Defense Department Reaches Plea Deal With Three 9/11 Defendants

An image released by the U.S. military on July 16, 2009, shows a 'Camp Justice' sign near the high-security courtroom in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the pre-trial sessions for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-defendants, charged for the 9/11 attacks, will be held. Mandel Ngan-Pool/Getty Images

Three defendants allegedly involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have entered into a plea deal with the Department of Defense (DOD) after years of incarceration at Guantanamo Bay.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed and many thousands more injured in the coordinated Islamist suicide attacks carried out by al-Qaeda on U.S. soil in 2001.

According to a July 31 statement from the DOD, Susan Escallier, who is the convening authority for military commissions, has entered into pretrial agreements with Khalid Shaikh (Sheikh) Mohammad, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin' Attash, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi.

Mohammad, a Kuwaiti-Pakistani mechanical engineer, was the former head of al-Qaeda’s propaganda department and is accused of being the mastermind of 9/11. He allegedly presented the idea of hijacking planes and flying them into U.S. buildings to Osama bin Laden in about 1996 and later helped train some of the hijackers.

An image of a courtroom shows Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (C) and co-defendant Walid Bin Attash (L) attending a pre-trial session in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Dec. 8, 2008. Sketch by Janet Hamlin-Pool/Getty Images

Hawsawi has been accused of helping with financial and travel arrangements for the hijackers. Attash is accused of assisting with combat training for the terrorists.

Specific terms and conditions of the pretrial agreements have not been made publicly available by the DOD.

The three defendants, along with two others, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Ramzi Bin al Shibh, were first jointly charged and arraigned in June 2008. They were charged and prosecuted again in May 2012.

Aziz Ali and al Shibh did not enter into the plea deal. In September 2023, a military judge ruled that al Shibh was too mentally incompetent to stand trial.

ACLU Says Death Penalty off the Table

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a nonprofit civil rights advocacy group, says Mohammed is their client and that the deal involved the defendants’ agreeing to plead guilty in exchange for life imprisonment instead of the death penalty.

Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU, said in a July 31 statement that this deal was the “right call” for everybody involved, especially after “nearly two decades of litigation.”

“This plea agreement further underscores the fact that the death penalty is out of step with the fundamental values of our democratic system. It is inhumane, inequitable, and unjust,” he said.

“We urge the U.S. government to also quickly relocate the men cleared for transfer, and finally end all indefinite detentions and unfair trials at Guantánamo.

“Closing the chapter on these cases with a plea agreement will also provide a measure of transparency and justice for 9/11 family members.”

In a media statement about the plea agreement, Brett Eagleson, president of 9/11 Justice, a grassroots movement made up of survivors of the terrorist attacks and family members of those lost, said the group was “deeply troubled by these plea deals.”

“These plea deals should not perpetuate a system of closed-door agreements, where crucial information is hidden without giving the families of the victims the chance to learn the full truth,” he said.

Eagleson said 9/11 Justice wants more access “to these individuals for information” to provide closure for all those affected by the terrorist attacks.