Defense Sec Revokes Plea Deals With 9/11 Terrorists Following Backlash From Victims’ Families
New York City Commemorates 20th Anniversary Of 9/11 Terror Attacks
Nick Pope
Contributor
August 02, 2024
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin issued an order Friday night that effectively revokes the plea deals that were initially extended to three alleged 9/11 facilitators and plotters following massive backlash from victims’ family members and the broader public.
The plea deals would have allowed the three Guantanamo Bay prisoners — including alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — to skirt the death penalty in exchange for pleading guilty to all charges, a development that multiple family members of 9/11 victims objected to strongly in interviews with the Daily Caller News Foundation before Austin reversed course. Austin said that “responsibility for such a decision should rest with [him]” rather than subordinate entities given the significance of the government taking the death penalty off the table for terrorists who allegedly facilitated the murders of nearly 3,000 innocent people.
“For me and a lot of the families, this is a very welcomed change in their position. The biggest fear that I had, and a lot of family members had, was what could happen with these three individuals without a death penalty,” Terry Strada, whose husband died on Sept. 11 just days after the birth of their third child, told the DCNF following Austin’s order. “Wherever they would be held for a life sentence, any administration going forward could possibly use them in a prisoner trade deal. The death penalty is the right thing for them to face because of the crime that they committed. So, I’m very happy to hear that the Pentagon has stepped in and is doing the right thing.”
https://dailycaller.com/2024/08/02/defense-secretary-lloyd-austin-revokes-9-11-plea-deals-death-penalty/
