US cancels deal with alleged 9/11 masterminds

United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has canceled the deal reached earlier this week for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspects accused of plotting the September 11 attacks and being held at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

A Pentagon statement on Friday said the plea agreement had been signed, without providing details.

“I am, exercising my authority, withdrawing from the three pretrial agreements, effective immediately,” Austin wrote in a memo to Suzanne Escalier, who oversees the Pentagon’s Guantanamo war court.

“I have determined that given the importance of the decision to enter into pretrial agreements with the accused … the responsibility for such a decision should rest with me as the higher convening authority under the Military Commissions Act of 2009,” Austin wrote.

Escalier signed the pre-trial agreement for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (also known as KSM) on July 31, 2024.

The memo written by Austin names four other defendants — Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin Attash, Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali.

Two other detainees – Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi – have also agreed to a deal.

According to a New York Times report, the three had agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy for life sentences rather than face a trial that could have resulted in the death penalty.

Guantanamo Bay was established in 2002 by then-US President George Bush to detain foreign terrorist suspects following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is accused of plotting to fly hijacked commercial passenger planes into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon.

The 9/11 attacks killed nearly 3,000 people and embroiled the United States in a war in Afghanistan.

Several Republican lawmakers, including Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, strongly criticized the plea deals.

“The Biden-Harris Administration’s cowardice in the face of terrorism is a national disgrace. Its collusion with the terrorists behind the 9/11 attacks is a despicable abdication of the government’s responsibility to defend America and deliver justice,” McConnell said in a post on X.