Associated Press
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday overrode a plea agreement reached earlier this week for the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and two other defendants, reinstating them as death-penalty cases.
The move comes two days after the military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, announced that the official appointed to oversee the war court, retired Brig. Gen. Susan Escallier, had approved plea deals with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two accused accomplices, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, in the attacks.
Letters sent to families of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the al-Qaida attacks said the plea agreement stipulated the three would serve life sentences at most.
Austin wrote in an order released Friday night that “in light of the significance of the decision,” he had decided that the authority to make a decision on accepting the plea agreements was his.
Mohammed, whom the U.S. describes as the main plotter of the attack that crashed hijacked passenger planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field, and the other two defendants had been expected to formally enter their pleas under the deal as soon as next week.
5 comments
Ron Ogden
August 3, 2024 at 12:05 pm
Would be nice if we had a federal bureaucracy where one hand knew what the other was doing, but given current events it seems a forlorn dream.
Ninety Three
August 3, 2024 at 12:28 pm
Susan Escallier, the retired Army General overseeing this was a graduate of Cal Berkeley. That is all I needed to see. These three should have been executed a long time ago.
Childless Cat Lady
August 3, 2024 at 1:20 pm
The Justice Department, CIA and FBI lack credible evidence that will hold up in court to put Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to death or sentence him to life in prison. Since he’s still a prime suspect and a continued threat, he will remain in prison indefinitely. Some may refer to it as waiting on death row or some may consider it life without parole.
KathrynA
August 3, 2024 at 9:38 pm
Good for Austin to make the right and important decision here!
Ocean Joe
August 5, 2024 at 9:22 am
They both need a Scarface-style helicopter ride.
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