Biden administration halts plea agreement that would spare alleged 9/11 planner Khalid Shaikh Mohammed from death penalty at Guantanamo Bay.
The Biden administration achieved a temporary block Thursday on a plea arrangement that would have allowed Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged architect of 9/11, to enter a guilty plea and avoid possible execution for Al Qaeda's September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
This development marks another chapter in the extended efforts by U.S. military and consecutive administrations to prosecute the individual charged with orchestrating one of America's most devastating attacks. The decision further delays the resolution of a military prosecution spanning over two decades, plagued by legal and operational challenges.
A panel consisting of three appellate judges issued a stay on Mohammed's planned guilty plea, originally scheduled for Friday at the military commission courthouse located at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba.
The Biden administration has taken the unprecedented step of attempting to invalidate a plea arrangement that its own Department of Defense had negotiated with Mohammed and two other 9/11 defendants.
Mohammed stands accused of conceiving and supervising the plot involving hijacked commercial aircraft that struck the World Trade Center and Pentagon. An additional hijacked aircraft crashed in a Pennsylvania field.
Several family members of the nearly 3,000 victims had already assembled at Guantanamo to witness Mohammed acknowledge his role in one of American history's most traumatic events.
"It's very upsetting," Elizabeth Miller stated, whose firefighter father, Douglas Miller, perished in the attacks and leads a group of 9/11 families advocating for the plea agreements and opposing capital punishment for the defendants.
She views the agreements as "the best way for families to receive finality."
"It's unfortunate that the larger government isn't recognizing it," she remarked via telephone Thursday from Guantanamo.
However, Gordon Haberman, whose daughter Andrea died at the World Trade Center during a business trip, expressed optimism. "If this leads to a full trial for these guys, then I'm in favor of that," he stated.
The appellate panel emphasized that its order would remain effective only during the full consideration of arguments and should not be interpreted as a conclusive ruling.
The court established upcoming procedural deadlines for January 22, indicating the legal proceedings would extend into the Trump presidency.
Defense attorneys had endeavored to conclude the plea arrangements before President-elect Trump's January 20 inauguration. Trump's potential involvement in the military commission proceedings remains uncertain.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III has spearheaded efforts to overturn the controversial plea arrangements, maintaining that decisions regarding capital punishment for an attack of September 11's magnitude should rest solely with the Defense Secretary.
Defense counsel argued in legal documents that attempts to invalidate the agreement represent the latest instance in the government's twenty-year pattern of "fitful" and "negligent" case management. They contend the agreement is already effective and Austin lacks legal authority for post-facto nullification.
This dispute has positioned the Biden administration in opposition to the military officials it appointed to administer justice for the attacks.
The arrangement, developed over two years and endorsed by military prosecutors and the Pentagon's senior Guantanamo official in late July, provided for life imprisonment without parole for Mohammed and two co-defendants. It also required their cooperation in addressing remaining questions from victims' families about the attacks.
The 9/11 case has encountered legal and procedural obstacles throughout its 17-year duration since Mohammed's indictment. The case remains in preliminary hearings without a scheduled trial date.
The CIA's interrogation methods used on Mohammed and other 9/11 defendants has presented significant legal challenges, potentially invalidating their subsequent statements in court.
Considering these factors, military prosecutors informed families this summer about the senior Pentagon official's approval of a plea arrangement, describing it as "the best path to finality and justice."
Austin unexpectedly announced the agreement's cancellation on August 2. After both the Guantanamo judge and a military review panel rejected Austin's intervention, the Biden administration appealed to the District of Columbia federal appeals court this week.
Mohammed's legal team argued that Austin's "extraordinary intervention in this case is solely a product of his lack of oversight over his own duly appointed delegate," referring to the senior Pentagon official overseeing Guantanamo.
The Justice Department maintained that accepting the guilty pleas would deny the government an opportunity for public trial and "seek capital punishment against three men charged with a heinous act of mass murder that caused the death of thousands of people and shocked the nation and the world."