THE chief architect of the 9/11 terrorist attacks could be sentenced to death after a court tossed out a plea deal that would have saved his life.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is accused of being the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. He was considered one of the most trusted operatives of al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden.
In 2003, the CIA captured him in Pakistan, after which he spent three years in secret prisons before arriving at Guantanamo in 2006.
He is believed to have orchestrated the attacks comprehensively, from “A to Z,” and was also linked to several other significant schemes targeting the US, where he studied at a university.
On July 31, Mohammed, along with two alleged partners, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, reached an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty in return for receiving a life sentence.
The deal would allow the trio to be spared from the death penalty and remain jailed on the southern portion of the American Naval base in Cuba.
The agreement has sparked outrage from family members of victims who died during the 9/11 attacks.
But a US appeals court on Friday scrapped the agreement, saying that both they and the American public deserved to see the defendants stand trial.
Lloyd Austin, the Secretary of Defence under the Biden administration, attempted to halt the agreement by filing a motion to a military appeals court.
In his brief, Austin cited the magnitude of the 9/11 attacks and argued that as defence secretary, he should decide on any plea agreements that would save the three men from the death penalty.
Austin “acted within the bounds of his legal authority, and we decline to second-guess his judgment,” judges Patricia Millett and Neomi Rao wrote in a ruling today.
Congressional lawmakers have also slammed the plea deal, calling it a “national disgrace” and a “total miscarriage of justice.”
“The Biden-Harris Administration’s weakness in the face of sworn enemies of the American people apparently knows no bounds,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell at the time.
“The plea deal with terrorists – including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks that killed thousands of Americans – is a revolting abdication of the government’s responsibility to defend America and provide justice.
“The only thing worse than negotiating with terrorists is negotiating with them after they are in custody.”
Mohammed and al-Hawsawi were captured on March 1, 2003, in a joint CIA and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence operation in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi.
Walid bin Attash was captured in Karachi, Pakistan, in April 2003.
Mohammed was held in secret CIA prisons up until his transfer to Guantánamo Bay in September 2006.
However, before he was moved to Guantánamo, government officials interrogated Mohammed and his accomplices for years, torturing them and keeping them isolated in undisclosed locations.
Mohammed endured 183 rounds of waterboarding – a form of torture where a person experiences the sensation of drowning when water is poured over a cloth covering their face.
Key figures behind 9/11
Here are some of the key figures involved in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
Hijackers on American Airlines Flight 11
- Mohamed Atta
- Abdulaziz al-Omari
- Wail al-Shehri
- Waleed al-Shehri
- Satam al-Suqami
Hijackers on United Airlines Flight 175
- Marwan al-Shehhi
- Fayez Banihammad
- Mohand al-Shehri
- Hamza al-Ghamdi
- Ahmed al-Ghamdi
Hijackers on American Airlines Flight 77
- Hani Hanjour
- Khalid al-Mihdhar
- Majed Moqed
- Nawaf al-Hazmi
- Salem al-Hazmi
Hijackers on United Airlines Flight 93
- Ziad Jarrah
- Ahmed al-Haznawi
- Ahmed al-Nami
- Saeed al-Ghamdi
Three suspects have also accepted a plea deal in the two decades since the attacks – Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Bin Attash, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi.
The men, along with Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Ramzi Bin al Shibh, were jointly arraigned on June 5, 2008, and again on May 5, 2012.
Al-Hawsawi was charged with helping the hijackers with their finances and travel arrangements.
TERROR ATTACKS
At least 2,753 people died at the site of the World Trade Center, where two planes crashed into the towers on September 11, 2001.
A third plane hit the Pentagon, while a fourth, which was planned to strike Washington DC, crashed in a field in Pennsylvania after crew members and passengers stormed the cockpit.
The heinous attacks sparked the war on terror after President George W. Bush ordered the US military to invade Afghanistan and Iraq in search of the terrorists responsible.
The US government was warned by the CIA that the likely targets would be famous landmarks or symbols of US capitalism – but they did not know when or how.
And none of them could have imagined the extent or horror of 9/11 when it did happen.
On May 1, 2011, the most classified operation of the last 25 years was launched to kill Osama Bin Laden.
The Saudi-born terror chief became the world’s most wanted man, hiding in plain sight in Pakistan for years before U.S. Navy SEALs took him out in a daring raid.
In the cover of night, Seal Team Six was sent to Abbottabad in Pakistan – where Bin Laden was hiding.
Within minutes, the Seals were within the compound and shot and killed the world’s most wanted terrorist.
9/11 timeline of events
On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda operatives coordinated a terrorist attack against the United States, hijacking four commerical airplanes and crashing them into the Twin Towers and Pentagon.
Timeline:
- 5:45 am: Two hijackers get through security in Portland, Maine, and board a flight to Boston, where they will link up with three more hijackers and check in for American Airlines Flight 11 to Los Angeles.
- 7:59 am: American Airlines Flight 11 takes off. The plane is carrying 76 passengers, 11 crew members, and five hijackers.
- 8:15 am: United Airlines Flight 175, carrying 51 passengers, nine crew, and five hijackers, takes off from Boston to Los Angeles.
- 8:20 am: American Airlines Flight 77 takes off from Washington DC Dulles to Los Angeles. The plane is carrying 53 passengers, six crew members, and five hijackers.
- 8:42 am: United Airlines Flight 93 takes off from Newark. The plane is carrying 33 passengers, seven crew members, and four hijackers. The flight was bound for San Francisco.
- 8:46 am: Flight 11 crashes into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
- 9:03 am: Flight 175 hits the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
- 9:36 am: Vice President Dick Cheney is evacuated by Secret Service agents to an undisclosed location.
- 9:37 am: Flight 77 hits the Pentagon building in Washington DC.
- 9:45 am: The US Capitol and White House are both evacuated.
- 9:59 am: The South Tower is the first to collapse after burning for around 56 minutes.
- 10:03 am: United Airlines flight 93 crashes into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The passengers and crew got together and stormed the cockpit of the hijacked plane. All on board are killed.
- 10:28 am: The North Tower collapses.
- 8:30 pm: President George W. Bush addresses the US from the White House regarding the attacks. Almost 3,000 Americans died in the terror attacks.
