The United States Department of Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin, has canceled plea deals made earlier this week with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other men accused of planning the September 11 attacks. These men are currently held at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In a statement released on Friday, the Pentagon confirmed that plea deals had been entered into, but did not provide further details. Austin wrote in a memo to Susan Escallier, who oversees the Pentagon’s Guantanamo war court, stating, “Effective immediately, in the exercise of my authority, I hereby withdraw from the three pre-trial agreements.” He added, “I have determined that, in light of the significance of the decision to enter into pre-trial agreements with the accused…responsibility for such a decision should rest with me as the superior convening authority under the Military Commissions Act of 2009.”
Escallier had signed the pre-trial agreement with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, also known as KSM, on July 31, 2024. Austin’s memo also named four other defendants: Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin Attash, Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali.
According to reports, three of these men had agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy in exchange for life sentences, instead of facing trials that could result in their executions. The plea deals were also reached by two other detainees, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi.
Guantanamo Bay was established in 2002 by then-President George Bush to house foreign militant suspects after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is accused of masterminding the plot to fly hijacked commercial passenger aircraft into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon. The 9/11 attacks killed nearly 3,000 people and led the United States into a war in Afghanistan.
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Several Republican lawmakers, including House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have strongly criticized the plea deals. McConnell said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, “The Biden-Harris Administration’s cowardice in the face of terror is a national disgrace. The plea deal with terrorists, including those behind the 9/11 attacks, is a revolting abdication of the government’s responsibility to defend America and provide justice.”
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