A death penalty-free plea deal for the mastermind of the 9/11 terror attack and two others who participated in the plot “surprised” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who revoked the arrangement on Friday as he would rather see the three men head to trial, a Pentagon spokeswoman said Monday.
“This is not something that the secretary was consulted on,” Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters during a Monday briefing. “We were not aware that the prosecution or defense would enter the terms of the plea agreement.”
Singh added that the secretary of defense thought the “best course of action” would be for each of the accused to head to trial.
“He believes that the families and the American public deserves the opportunity to see military commission trials carried out in this case,” she said.
Austin, 70, withdrew from the plea agreement on Friday night — two days after Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and alleged co-conspirators, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, pleaded guilty to the terror attack that killed nearly 3,000 on Sept. 11, 2001.
That decision had been made by retired brigadier general and senior Defense Department official Susan Escallier, whom Austin had tapped to serve in the Office of Military Commissions (OMC).
The office had announced the plea deal to the three al Qaeda terrorists last Wednesday — but Singh said Austin believed it was “a case of such significance that … it was appropriate for the authority to rest with him.”
The terrorists have been held at Guantánamo Bay since 2003 — and congressional Republicans, veterans and 9/11 victims’ families were shocked to hear news of their potential life prison sentences.
“You are allowing these terrorists to avoid the death penalty, signaling to our enemies that the United States is reluctant to pursue full justice against those who attack our nation,” said House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), whose committee launched an investigation into the White House’s potential coordination on the plea deal.
“Let me be clear, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed should never be allowed to leave Guantanamo Bay, this terrorist killed thousands, he remains a clear and present danger to the United States,” said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), whose committee had also probed the plea deal.
Retired cop Kathy Vigiano, wife of NYPD Detective Joseph Vigiano, also told The Post: “I am angry and disappointed that enemy combatants who killed thousands of Americans in our homeland are now able to exploit the US judicial system to their benefit, receiving support from American taxpayers for shelter, food, and healthcare for the rest of their lives.”
It remains unclear to which US military prison they would have been transferred in the event that the Cuban base shuts down — as Biden has suggested.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said closing Gitmo was something President Biden was “determined to get done” before the end of his term.
But both she and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan denied any advance knowledge of the plea bargaining that led to the terrorists avoiding the death penalty.
“The president had no role. The vice president had no role. I had no role. The White House had no role,” Sullivan said in a Thursday press briefing. “And we were informed yesterday — the same day that they went out publicly — that this pretrial agreement had been accepted by the convening authority.”
