The abrupt turnaround of a plea deal in the Sept. 11 case last week has left victims’ families reeling while raising political questions for the Pentagon and Biden administration.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s Friday cancellation of the deal that would have taken the death penalty off the table for three prisoners accused of helping to plot the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks -- an agreement announced only two days prior -- was described as “emotional whiplash” for family members who supported the plan.
The plea agreement was meant to resolve the case with lifetime sentences for the man accused of planning the attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and two accused accomplices.
But blowback from Republicans and victims’ families, who bashed the plea deal as too lenient for the defendants, coupled with the administration's sudden reversal, has put the case back in the public spotlight.
Here are five key takeaways and questions that remain.
9/11 deal tried to settle long-delayed case
The agreement struck between the Office of Military Commissions between Mohammad, also known as KSM, and two of his accomplices involved life sentences, allowing them to avoid the death penalty.
The deals were an effort to put to rest long-running cases that some doubt will ever reach an end.
KSM is accused of being the chief mastermind behind the deadly 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. Two of his accomplices that struck the deal are also accused of helping to plot the attacks, while another two prisoners have been charged in the case but did not reach the plea deal last week.
All five defendants have been held since the early 2000s and are now detained at the Guantanamo Bay facility in Cuba. They were charged in 2008 and again in 2012 but have been stuck in pretrial proceedings.
Retired Brig. Gen. Susan Escallier, a lawyer and the Pentagon official responsible for military commissions, signed off on the plea agreement with the three men, with the contents mostly secret. It followed the 51st round of pretrial hearings, a closed court session involving no defendants.
Shortly after Escallier approved the deal, family members of the 9/11 victims were notified via phone calls, with one such individual told the agreement was “the best worst option,” The New York Times reported.
And in a letter to the relatives, survivors of the attacks and other victims, such as New York City firefighters, prosecutors said they had not........