Three men accused of plotting 9/11 attacks reach plea deal

It's been an eventful week for the stars of the Middle Eastern terrorism scene.

Right around the same time that Hamas' leader Ismail Haniyeh was being killed by an Israeli attack, "three of the men accused of plotting the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US have entered into a pre-trial agreement, the Department of Defense says."

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi have been being held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba for years without going to trial.

Despite their miserable existence consisting of only prison, the three men were apparently not keen to receive the death penalty.

In exchange "for the prosecution agreeing not to seek the death penalty, the trio have agreed to plead guilty to all of the charged offenses, including the murder of the 2,976 people listed in the charge sheet," BBC.com reports.

Not only were 3,000 Americans killed on that day during the plane hijackings, but the events led to an entire "War on Terror" in the Middle East that's still claiming lives to this very day.

While the three men admitting to their crimes helps us understand and grapple with what happened that day a little better, not everyone is happy with the results.

Brett Eagleson, the president of 9/11 Justice, an organization that represents 9/11 survivors and the relatives of the deceased, said that the families "are deeply troubled by these plea deals."

Terry Strada, who lost her husband that day, said that "it was a gut-punch to hear that there was a plea deal today that was giving the detainees in Guantanamo Bay what they want."

The attacks of September 11, 2001, rocked this country as no event had ever done since the bombing of Pearl Harbor in which 2,400 people were killed. That bombing encouraged America to get involved in World War 2.

Let us pray that the families of the victims are able to find the peace and comfort they need sometime soon.

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