In a surprising turn of events, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has put an end to a deal that would have exempted three major 9/11 defendants from facing the death penalty if they admitted their guilt. The announcement was made just two days after the Pentagon had stirred controversy by revealing this plea bargain agreement which incited anger among 9/11 victims longing for greater accountability and revelation of new facts about the attacks.
In a memorandum addressed to Susan Escallier, a retired Army Brigadier General and military lawyer overseeing the Guantanamo prosecutions, Austin stated, “I have decided that, in light of the significance of the decision to enter into pre-trial agreements with the accused…responsibility for such a decision should rest with me as the superior convening authority under the Military Commissions Act of 2009.” This revival of potential death penalties is significant given that almost 23 years after the attacks, which left 2,977 people dead and dramatically altered world events, no trial has yet to be conducted against the 9/11 defendants held at the US Navy base in Guantanamo, Cuba.
The recent years have seen endless pre-trial clashes over whether statements made by detainees who were subjected to the US torture regime should be admissible as evidence. The US government has been successful in prosecuting many non-9/11 terror cases in civilian federal courts, including the case centered on the first attack on the World Trade Center – a 1993 truck bomb explosion intended to bring down the towers. However, the decision by the Bush-Cheney administration to prosecute 9/11 defendants as “enemy combatants” through military tribunals overseen by Pentagon officials has led to numerous complications and delays in the pursuit of justice.
This complexity has been further exacerbated by the decision made by the Bush-Cheney administration to employ torture techniques on the accused. The plea bargain agreement announced on Wednesday offered an opportunity to break the endless cycle of pretrial motions and discovery aimed at determining which, if any, incriminating statements were made while detainees were being tortured – a possibility that may have led to sentences measured in thousands of years.
While many Americans, including family members of those killed on 9/11, naturally want the three defendants covered by the rescinded deal – alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi – put to death, it is crucial to consider that death penalties at the end of a full trial are far from guaranteed. Defense attorneys will argue that the government’s torture of their clients should be taken into account during sentencing decisions. Mohammad alone was waterboarded 183 times.
While there is some merit in expediting the process to bring closure for those affected by the attacks, many 9/11 family members and survivors are hopeful that full trials of the defendants will provide another avenue for justice – by revealing links between the 9/11 plot and Saudi government officials.
On the same day the plea deal was announced, 9/11 plaintiffs were present in a federal courtroom in New York, where Judge George Daniels was hearing arguments over Saudi Arabia’s motion to dismiss a long-running civil suit that aims to hold the kingdom liable for logistical and financial aid the hijackers appear to have received from a network of Saudi officials operating out of the Saudi embassy in Washington and the consulate in Los Angeles.
As they have pursued this case at its own slow pace, plaintiffs’ lawyers have faced challenges not only from the Saudi government but also from the US government, which has impeded their efforts to obtain files from the FBI’s investigations of the attacks. On Wednesday, 9/11 Justice – a grassroots organization advocating for transparency regarding Saudi Arabia and 9/11 – expressed alarm over the plea arrangement. In a statement, the group’s president, Brett Eagleson, whose father was killed in the attacks, stated: “We urge the administration to ensure that these deals do not close the door on obtaining critical information that can shed light on Saudi Arabia’s role in the 9/11 attacks.
In the meantime, jury selection for the military trial in Guantanamo is not expected to commence until at least 2026, with the trial itself projected to last more than a year and a half. As the saying goes, justice delayed is justice denied – especially for 9/11 survivors and families.
