The Biden administration has taken a strong position in its ongoing legal battle to challenge a plea agreement reached with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks. On Thursday, government attorneys urged a federal appeals court to prevent Mohammed’s guilty plea, which is scheduled to occur at Guantanamo Bay, from being finalized.
Defense attorneys described this legal maneuver as indicative of a long history of inadequate handling of the case by the U.S. military and previous administrations over the past twenty years. This situation places the current administration at odds with military officials it had designated to manage the prosecution related to the September 11 attacks, which resulted in nearly 3,000 fatalities. The ongoing legal entanglements highlight the complexities and challenges that have plagued the prosecution process over the years.
In a recent filing, lawyers from the Justice Department asserted the significance of this particular case, calling for Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to step in and nullify the plea deal. During a press conference after a meeting in Germany focused on military assistance to Ukraine, Austin mentioned that his views on this matter remain unchanged, albeit he did not provide extensive commentary due to the ongoing court challenge.
The plea deal, which had undergone two years of negotiation and was sanctioned by military prosecutors as well as the Pentagon’s senior Guantanamo official in late July, was designed to spare Mohammed and his two co-defendants the death penalty. Additionally, the agreement includes provisions requiring the defendants to address any remaining inquiries from the victims’ families regarding the attacks.
Defense counsel argues that the plea agreements are already active and contend that Austin lacks the legal authority to retract them retroactively. Preparations for Friday’s court proceedings have already been set in motion at Guantanamo, with some families of victims present in anticipation. Should the proceedings proceed as planned, Mohammed would take an oath in the military courtroom, and his defense attorney, Gary Sowards, would enter pleas on his behalf for 2,976 murder charges, among other allegations.
The co-defendants, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al Hawsawi, are expected to enter their pleas later this month. Attorneys have indicated that several months of sentencing hearings would follow, allowing the government to present its case and enabling families to share their personal losses.
The federal appeals court is expected to deliver a ruling on the administration’s emergency request by Thursday. Legal and procedural hurdles have encumbered the progress of the 9/11 case during the 17 years since charges were filed against Mohammed, who is alleged to have devised the attacks using hijacked aircraft. The case is still stuck in pretrial hearings, with a trial date yet to be established.
The issue has been further complicated by extensive debates over how the torture endured by Mohammed and other defendants during their time in CIA custody affects the admissibility of their subsequent statements in court. In a significant update, military prosecutors had alerted victims’ families over the summer about the approval of the plea deal, describing it as the most viable route to closure and justice.
However, on August 2, Austin unexpectedly declared the deal void, suggesting that decisions relating to death penalties for such serious offenses should fall under the purview of the defense secretary. After a military judge and a review panel denied Austin’s request, the Biden administration sought intervention from the District of Columbia federal appeals court this week.
Mohammed’s defense team criticized Austin’s unexpected involvement, asserting that it stems from his failure to adequately oversee his appointed delegate, who was responsible for the affairs at Guantanamo. The Justice Department maintained that accepting the guilty pleas would result in irreversible damage, claiming it would eliminate the possibility of a public trial and impede efforts to seek capital punishment against those accused of committing mass murder that profoundly shocked the nation and the world.
