Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the main suspect in the 9/11 terrorist plot, has pleaded guilty.
WASHINGTON: The US Defense Department said on Wednesday that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorist attacks in the United States, has confessed, in a development that marks a long-delayed resolution to the attacks that killed thousands and changed the course of the United States and much of the Middle East.
Mohammed and two other co-conspirators, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, are expected to present their claims to a military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as early as next week.
Defense attorneys have asked that the men serve life sentences in exchange for pleading guilty, according to a federal letter received by relatives of nearly 3,000 victims on the morning of Sept. 11.
Terri Strada, head of the group representing nearly 3,000 immediate victims of the 9/11 attacks, spoke of the dozens of relatives who died awaiting justice for their murders when she heard about the plea agreement.
She said of the defendants: “They were cowards when they planned the attack and they are cowards today.”
Defense Department officials declined to immediately disclose the full terms of the plea agreement.
The deal between the US and the men comes more than 16 years after they first faced prosecution for al-Qaeda attacks. The deal comes more than 20 years after the terrorist group hijacked four passenger planes to use as fuel-laden missiles, which it flew into New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The al-Qaeda terrorists headed for a fourth plane bound for Washington, but crew members and passengers forced their way into the cockpit, and the plane crashed at an airport in Pennsylvania.
The attack sparked what President George W. Bush's administration called the War on Terror, prompting U.S. military invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and years of U.S. attacks on militant groups elsewhere in the Middle East.
The US strikes and retaliation resulted in immediate toppling of governments in both countries, devastating communities and countries caught in the crossfire, and contributing to the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings against authoritarian governments in the Middle East.
At home, the attacks have inspired a shift in American society and culture toward greater militarism and nationalism.
US officials say Mohammed was the mastermind behind the idea of using the plane as a weapon, having received approval from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was killed by US forces in 2011, to plan the hijacking and killing of planes on 9/11.
Mohammed was captured by authorities in 2003. Mohammed was tortured with water 183 times while in CIA custody before being transferred to Guantanamo, and was also targeted with other forms of torture and forced interrogation.
The use of torture has proven to be one of the most significant obstacles to US efforts to try the men in military commissions at Guantanamo, as evidence of abuses has been inadmissible. Torture is a major cause of delays in trials, including the need for courts to travel by plane from the US.
Daphne Aviata, US director of human rights group Amnesty International, said Wednesday she welcomed the news that someone had been held accountable for the attack.
She called on the Biden administration to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, which has been holding people detained in the war on terror, many of whom have since been acquitted but are awaiting clearance to leave the country.
Eviatar also said, “The Biden administration must take all necessary measures to ensure that state-sanctioned programs of enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment are no longer perpetrated by the United States.”
Strada, the national president of the 9/11 victims' family group called Families United, was in Manhattan federal court for one of several civil trial hearings when she heard news of the plea agreement.
Strada said many families just want to see the men admit their guilt.
“For me personally, I wanted to see a trial,” she said. “But they took away the justice I was hoping for: a trial and a sentence.”
Michael Burke, one of the family members notified by the government of the plea agreement, condemned the long wait for justice and the outcome.
“The Nuremberg trials took months, even years,” said Berg, whose brother, Billy, a fire captain, was killed in the North Tower collapse of the World Trade Center. “To me, it’s always been a shame that these people have not been convicted of the attacks or the crimes that they committed. Even after 23 years, I never understand why it took so long.”
“I think people would be shocked if they could go back in time and tell people who just saw buildings collapse, 'Oh, hey, in 23 years, these people who are responsible for the crimes we just saw are going to have to take plea deals so they can avoid death and life in prison,'” he said.
Burke's brother, Billy Burke, a New York City fire captain, ordered his men to leave, but he remained on the 27th floor of the North Tower with two men still there, one a paraplegic who was confined to a wheelchair because the elevator was broken, and the other a friend of the man.
