US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has canceled a plea agreement with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, just two days after a deal was announced that would have removed the death penalty from consideration.
The plea deals with Mohammed and two alleged accomplices, which were revealed on Wednesday, seemed to bring their long-running cases closer to resolution but provoked backlash from families of the 9/11 victims and criticism from prominent Republicans.
In a memo to Susan Escallier, who managed the case, Austin stated, “I have decided that, given the gravity of entering into pre-trial agreements with the accused, the decision should be mine.” He formally withdrew the agreements signed on July 31, 2024.
The 9/11 cases have been stalled for years in pre-trial procedures while the accused remain at Guantanamo Bay. Reports indicated that Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi had agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy in exchange for life sentences, avoiding a trial that could result in execution.
The plea deals aimed to bypass the complex issue of whether the defendants could be fairly tried given their torture by the CIA post-9/11. However, they faced significant criticism from opponents of President Joe Biden’s administration.
Republican lawmaker Mike Rogers denounced the deals as “unconscionable,” and House Speaker Mike Johnson called them a “slap in the face” to the victims’ families. Republican presidential candidate JD Vance also condemned the deals as a “sweetheart deal with 9/11 terrorists.”
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a key figure in Al-Qaeda and mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, was captured in 2003 and spent years in secret CIA detention before arriving at Guantanamo in 2006. Bin Attash, who allegedly trained hijackers for 9/11 and was involved in the USS Cole bombing, was captured in 2003. Hawsawi, suspected of financing the 9/11 attacks, was arrested in 2003 and transferred to Guantanamo in 2006.
Guantanamo Bay, used to detain militants captured during the “War on Terror,” once held around 800 prisoners but has seen a gradual reduction in numbers. Despite President Biden’s pledge to close the facility, it remains operational.
