WASHINGTON — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused of being the main conspirator in the attacks against the United States carried out by al-Qaeda on Sept. 11, 2001, has agreed to plead guilty, the Defense Department said Wednesday, signaling a resolution to an attack that altered the course of the United States and much of the Middle East.
Sheikh Mohammed and two accomplices, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, are expected to plead guilty next week before the military commission at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Mohammed was considered one of the most intelligent and trusted lieutenants of Osama bin Laden, head of Al Qaeda.before his capture in March 2003 in Pakistan. He then spent three years in secret CIA prisons before arriving at Guantanamo in 2006.
The engineer, who has claimed to have masterminded the 9/11 attacks “from A to Z,” has been accused of participating in a series of major plots against the United States, where he attended university.
In addition to masterminding the operation to topple the Twin Towers, Mohammed claims to have personally decapitated American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 with his “blessed right hand” and to have collaborated in the attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, in which six people died.
They want to avoid the death penalty
Pentagon officials declined to make public the terms of the plea agreement. The New York Times, citing unnamed Pentagon officials, said the terms included the men’s longstanding condition of avoiding the risk of being sentenced to death.
The U.S. agreement with the men to plead guilty comes more than 16 years after their prosecution for the al-Qaida attack began. It also comes more than 20 years after the attackers crashed commercial airliners they had taken control of. The attack killed nearly 3,000 people and triggered years of U.S. wars in countries across the Middle East.
Terry Strada, national president of a group of victims’ families called 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.
“Personally, I wanted to see a trial,” he said. “And they have simply taken away the justice that I expected, a trial and punishment.”
“They were cowards when they planned the attack. And they are cowards today,” he said.
Dozens of relatives of those killed died while awaiting resolution of the case, Strada said.
Detained in Guantanamo
Bin Attash, a Saudi of Yemeni origin, allegedly trained two of the hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks. His U.S. interrogators said he also confessed to buying the explosives and recruiting members of the team that killed 17 sailors in an attack on the USS Cole.
He fled to neighbouring Pakistan after the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and was captured there in 2003, after which he was held in the CIA’s network of prisons whose locations are confidential.
Al Hawsawi is suspected of being in charge of financing the 9/11 attacks. Arrested in Pakistan on March 1, 2003, he was also held in secret prisons before being transferred to Guantanamo in 2006.
The United States used the isolated naval base on Cuban territory to hold militants captured during the so-called “War on Terror” that followed the attacks, in an attempt to prevent the accused from claiming the rights granted to them under U.S. law.
The military facility held 800 prisoners at its peak, but they have since been slowly repatriated to other countries. President Joe Biden pledged before his election to try to close Guantanamo, but the facility remains open.
In another 9/11-related case, the Justice Department denied the request of Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called “20th hijacker,” to serve the remainder of his life sentence in France.
In a handwritten letter to Judge Leonie Brinkema obtained by the Legal Insurrection website, Moussaoui – the only person convicted in the United States in connection with the 9/11 attacks – expressed fear of being executed if Donald Trump wins the presidency in November.
A Justice Department spokeswoman said the department does not discuss prisoner transfer requests, but noted that Moussaoui is “serving a life sentence following his conviction for terrorism offenses.”
“The Department of Justice plans to enforce this life sentence in U.S. custody,” the spokeswoman added.