The defense secretary has hit the brakes on the plea deal for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two accomplices, placing the death penalty back on the table following blistering condemnation.
“Secretary (Lloyd) Austin signed a memo reserving for himself the specific authority to enter into pre-trial agreements with the accused in the 9/11 military commission cases,” the secretary stated late Friday night.
That means Austin has the sole authority to make — or break — all deals with the 9/11 terrorists and that’s just what he did by revoking “the pre-trial agreements that were signed in those cases” that gave the al-Qaeda killers life sentences.
In a stunning move, Austin is grabbing control from the military court over the fates of Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, three of the co-accused in the 9/11 case.
His memo goes on to say “in light of the significance of the decision” the final authority rests with him. He does not say what he will do next, but it is clear the death penalty is back in play.
He does add: “Effective immediately, in the exercise of my authority, I hereby withdraw from the three pre-trial agreements that you signed on July 31, 2024 in the above-referenced case.” He cites the Military Commissions Act of 2009 as a basis for his move.
The hijackers killed 2,976 people on Sept. 11, 2001 — including on two jets that took off from Logan International Airport that sunny morning.
All the 9/11 defendants remain locked up in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where a military tribunal is slowly attempting to bring them to justice.
The news spread quickly in the 9/11 community just two days after the plea deal caught so many off guard.
“The key is deterrence,” said retired FAA special agent Brian Sullivan of Massachusetts. “The plea deal would demonstrate weakness to our enemies, not strength.”
Sullivan, who warned then-Senator John Kerry and others about the vulnerabilities of airports like Logan in Boston to terror attacks months before the hijackings, added President Joe Biden’s lame-duck status “just invites attack by our adversaries.”
The House Oversight Committee announced a probe into the plea deals on Friday.
Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) wrote to President Biden in a letter that “you are allowing these terrorists to avoid the death penalty, signaling to our enemies that the United States is reluctant to pursue full justice against those who attack our nation,” according to the New York Post.
The committee has given the Biden administration until Aug. 16 to hand over all records of the now-moot plea deal.
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