US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has spoken out about the decision to cancel the controversial plea deals between prosecutors and three men accused of plotting the September 11, 2001 attacks.
In his first public comments about his decision, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on August 6 (local time) strongly asserted that it was “not a decision I took lightly,” and that he did so to emphasize the seriousness of the loss that occurred on the darkest day in modern US history.
“I have long believed that the families of the victims, the service members and the American public deserve the opportunity to witness military commissions, commission trials conducted against terrorism suspects,” he said at an event in Annapolis, Maryland.
The Pentagon announced on July 31 that plea deals had been reached with three of the five men accused of plotting the September 11, 2001, attacks, who are being held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center.
Nearly 3,000 people died on September 11, 2001, when passenger planes were hijacked and used as weapons against targets in New York City and Washington, DC. The fourth plane landed in a field after passengers bravely fought off the hijackers.
The deals involving alleged masterminds Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, as well as co-defendants Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, have been controversial. One of the defendants refused to accept the terms of the deal, while another was found mentally unfit to stand trial last year.
In a statement, the court described the deals as “pre-trial agreements” without providing further details. US media reported that the defendants had agreed to plea deals to avoid the death penalty and accept life sentences instead.
The plea deals have divided opinion in the community, with some welcoming them as the only way to resolve the years-long 9/11 cases. However, they have also angered victims’ families and Republican lawmakers, who say the Biden administration has been too lenient with the defendants.
From left: Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. (Source: AP)
On August 2, the US Secretary of Defense announced that the plea deals had been canceled. Mr. Austin also said that Susan Escallier, the military commission officer responsible for signing the deals, had been stripped of her pre-trial privileges and would be in charge of the case.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed that the Biden administration had no role in the plea deals, only learning about them “the same day” they were announced. “We had no role in that process. The president had no role. The vice president had no role. I had no role. The White House had no role,” Sullivan stressed, without explaining why the deals were agreed upon and announced without consultation.
