Durbin Raising Questions About Revoked Plea Bargain for 9/11 Detainees
WASHINGTON — Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., wrote a letter this week demanding an explanation from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on why he revoked plea bargains for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two of his accomplices.
They agreed to plead guilty to charges of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, attack and spend their lives in prison rather than getting the death penalty.
Austin invoked his authority over national security to cancel the agreements.
“There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t think of 9/11 and the Americans that were murdered that day,” Austin said in an explanation of his order. “Also those who died trying to save lives, and the troops and their families who gave so much for this country.”
Durbin said it is time for closure to the cases that have languished in court for years.
“After years of endless pretrial proceedings, it has become painfully clear that these cases are on a road to nowhere,” Durbin wrote.
The Defense Department announced the deal this month after two years of negotiations with defense attorneys.
It immediately fell under criticism from Republicans. They accused the Biden administration of going too easy on the radical Muslims whose terrorist attacks destroyed New York’s World Trade Center, killed nearly 3,000 people and propelled the United States into a 20-year military campaign in Afghanistan.
Republicans want trials and the death penalty.
Some of the defense lawyers and civil rights organizations are questioning whether Austin exceeded his authority. They are challenging his decision in court action with a military judge.
They also say he appears to be giving in to Republican political pressure.
Since 2002, about 780 Middle Eastern detainees have been held at the American military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Mohammed is one of 30 who remain.
The others were sentenced to prison after trials or released.
Unlike traditional American courts, the military commission that is presiding over their cases is not required to abide by the Sixth Amendment’s right to a speedy trial, particularly when there is a national security issue.
Contributing to the delay is the alleged mistreatment the detainees say they faced after being captured.
They wanted to introduce evidence of torture by the Central Intelligence Agency to prove the U.S. government’s wrongdoing in the cases against them. Government attorneys sought to block the evidence in a long series of pretrial proceedings.
Durbin referred to the delays when he wrote in his letter to Austin, “One brave woman who lost her brother on 9/11 testified at a hearing I chaired in the Senate Judiciary Committee about the pain of watching many other 9/11 family members pass away without justice or closure as the military commissions continued to flounder for years on end.”
He added, “Children who lost a parent in the attacks have grown into adults, all without the finality of a guilty verdict.”
Two other Guantanamo detainees who face possible death penalties were not included in the plea bargain. One of them declined the deal. The other was found mentally incompetent.
The judge overseeing the challenge to Austin’s authority has set Aug. 20 as the deadline for attorneys to submit briefs. He did not set a date for a final decision.
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