In a stunning development, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has revoked the controversial plea deal for alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two accomplices announced on Wednesday, and said he was taking oversight of the military tribunal at Guantanamo.
The move, once again, places the death penalty on the table for three of the five 9/11 defendants who would have received life in prison at the U.S. base in Guantanamo in return for pleading guilty to the murder of 2,997 people in the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and on United flight 93.
Two other 9/11 defendants did not participate in the trial agreement, though only one of them, Ammar al Baluchi, could actually face trial proceedings at Guantanamo.
Last September a military judge ruled that the Ramzi bin al Shibh, the other defendant not participating in the plea agreement, was mentally incompetent to stand trial.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks during a joint news conference after a foreign and defense ministerial meeting at Camp Aguinaldo in Manila, Philippines, July 30, 2024.
Basilio Sepe/AP
On Wednesday, military prosecutors announced the plea deal, which resulted in outrage by some of the families of 9/11 victims.
Austin’s move was quietly announced by the Department of Defense in a memo from Austin that was posted on the Pentagon’s press site late Friday night.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, alleged organizer of the September 11 attacks, shortly after his capture, March 1, 2003.
AFP via Getty Images
In the memo to retired Brig. Gen. Susan K. Escallier, who approved the plea deal for Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, Austin said he was taking over responsibility for the cases.
“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.
“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,” Austin continued.
Under this authority Austin said “I hereby withdraw from the three pre-trial agreements that you signed on July 31, 2024 in the above-referenced case.”
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, two hijacked passenger jets flew into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, marking the start of a series of coordinated attacks that day against the United States by the Afghanistan-based terrorist group al-Qaida. Nearly 3,000 people were killed that day and thousands more were injured.