Plea Deals for 9/11 Masterminds Confirmed by Military Court

A US official confirmed on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press that a military appeals court is confirming plea agreements for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Mustafa al Hawsaw and Walid bin Attash. As a result, all three defendants will have the opportunity to plead guilty to the terrorist attack more than 20 years after the fact.

The three men were held at the US military commission at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, where there have been reports of torture. The alleged torture complicates the trials of the accused, as it could discredit the case. As a result, prosecutors sought plea deals in the cases, which began more than a decade ago.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, prosecutors cannot seek the death penalty for the three men, sparking outrage from the general public. Instead, they would be required to answer questions from family members of those affected by 9/11 submitted on a specific website.

In September 2023, Austin led President Joe Biden to reject an initial plea deal, which prohibited solitary confinement for the defendants and included medical treatment for their alleged injuries caused by Central Intelligence Agency interrogations. After months of negotiations, the Pentagon announced new plea agreements in July, which still prohibited the death penalty.

Austin immediately sought to overturn the plea agreements, claiming “the decision should rest with me as the senior convening authority under the Military Commissions Act of 2009” in an August lawsuit. memorandum and I tried to “reserve that authority for myself.” In the end, he didn’t have the legal authority to do so. Instead, Austin appealed the case without explicit support from the White House. At the time, White House press secretary Karine Jean Pierre said the administration “had nothing to do” with the attempt to overturn their plea deals.

Nearly 3,000 people died as a result of two planes that crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, a plane that crashed into the Pentagon outside Washington, and a fourth plane that crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

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Mohammed allegedly helped train the 19 terrorists who hijacked the four planes and helped finance the operation. Hawsaw is also accused of helping finance and plan the terrorists’ trip. Bin Attash allegedly trained the terrorists in hand-to-hand combat so that they could reach the cabin and crew.

Shortly after the attack, Austin received the Silver Star for leading the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division during the invasion of Iraq. In the early 2010s, Austin became the commanding general of United States Forces in Iraq and oversaw all military operations there.