On Friday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin rejected a controversial plea deal that would have prevented three alleged 9/11 terror attack planners from facing the death penalty.
Earlier this week, a letter to the families of 9/11 victims revealed that alleged co-conspirators Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Walid Bin ‘Attash, and Mustafa al Hawsawi had pled guilty to orchestrating the attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives on September 11, 2001.
In the letter released Wednesday, prosecutors wrote:
In exchange for the removal of the death penalty as a possible punishment, these three Accused have agreed to plead guilty to all of the charged offenses, including the murder of the 2,976 people listed in the charge sheet, and to be later sentenced by a panel of military officers.
The deal immediately provoked controversy, spurring US lawmakers to demand answers from the White House, which denied any involvement in and actively distanced itself from the negotiations.
Later Friday, Austin intervened, writing in a letter addressed to Susan Escallier, a retired brigadier general serving as Convening Authority for Military Commissions:
I have determined that, in light of the significance of the decision to enter into pre-trial agreements with the accused in the above-referenced case, responsibility for such a decision should rest with me as the superior convening authority under the Military Commissions Act of 2009. Effective immediately, I hereby withdraw your authority in the above-referenced case to enter into a pre-trial agreement and reserve such authority to myself.
In the military prosecutors’ letters to victims family on Wednesday, they addressed the controversial nature of a plea deal in such a case, stating:
We recognize that the status of the case in general, and this news in particular, will understandably and appropriately elicit intense emotion, and we also realize that the decision to enter into a pre-trial agreement will be met with mixed reactions amongst the thousands of family members who lost loved ones. The decision to enter into a pre-trial agreement after 12 years of pre-trial litigation was not reached lightly; however, it is our collective, reasoned, and good-faith judgment that this resolution is the best path to finality and justice in this case.
In informing the White House of the decision to investigate, Comer cited the spouse of a 9/11 victim who expressed some of what the prosecutors had anticipated:
I am angry and disappointed that enemy combatants who killed thousands of Americans in our homeland are now able to exploit the U.S. judicial system to their benefit, receiving support from American taxpayers for shelter, food, and healthcare for the rest of their lives.
For more details on this development, visit JURIST.