Shortly after an agreement with the strategist of the attacks was announced, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin declared it null and void. The background to this was criticism from the Republican side. Now the death penalty is also possible again.
The World Trade Center in New York after the attack of September 11, 2001.
Marty Lederhandler / AP
It is a confusing back and forth at the highest level: Only two days after the announcement, the American Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has Deal with the mastermind of the attacks of September 11, 2001 revokedThis means that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has been imprisoned in Guantánamo for years, could once again face the death penalty.
The original out-of-court settlement was announced last Wednesday. It stipulated that Mohammed and two co-defendants would plead guilty; in return, they would be spared the maximum sentence. After strong criticism from Republican politicians and relatives of the victims, Austin declared the agreement null and void on Friday. He relieved the previous supervisor of the proceedings of her responsibility and declared the matter a top priority. “Given the importance of the decision, the responsibility should lie with me,” said the defense minister.
Statements under torture
Mohammed is considered an Islamist strategist who conceived the idea of 9/11, presented it to Osama bin Laden and later organized the financing and communication of the operation. In the worst terrorist attack in US history, terrorists flew three hijacked passenger planes into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon near Washington, killing almost 3,000 people.
The controversial deal with the mastermind came about because the defendants’ confessions were obtained under torture and therefore probably cannot be used in a trial. Mohammed was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and then spent three years in secret prisons in Afghanistan and Poland. tortured by the CIA before he was transferred to Guantánamo in 2006.
The prison camp is located in Cuba at the American naval base Guantánamo Bay. At one point, almost 800 suspects were detained there. It was set up after 9/11 to detain suspected Islamist terrorists without trial. There has long been talk of closing it, but prisoners like Mohammed are still being held there.
Massive criticism from the Republican side
His process was repeatedly delayed. Apparently it took two years to negotiate the deal. But criticism was particularly strong from conservatives. Republican Congressman James Comer wrote in a letter to President Joe Biden: “You are signaling to our enemies that the United States is not prepared to take tough action against those who attack our country.”
Senator Mitch McConnell, longtime Senate Republican leader, called the agreement a betrayal of the government’s duty to defend America and do justice. Mike Johnson, the House Speaker, said Biden’s administration had done the unthinkable.
The Republicans are now correspondingly satisfied with the turnaround. It is right that the government is moving away from the terrible deal, wrote Johnson. Senator Lindsey Graham wrote on X that Austin had done the right thing and had shown good judgment. “The previous deal would have sent a completely wrong signal to terrorists all over the world.” The relatives of the victims hope that a trial will lead to more public information about the background to the attack.
Either way, it will probably be a long time before a verdict is reached. Jury selection is scheduled for 2026, and the trial itself is expected to last more than a year.
