Pentagon chief loses 9/11 plea deal rejection bid

According to a U.S. official, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's attempt to invalidate the plea agreements reached for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other defendants in the 9/11 attacks has been rejected by a military appeals court.

The decision reinstates the agreements that would have allowed the three men to plead guilty to one of the most lethal attacks on the United States in exchange for being exempt from the possibility of the death penalty, as Fox News reported.

The attacks by al-Qaida on Sept. 11, 2001, resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 Americans and served as a catalyst for the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, which the George W. Bush administration referred to as its "war on terror."

An official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, stated that the military appeals court released its ruling on Monday night.

Case Details

The plea agreements were reached after two years of government-approved negotiations between military prosecutors and defense attorneys for Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the attacks, and two co-defendants. Late last summer, the agreements were disclosed.

The plea agreements are viewed by supporters as a means of resolving the legally contentious case against the men at the U.S. military commission at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.

Initial hearings for Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi have been ongoing for more than a decade.

The pretrial arguments have primarily centered on the potential contamination of the overall evidence in the case due to the torture of the men while in CIA custody in the first years after their detention.

Austin's Response

Austin issued a brief order this summer, stating that he was nullifying the plea agreement within days of its announcement.

He emphasized the severity of the 9/11 assaults when asserting that, in his capacity as defense secretary, he should make decisions regarding plea agreements that would prevent the defendants from facing execution.

Defense attorneys contended that Austin lacked the legal authority to reject a decision that had already been authorized by the Guantanamo court's highest authority. They also contended that the action constituted unlawful interference in the case.

Air Force Colonel Matthew McCall, the military judge overseeing the 9/11 case, had concurred that Austin lacked the authority to overturn the plea bargains once they had been initiated. This had initiated the Defense Department's appeal to the military appeals court.

What Now?

Austin would now be allowed to appeal his motion to invalidate the plea agreements to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. A request for comment was not promptly addressed by the Pentagon.

In a separate announcement, the Pentagon announced that it had repatriated a Tunisian citizen, who had been held at the Guantanamo military prison for over a decade, and whom U.S. authorities had authorized for transfer.

As a result of Ridah bin Saleh al-Yazidi's departure for Tunisia, 26 individuals remain at Guantanamo Bay. This is a decrease from the peak population of approximately 700 Muslim males who were detained abroad and brought to the prison in the years following the Sept. 11 attacks.

14 men are currently awaiting transfer to other countries following Al-Yazidi's repatriation. U.S. authorities waived any prosecution and cleared them as security concerns.