U.S. Department Of Defense Agrees To Plea Agreement With 911 Mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed & 2 Others
Thursday, August 1, 2024, 7:30 A.M. ET. 3 Minute Read, By Jennifer Hodges: Englebrook Independent News,
WASHINGTON, DC.- In a stunning and shocking announcement on Wednesday, the U.S. Defense Department has agreed to a plea agreement with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other co-defendants accused of plotting the 2001 terror attacks.
The agreement was reached after 27 months of pretrial negotiations, which takes the death penalty off the table for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Bin ‘Attash, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, the Defense Department reported on Wednesday.
After beginning pretrial negotiations in March of 2022, the three accused terrorists agreed to plead guilty to all the counts in the charging documents, including the murder of 2976 people who perished during the Tuesday, September 11, 2001, morning terror attacks on the World Trade Center, the U.S. Pentagon, and the fourth plane that crashed in southwestern Pennsylvania.
The announcement, late Wednesday afternoon, has sparked outrage from many of the families who lost loved ones during the horrific attacks on the U.S., which led to a 20-year war in Afghanistan that resulted in the deaths of over 7000 U.S. military personnel, U.S. contractors, and Allied forces.
The Defense Department did not release the details of the plea agreement that was reached but stated that the three accused, along with Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Ramzi Bin al Shibh, will formally enter their pleas at a hearing that may come as early as next week.
The three accused coconspirators will face a sentencing hearing where the parties will be able to present evidence in arguing for an appropriate sentence short of the death penalty. However, the sentencing hearing will not occur before the summer of 2025.
The Biden Administration, over the past three years, has made it a priority to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center facility in Cuba where the defendants have been held and have even led the administration to repatriate several detainees that the administration deemed were no longer a threat to national security.
News outlets have reported that Terry Strada, the national chair for 9/11 Families United, said that the news came as a gut punch as she stepped out of the Manhattan federal courthouse following a day-long hearing in the 9/11 families ongoing litigation with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Strada expressed serious concern that the plea deal news will overshadow the newly unsealed evidence in the families’ fight to hold Saudia Arabia responsible for their alleged part in the terror plot, although Saudia Arabia has denied any involvement.
“No family member knew this was coming,” she said. I’m very suspicious of the timing of it. This is the biggest day in our entire case. Biggest day in 23 years of trying to obtain justice for the murder of our loved ones. And they offer those guys a plea deal.”
No matter the reason, whether to shield Saudia Arabia for its alleged role or the Biden’s Administration in their continued appeasement of adversaries, Wednesday’s announcement has shocked most of the U.S. population.
