesday, and declared that he will now supervise the military tribunal at Guantanamo.
This action once again puts the death penalty back on the table for three out of the five 9/11 defendants who were set to receive life imprisonment at the U.S. base in Guantanamo in exchange for admitting guilt to the murder of 2,997 individuals in the assaults on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and United flight 93.
Two other 9/11 defendants declined to participate in the trial agreement, with only one of them, Ammar al Baluchi, potentially facing trial proceedings at Guantanamo.
In September of last year, a military judge determined that Ramzi bin al Shibh, the other defendant who did not engage in the plea deal, was mentally unfit to stand trial.
Military prosecutors revealed the plea agreement on Wednesday, sparking anger from some of the families of 9/11 victims.
Austin’s decision was discreetly communicated by the Department of Defense in a memo from Austin that was released on the Pentagon’s press site late Friday night.
In the memorandum to retired Brig. Gen. Susan K. Escallier, who sanctioned the plea agreement for Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, Austin stated that he will now be accountable for the cases.
“I have decided that, given the importance of the decision to accept pre-trial agreements with the accused in the aforementioned case, the responsibility for such a decision should lie with me as the superior convening authority under the Military Commissions Act of 2009,” wrote Austin.
“With immediate effect, I am revoking your authority in the aforementioned case to enter into a pre-trial agreement and am reserving such authority for myself,” continued Austin.
Under this mandate, Austin stated that he is “hereby rescinding the three pre-trial agreements that you signed on July 31, 2024 in the aforementioned case.”
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, two hijacked passenger jets crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, signaling the beginning of a series of synchronized attacks that day against the United States by the Afghanistan-based extremist organization al-Qaida. Nearly 3,000 individuals lost their lives that day and thousands more were wounded.