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Senator Richard J. Durbin is advocating for Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III to agree to a settlement with the individual accused of orchestrating the 9/11 attacks. This plea deal was initially withdrawn by Mr. Austin.
Authored by Carol
The outgoing leader of the Senate Judiciary Committee requested Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III’s backing for a resolution with the individual accused of orchestrating the September 11 attacks. This action would enable guilty pleas to proceed as the Biden administration nears its end.
Senator Richard J. Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, expressed concerns about the lengthy delays in the military commission trial at Guantánamo. He mentioned that many family members of victims of the September 11 attacks have passed away before seeing justice served. The case has been plagued by two decades of delays and broken promises, with over a decade spent in pretrial proceedings to address concerns about potential evidence being tainted by the CIA’s torture of the defendants.
The family members of the case are divided on how they believe the case should be resolved. While some prefer a resolution through guilty pleas that cannot be challenged, others, like Mr. Austin, believe a military commissions trial should be pursued. The ongoing legal battle over the plea deal has been described as extremely distressing by some family members.
On July 31, retired Brig. Gen. Susan K. Escallier, who was appointed by Mr. Austin to oversee the military commissions, gave the go-ahead for a settlement with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the plot, and two other individuals accused of conspiring with him. All three individuals agreed to plead guilty to their roles in the plot in exchange for a life sentence with no chance of appeal or release, instead of risking a death penalty trial in the future.
Two days after Mr. Austin canceled the agreement, the military judge in the case, Colonel Matthew N. McCall, decided on November 6 that Mr. Austin’s actions were too delayed.
Currently, prosecutors in a legal case have requested a Pentagon appellate panel to prevent the judge from proceeding with plea proceedings at the beginning of next year.
The brief submitted by Mr. Austin argues that he, as defense secretary, had the power to cancel the deals retroactively due to the seriousness of the case. The case accuses the three men of playing roles in the murder of 2,976 people, causing injuries to many civilians and military personnel, and destroying private property valued at tens of billions of dollars.
In his letter, Mr. Durbin mentioned that he had been closely monitoring the military commissions for over twenty years.
Over the years, he expressed that the chance of a fair trial and a verdict being upheld in the 9/11 case has become increasingly difficult to achieve.
During this summer, he referenced the approval of the agreement by conservative attorney Theodore B. Olson, whose wife passed away in the attacks while Mr. Olson was working as solicitor general for George W. Bush. Unfortunately, Mr. Olson passed away last month.
Carol Rosenberg covers the prison and court operations at Guantánamo Bay during wartime. She has been reporting on this topic since the arrival of the first detainees at the U.S. base in 2002. Learn more about Carol Rosenberg.
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