The Biden-Harris administration has backed away from a plea deal with the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks after bipartisan backlash against the agreement.
The administration announced the original agreement, which would have ended the death penalty for terrorists, just two days before it was rescinded. The agreement was met with immediate and overwhelming bipartisan backlash.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced a memorandum on Friday scrapping the deal, even though the three accused mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and accused co-conspirators Walid Mohammed Saleh Mubarak bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi, had agreed to plead guilty to all charges, including the killing of 2,976 people, mostly Americans.
“I have determined that given the importance of the decision to enter into pre-trial agreements with the defendants in the cases described above, the responsibility for such decisions should rest with me as the senior convening authority under the Military Commissions Act of 2009,” Austin said. I have written Susan Escalier, who has convening authority over the military committees.
Austin revoked Escalier’s authority to enter into pretrial agreements in the case and took that authority himself, immediately rescinding the three pretrial agreements.
The three suspected al-Qaida terrorists have been held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay since 2003.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), President Donald Trump’s running mate, blasted the Biden-Harris administration at a rally on Wednesday for reaching plea deals with three terrorism suspects.
“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have used the Department of Justice as a weapon to go after their political opponents. [their administration is] “We made a sweet deal with the 9/11 terrorists,” he said.
“We need a president who will kill terrorists, not negotiate with them.”
Bradley Jay is Capitol Hill correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter. translator.
