Three men accused of plotting the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States have entered into a pre-trial agreement, according to the Department of Defense.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi, who have been detained at the US Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for years without trial, will reportedly plead guilty in exchange for the prosecution not seeking the death penalty.
The specifics of the deal remain undisclosed.
The attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, led to the “War on Terror” and subsequent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
They were the deadliest on US soil since the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, which resulted in 2,400 deaths.
The plea deal was first mentioned in a letter from prosecutors to the victims‘ families, as reported by The New York Times.
It stated that the plea could be entered before a military court as early as next week.
The US Defense Department noted, “the specific terms and conditions of the pretrial agreements are not available to the public at this time.”
The men face numerous charges, including attacking civilians, murder in violation of the laws of war, hijacking, and terrorism.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is considered the mastermind behind the attacks, during which hijackers flew planes into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon near Washington, while a fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers intervened.
Mohammed, an engineer educated in the US, was captured along with Hawsawi in Pakistan in March 2003.
Prosecutors claim he proposed the idea of hijacking planes to al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and later helped recruit and train the hijackers.
Mohammed was subjected to “enhanced interrogation techniques,” such as waterboarding, at least 183 times before the US government banned the practice.
Concerns that these interrogation methods, which critics label as torture, could undermine the evidence against the detainees have contributed to the long delay in the trial.
In September, the Biden administration reportedly rejected a plea deal with five men held in Guantanamo, including Mohammed, who had sought guarantees against solitary confinement and access to trauma treatment.
The White House National Security Council indicated that President Biden was informed of the new deal on Wednesday and had no role in the negotiations.
Jim Smith, whose wife died in the attacks, expressed disappointment to the New York Post, stating that families had “waited 23 years to have our day in court to put on the record what these animals did to our loved ones” and felt the guilty plea took away that opportunity.
He asserted that the men deserved the “highest penalty” for their roles.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized the Biden administration’s involvement in the deal, calling it “a revolting abdication of the government’s responsibility to defend America and provide justice.”
He added, “The only thing worse than negotiating with terrorists is negotiating with them after they are in custody.”
Source-BBC
