Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, long believed to be the main conspirator in al-Qaeda’s September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, and two others accused of being involved in the planning of 9/11 have agreed to plead guilty with the U.S. military justice system, the Department of Defense announced Wednesday.
Though the Pentagon noted in its press release that “the specific terms and conditions of the pretrial agreements are not available to the public at this time,” Mohammed and accomplices Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi will avoid capital punishment, according to a letter that prosecutors sent to families of 9/11 victims, instead serving life in prison.
“In exchange for the removal of the death penalty as a possible punishment, these three accused have agreed to plead guilty to all of the charged offenses, including the murder of the 2,976 people listed in the charge sheet,” prosecutor Aaron C. Rugh wrote in the letter, according to the New York Times.
While the plea deals allow the defendants to avoid death row, they also help prosecutors stave off the possibility of a lengthy trial or confessions being ruled inadmissible before trial. Mohammed and Hawsawi were held in Central Intelligence Agency prisons, then moved to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba and subjected to enhanced interrogation tactics, which contributed to the long delay between their captures and criminal proceedings.
A National Security Council spokesperson said President Joe Biden learned of the agreements on Wednesday.
“The president and the White House played no role in this process,” the spokesperson said. “The president has directed his team to consult as appropriate with officials and lawyers at the Department of Defense on this matter.”
Numerous lawmakers issued statements decrying the plea deal as an insufficient punishment for those who planned the deadliest terrorist attack in history.
“The Biden-Harris Administration’s weakness in the face of sworn enemies of the American people apparently knows no bounds,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) wrote. “The plea deal with terrorists — including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks that killed thousands of Americans — is a revolting abdication of the government’s responsibility to defend America and provide justice. The only thing worse than negotiating with terrorists is negotiating with them after they are in custody. The families of their victims and the American people deserve real justice. In the same week that Israel eliminated some of Iran’s most trusted terrorist proxies, the Administration’s decision to spare these mass-murderers from the death penalty is an especially bitter pill. Meanwhile, the Biden-Harris Administration still seeks to release other Guantanamo terrorists back into the world. The Administration’s cowardice in the face of terror is a national disgrace.”
Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) described the agreement in similar terms in a post on X.
“This is a disgrace,” Cruz wrote. “These terrorists deserve the death penalty. Anything short of their execution is a complete and total miscarriage of justice. Time and time again, this administration shows weakness to our adversaries.”
Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) argued that the decision to offer a plea deal to Mohammed and his alleged co-conspirators is of a piece with the administration’s broader foreign-policy actions.
“If you’re looking for weird, this is it,” Graham wrote on X. “When you think it can’t get any worse, it just did. It is outrageous that the Biden-Harris Administration has entered into a plea deal with the mastermind of 9/11 and his accomplices. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his accomplices, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al Hawsawi, have the blood of thousands of Americans on their hands. Yet they were apparently allowed to plead guilty and avoid the death penalty, and potentially received a host of other conditions. From the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan to broken borders and empowering Iran, the Biden-Harris Administration has been a dream team for terrorists and rogue states like Iran. Now, the icing on the cake is a plea deal for the architects of September 11.”
Graham said the deal will likely do more harm than good for American security.
“Under Biden-Harris, we have become a doormat for thugs and terrorists,” he wrote. “This plea deal is an insult to the victims of 9/11. It sends precisely the wrong message at one of the most critical times in history. This decision is an outrage, shortsighted, and will only cause more problems for our country.”