A plea deal reached this week with the alleged mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, along with two of his alleged accomplices, has been retracted, the Pentagon announced Friday.
In a memo, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that the "three pre-trial agreements" approved with Khalid Shaikh Mohammad — the man accused of planning the attacks — and Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin 'Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, had been rescinded.
The memo was addressed to retired Brigadier Gen. Susan Escallier, the convening authority for military commissions who oversaw the deal. Austin wrote that he was withdrawing her "authority" in the case and reserving "such authority to myself."
The military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Wednesday sent letters sent to families of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the al-Qaida attacks and said the plea agreement stipulated the three would serve life sentences.
Some families of the attacks' victims condemned the deal for cutting off any possibility of full trials and possible death penalties. Republicans were quick to fault the Biden administration for the deal, although the White House said after it was announced it had no knowledge of it.
In nullifying the plea agreement, Austin wrote in the order that "in light of the significance of the decision," he had decided that the authority to make a decision on accepting the plea agreements was his.
Mohammed and the other defendants had been expected to formally enter their pleas under the deal as soon as next week.
The U.S. military commission overseeing the cases of five defendants in the Sept. 11 attacks have been stuck in pre-trial hearings and other preliminary court action since 2008. The torture that the defendants underwent while in CIA custody has slowed the cases and left the prospect of full trials and verdicts still uncertain, in part because of the inadmissibility of evidence linked to the torture.
Earlier Friday, the Republican-led House Oversight and Accountability Committee announced it was launching an investigation into whether the White House was involved in the plea deal.
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