Plea deal with accused 9/11 plotter withdrawn

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has revoked a pretrial agreement with the man accused of plotting the September 11 terrorist attacks.

In Friday’s memo, Austin also said he would revoke the authority of the military court officials who signed the agreement on Wednesday.

The initial deal, which reportedly would have spared the alleged attacker the death penalty, was criticized by some of the victims’ families.

The memo names five defendants, including the alleged ringleader of the conspiracy, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who are all being held at Guantanamo Bay. The original deal named three men.

“I have determined that, given the importance of the decision to enter into a pretrial agreement with the defendant…responsibility for this decision rests with me as the superior authority,” Mr Austin wrote in a letter to Brigadier General Susan Escaril. .

“I hereby withdraw your authority. Effective immediately, in exercising my authority, I hereby withdraw the three pretrial agreements.”

The White House said Wednesday it had no role in the plea deal.

The five people named in the memo are: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (commonly known as KSM), Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin Attash, Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi; two others not named in the original plea: Ramzi bin Shib and Ali Abdulaziz Ali.

The men have been detained without trial for decades. All claimed they were tortured – KSM was subjected to simulated drowning, so-called “waterboarding”, 183 times before it was banned by the US government.

All have faced more than a decade of pretrial hearings, complicated by torture allegations and evidence against them.

Several victims’ families criticized the terms of Wednesday’s agreement as being too loose.

Brett Eagleson, chairman of 9/11 Justice, which represents survivors and victims’ relatives, told the BBC earlier this week that victims’ families were “deeply disturbed by these plea deals”.

Terry Strada, who lost her husband Tom, told the BBC’s Today programme: “To hear that a plea deal has been reached today gives the detainees at Guantanamo Bay what they want Something that makes me feel heavy.

A lawyer representing Mr. Mohammed at Guantánamo told CNN New York Times He was startled by the sudden U-turn.

“I would be deeply disappointed if the secretary of defense issued such an order because after all these years the government still has not learned the lessons of this case,” attorney Gary Sowards said.

“And mischief caused by disregard for due process and fair play.”

The men are accused of a range of crimes, including attacks on civilians, murder in violation of the laws of war, hijacking and terrorism.

In September, the Biden administration reportedly rejected the terms of a plea deal with five men held at a U.S. naval base in Cuba, including Mohamed.

The men reportedly sought assurances from the president that they would not be held in solitary confinement and would have access to trauma treatment.

KSM allegedly proposed the idea to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden of hijacking a plane and flying it into a building. He was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 along with Hawsawi, a Saudi Arabian allegedly involved in fundraising activities.

Ali, a computer scientist and nephew of KSM, was accused of providing technical support for the 9/11 operations.

Bin al-Shibh, a Yemeni national who allegedly coordinated the attacks and planned to be a hijacker, was unable to obtain a U.S. visa.

Bin Attash, also a Yemeni, is accused of bombing the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, killing 17 sailors, and participating in the September 11 attacks.

Some Republicans applauded the defense secretary for withdrawing from the deal.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said the decision “exhibits good command judgment.”

“The previous plea agreement would absolutely send the wrong signal to terrorists around the world,” he added.

Earlier on Friday, Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, asked Mr. Austin to answer how the deal was reached.

“This agreement demonstrates a willingness to negotiate with terrorists who intentionally harm Americans,” he wrote in a letter to the defense secretary.

The 9/11 attacks in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania sparked the “war on terror” and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

It was the deadliest attack on U.S. soil since Japan’s 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, which killed 2,400 people.