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In a painful perversion of justice, the United States agreed to a plea deal with terrorist mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two of his accomplices, sparing them the death penalty for killing around 3,000 Americans on September 11, 2001.
While the families of the victims, who have suffered for a long time, expect and deserve justice, many will be angry and disappointed by their own government’s cowardly surrender.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell aptly expressed the indignation felt by others when he said, “The Biden-Harris Administration’s weakness in the face of the sworn enemy of the American people seems to know no bounds.” He called the accepted plea a sickening abdication of responsibility.
9/11 mastermind and two others reach plea deal while awaiting trial, leaving victims’ families “deeply disappointed”
It was already embarrassing that the case had languished for 21 years in a military tribunal hampered by a rotation of unscrupulous lawyers, unmotivated judges and incompetent prosecutors. Ten years ago, I wrote a column denouncing the incompetent response to a series of essentially undemanding criminal prosecutions.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. (Associated Press) (Associated Press)
Evidence was never an obstacle. After his capture in 2003, Mohammed not only confessed during interrogation at the military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, but he also bragged about his heinous acts. “I was responsible for 9/11 operations from A to Z,” he boasted. Not only that, but there was a plethora of evidence supporting a staggering 169 overt acts that led to mass murder on that horrific day.
But the government’s continuing failures were compounded when then-President Barack Obama, without consideration for the victims’ families, decided to drop the military cases and move them to trial in federal court, effectively saving the defendants from imminent conviction and possible execution.
FDNY union denounces 9/11 plea deal: ‘We are disgusted and disappointed’
Public outcry and Congressional legislation ultimately forced President Obama to reverse course, sending the entire legal process back to square one, but in a retaliatory maneuver, the president then issued an executive order unilaterally changing the military commissions manual that governs the procedure, deepening the legal quagmire even further.
President Trump, to his credit, indicated he would not accept plea bargains. He has refused to negotiate with terrorists, even in military courts. The prosecution went ahead, but it lost steam once Joe Biden took office.
Obama’s foolish intervention led to a series of absurd delays based on baseless allegations and frivolous appeals. The principle of speedy trial guaranteed in the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and enshrined in military law was ignored. Urgency and timeliness were abandoned. The families bereaved by the September 11 terrorist attacks were all but forgotten, their unimaginable grief forgotten.
President Trump, to his credit, indicated he would not accept plea bargains. He has refused to negotiate with terrorists, even in military courts. The prosecution went ahead, but it lost steam once Joe Biden took office.
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In addition to masterminding the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil, Mohammed admitted to personally beheading Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl — a brutal act that was publicly recorded on video — and also claimed responsibility for “shoe bomber” Richard Reid’s failed attempt to blow up a passenger plane over the Atlantic Ocean.
In his confession, Mohammed said he wanted to die, to become a martyr for al-Qaida, but arrogant cowards often have a change of heart as the gallows approach.
Mohammed and his 9/11 accomplices have been held at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba for 20 years. (Associated Press)
Now, to the nation’s shame, our government has chosen to appease Mohammed and his fellow terrorists by freeing them from the death penalty, sending a clear message to all other terrorists that America is weak: they, too, can slaughter Americans with impunity and without facing ultimate consequences.
Biden claims he had no involvement in this decision. Don’t believe him. By ending the prosecutions, he is one step closer to his campaign promise of closing Guantanamo Bay. He doesn’t care about justice, nor does he care about the anguish and pain of the thousands of families who lost their loved ones and are still grieving.
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Thus, the victims of 9/11 died in vain. This injustice has left an indelible stain on their sacred memory. On that day, 2,996 people lost their lives in a brutal act. But the killers live on.
America today is a sad place.
To read more from Greg Jarrett click here
