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Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced Friday night that he would withdraw from the pre-trial agreements reached with three terrorists involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The deals would have taken the death penalty off the table for them in return for a guilty plea, a life sentence in prison, and the avoidance of a trial in which the US’s torture of detainees would surely play a central role.
The families of some of the victims had criticized the agreements with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), Walid bin Attash, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi. It was likely this public pressure that caused Austin to reconsider.
“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,” Austin wrote in a memorandum to Susan Escallier, the convening authority for military commissions. “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.”
The reversal is surprising because the government has been unable to prosecute the trio of terrorists even though they have been in US custody for more than 20 years.
That means that the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden all got a crack at taking this matter to trial and none of them succeeded.
There are a couple of reasons for that.
One is that the government may not want certain information to come to light during a trial. Many of the victims’ families believe that the US is protecting Saudi Arabia from scrutiny, and that the country’s role in the attack is much more extensive than previously known.
And the government certainly won’t want to talk about its “enhanced interrogation methods,” such as waterboarding or sleep deprivation, which were applied to get detainees like KSM to talk.
However, it seems as though these practical considerations were overridden by the concerns over how these deals would look to the public.
“On behalf of New York City firefighters, especially the survivors of the September 11th terrorist attack who are living with the illnesses and injuries that were inflicted upon us that day, we are disgusted and disappointed that these three terrorists were given a plea deal and allowed to escape the ultimate justice while each month three more heroes from the FDNY are dying from world trade center illnesses,” said Andrew Ansbro, the president of the FDNY Uniformed Firefighters Association.
Republicans, who had been very critical of the initial plea deals, praised Austin for having taken the right step.
“I’m glad to see SecDef Austin has directly intervened to revoke the misguided plea deal for KSM,” stated Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), the chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee. “As I said previously, if any case warrants the death penalty, it’s this one. Justice for all Americans — but especially the victims and first responders from that tragic day — deserve nothing less.”
