US defense secretary abruptly revokes plea deal with accused 9/11 plotters

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin abruptly revoked a plea deal for the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks and his co-conspirators.

In a memo released on Friday, Mr Austin also said he was revoking the authority of the officer overseeing the military court who signed the agreement on Wednesday.

The memo, addressed to Susan Escallier, the convening authority for military commissions who runs the military courts at Guantanamo Bay, said the defense secretary would immediately withdraw her authority in the cases and “reserve such authority to (himself).”

Mr Austin said that he was withdrawing from the three pre-trial agreements, which had taken the death penalty off the table for the three men.

Only two days earlier, the Pentagon announced that it had reached a plea deal with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, more commonly known as KSM, and two other defendants – Walid Bin ‘Attash, and Hawsawi – accused of plotting the attacks.

Prosecutors in the case had been discussing the possibility of a plea deal for more than two years, which would have avoided a lengthy trial complicated by questions over the admissibility of evidence obtained during torture.

In 2008, Mohammed was charged with a list of crimes including conspiracy, murder in violation of the law of war, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, and terrorism and material support of terrorism.

The US had said it would seek the death penalty for Mohammed.

But the military trial against Mohammed and his alleged co-conspirators was delayed for years as the US tried to determine how to handle the issue of torture used against Mohammed and others at secret CIA prisons in the 2000s.

The trial was set to begin in January 2021, but delays brought about by the resignation of two judges and the coronavirus pandemic pushed the date back.

The plea deal announcement prompted a fierce backlash, including from both sides of the political aisle and some groups representing 9/11 victims who have pushed for the US government to pursue the death penalty for the worst attacks on US soil since Pearl Harbor.