WASHINGTON: Just two days after the announcement of a deal that reportedly would have taken the death penalty off the table, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday scrapped a plea agreement with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Deals with Khalid Sheikh and two alleged accomplices announced on Wednesday had appeared to have moved their long-running cases towards resolution, but sparked anger among some relatives of those killed in the attack, as well as criticism from leading Republican politicians.

“I have determined that, in light of the significance of the decision to enter into pre-trial agreements with the accused... responsibility for such a decision should rest with me,” Austin said in a memorandum addressed to Susan Escallier, who oversaw the case.

“I hereby withdraw from the three pre-trial agreements that you signed on July 31, 2024 in the above-referenced case,” the memo said.

The cases against the 9/11 defendants have been bogged down in pre-trial maneuverings for years, while the accused remained held at the Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba.

The New York Times reported this week that Khalid Sheikh, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi had agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy in exchange for a life sentence instead of death penalty.

Much of the legal jousting surrounding the men’s cases has focused on whether they could be tried fairly after having undergone methodical torture at the hands of the CIA for years.

The plea agreements would have avoided that thorny issue.

However, Republican lawmaker and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Mike Rogers sent a letter to Austin stating that the deals were “unconscionable”. Also, House Speaker Mike Johnson said they were a “slap in the face” to the families of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the 2001 attacks.

And Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, described the agreements as a “sweetheart deal with 9/11 terrorists”, during a campaign rally.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2024