US Defense Secretary Reinstates Death Penalty For 9/11 Terror Defendants
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
WASHINGTON (Worthy News) – Tensions rose Saturday after U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin overrode a plea agreement reached earlier this week for the accused mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks and two other defendants, reinstating them as death penalty cases.
In a memo, Austin also said he was revoking the authority of the officer overseeing the military court who signed the agreement on Wednesday.
The original deal, which would reportedly have spared the alleged attackers the death penalty, was criticized by some families of victims.
The 9/11 attacks in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania were the deadliest assaults on US soil since the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where 2,400 people were killed.
They sparked the “War on Terror” and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
In his memo, Austin named five defendants, including the alleged ringleader of the plot, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, all of whom are held in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The original deal named three men.
“I have determined that in light of the significance of the decision to enter into pre-trial agreements with the accused… responsibility for such a decision should rest with me as the superior authority,” Austin wrote to Brigadier General Susan Escallier.
“I hereby withdraw your authority. Effective immediately, in the exercise of my authority, I hereby withdraw from the three pre-trial agreements.”
The White House said on Wednesday that it had played no role in the plea deal. It also comes amid a broader discussion about the death penalty in the United States.
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