The accused and two accomplices reach an agreement with the US after 16 years of confinement in Guantanamo

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The newspaper La Jornada
Thursday, August 1, 2024, p. 27

Washington. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused of being the main plotter in the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaeda attacks on the United States, has agreed to plead guilty, the Defense Department said yesterday, pointing to a resolution of an attack that altered the course of Washington and much of the Middle East.

Sheikh Mohammed and two accomplices, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa Hawsawi, are expected to plead guilty next week before the military commission at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Pentagon officials declined to make public the terms of the plea agreement. The newspaper New York Timesciting unnamed Pentagon officials, said the terms included the men’s long-standing condition of avoiding the risk of being sentenced to death.

The U.S. deal with the detainees comes more than 16 years after their prosecution for the al-Qaida attack began, and more than 20 years after the attackers crashed commercial airliners they had seized control of. The attack killed nearly 3,000 people and set off years of U.S. wars and invasions of countries across the Middle East and Asia.

Terry Strada, national president of the group 9/11 Families United, was in Manhattan federal court for a hearing on one of the many civil lawsuits when she learned of the plea deal.

Strada said many families just wanted to see the men admit their guilt.

I wanted to see a trial and they have simply taken away the justice I expected. They were cowards when they planned the attack. And they are cowards today.he claimed.

Dozens of victims’ relatives died while awaiting resolution of the case, Strada said.