Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin lost his appeal to throw out plea deals for three men involved in the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
A U.S. official confirmed on the condition of anonymity to the Associated Press that a military appeals court is upholding the plea deals for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Mustafa al Hawsaw, and Walid bin Attash. As a result, the three defendants will be given the opportunity to plead guilty to the terrorist attack over 20 years after the fact.
All three men were held at the U.S. military commission at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, where there have been reports of torture. The alleged torture complicates the defendants’ trials, as it could discredit the case. As a result, prosecutors sought plea deals in the cases, which began over a decade ago.
Under the terms of the plea deal, prosecutors are not able to pursue the death penalty for the three men, which drew outrage from the general public. Instead, they would be obliged to answer questions from family members of those affected by 9/11 submitted on a specific website.
In September 2023, Austin prompted President Joe Biden to reject an initial plea deal, which prohibited solitary confinement for the defendants and included health treatment for their alleged injuries from the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogations. After months of negotiations, the Pentagon announced new plea deals in July, which still prohibited the death penalty.
Austin immediately attempted to override the plea deals, claiming the “decision should rest with me as the superior convening authority under the Military Commissions Act of 2009″ in an August memo and tried to “reserve such authority to myself.” Ultimately, he did not 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 repeal their plea deals.
Almost 3,000 people died as a result of two planes striking the World Trade Center in New York, one plane striking the Pentagon outside Washington, and a fourth plane crashing in a Pennsylvania field.
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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 having helped pay for and plan the terrorists’ travel. Bin Attash allegedly trained the terrorists in hand-to-hand combat for them to overtake 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. At the start of the 2010s, Austin became the commanding general of United States Forces – Iraq and oversaw all military operations there.