On Saturday, Breitbart reported that a federal appeals court has thrown out the agreement that would have allowed Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to plead guilty in a deal sparing him the risk of execution for al-Qaida’s 2001 attacks. The deal that was thrown out was negotiated over two years and approved by military prosecutors and the Pentagon’s senior official for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a year ago, stipulated life sentences without parole for Mohammed and two co-defendants. Frankly, I am somewhat surprised by the fact that the defendants are still alive. Is the goal to allow them to die of old age in Guantanamo?
The article reports:
Mohammed is accused of developing and directing the plot to crash hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Another of the hijacked planes flew into a field in Pennsylvania.
The men also would have been obligated to answer any lingering questions that families of the victims have about the attacks.
But then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin repudiated the deal, saying a decision on the death penalty in an attack as grave as Sept. 11 should only be made by the defense secretary.
Attorneys for the defendants had argued that the agreement was already legally in effect and that Austin, who served under President Joe Biden, acted too late to try to throw it out. A military judge at Guantanamo and a military appeals panel agreed with the defense lawyers.
But, by a 2-1 vote, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found Austin acted within his authority and faulted the military judge’s ruling.
That is probably the only time I have agreed and will ever agree with Lloyd Austin.
It is time for the trials on those responsible for September 11 to end and the sentences be carried out.