{UAH} THE DEAD DEATH PRE-DEAL CONTINUE

BREAKING NEWS: Defense Secretary Austin Backtracks, REVERSES 9/11 Plea Deal!

By Javier Sanchez | Friday, 02 August 2024 08:34 PM

Image Credit : Reuters

In a surprising turn of events, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III has dismissed the overseer of the Guantánamo Bay war court and nullified a plea agreement that was previously reached with the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and his two supposed accomplices.

This move, announced by the Pentagon, has effectively reinstated the case as a death-penalty case, a significant shift from the life imprisonment sentence that was agreed upon earlier this week.

According to The New York Post, the Pentagon's decision was made public through a memorandum that relieved the senior official at the Defense Department, retired Brig. Gen. Susan K. Escallier, of her oversight of the case against Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his alleged accomplices. The case pertains to the attacks that claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 individuals in New York City, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania.

Escallier had signed a pretrial agreement with Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi on Wednesday, which would have exchanged their guilty pleas for life imprisonment sentences. However, Austin's decision to revoke Escallier's authority and assume direct oversight of the case has led to the cancellation of this agreement.

Austin, in an order released by the Pentagon on Friday night, stated, "Because of the stakes involved, the responsibility for such a decision should rest with me." He further declared, "Effective immediately, in the exercise of my authority, I hereby withdraw from the three pretrial agreements that you signed on July 31, 2024."

Escallier's approval of the agreement, which was the result of two years of negotiations between prosecutors and the defendants, had seemingly resolved the case that had been stuck in pretrial hearings since 2012. However, Austin's decision has sparked outrage among some family members of the 9/11 victims, who were upset that a death sentence was no longer a possibility.

Austin, who was abroad at the time of the decision, returned to the United States later that day. His decision underscores the gravity of the case and the commitment to ensuring justice for the victims of the 9/11 attacks.

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