Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued an order Friday night that effectively reversed plea deals originally made for three alleged co-conspirators and plotters in the 9/11 attacks, following strong backlash from victims' families and the public.
The plea deal would have spared three Guantanamo Bay prisoners, including alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the death penalty in exchange for pleading guilty to all charges, but several family members of 9/11 victims spoke out strongly against it in interviews with the Daily Caller News Foundation before Governor Austin reversed course. Said “The responsibility for such decisions lies with [him]Given the significance of the government's abolition of the death penalty for terrorists who allegedly helped kill around 3,000 innocent people, these organisations are “significant organisations” rather than subordinate organisations.
“This is a very welcome change of position for me and many of the families. The biggest concern that I and many of the families had was what would happen to these three if they didn't get the death penalty,” Terry Strada, whose husband died just days after the birth of their third child on September 11, told DCNF following Austin's order. “Wherever they are incarcerated for life, any future administration could use them in prisoner trading. They deserve the death penalty for the crimes they committed. So I'm very happy to hear that the Department of Defense is stepping in and doing the right thing.”
Before Austin's decision to effectively revoke the plea deal, Strada told the DCNF that the pretrial agreement felt like a “betrayal.”
Austin 9/11 plea agreement by Nick Pope On Scribd
Not only did Austin effectively withdraw the plea agreement, but he also fired the superintendent of the Guantanamo Bay court. according to To the New York Times. (Related article: 9/11 took the lives of many fathers. Today, their children remember them.)
“We continue to want these animals put to death. We don't understand why we should have to negotiate with terrorists,” Brynley Maloney, whose husband was killed on 9/11, told the DCNF in response to Austin's decision to intervene. “I hope that politicians aren't making this decision because it's election season. All Americans should come together and demand accountability and justice.”
Before Austin stepped in, Maloney told the DCNF that the pretrial deal was “a disappointment to my family and all 9/11 families.” Maloney's daughter, who was a toddler when her father died, told the DCNF before Austin backed out that the agreement was “terrible and very disappointing.”
The Biden administration had distanced itself from the plea deal until Austin stepped in and rescinded it. A National Security Council spokesperson told the DCNF on Thursday that they learned of the plea deal after it was reached, and that “the president and the White House had no involvement in this process.” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre also Said At a press conference on Thursday, he told reporters that the White House was not involved in the plea bargain process.
Republicans and many In media Before retracting his agreement, Austin slammed the plea deal as a disgrace.
Frank Schiller is Tunnel to Towers Foundation Whose Brother In a statement to the DCNF ahead of Governor Austin's decision to effectively revisit the death penalty, Austin, a firefighter who died on 9/11, likened the deal to a “slap in the face.”
“After 9/11, we all said, 'We'll never forget,' but we have forgotten. And not only have we forgotten, we don't even care anymore,” said Don Elias, a retired Air Force lieutenant whose brother was killed on 9/11. Said The New York Times before Austin intervened. “A lot of people just want this to end.”
Joe Connor, who lost a cousin on 9/11 decades after his father was killed by terrorists in Puerto Rico, also reneged on his plea deal before it was cancelled.
“Seeing this made me very scared that there would be no justice for my cousin and the thousands of others who were killed that day and their families. My father's terrorist FALN members were released. They were pardoned by the Clintons and President Obama,” Connor said. Said “It's all about politics, and I was concerned at the time that these people were going to end up in a U.S. prison somehow, and I was concerned that someone was going to use politics to get these people released,” she said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and when asked for comment, the Department of Defense referred the DCNF to Austin's order.
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