Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: the alleged main conspirator in the attacks
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged main conspirator in the September 11, 2001 Al Qaeda attacks against the United States, has agreed to plead guilty.
This was announced Wednesday, July 31, by the Department of Defense.
The decision represents a long-delayed resolution to an attack that altered the course of the United States and much of the Middle East.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two accomplices, Walid Bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, are expected to testify before the military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as early as next week.
Pentagon officials declined to immediately disclose the terms of the plea agreement.
The New York Times, citing unidentified Pentagon officials, said the terms in Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s case included the men’s long-standing condition that they not face the death penalty.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: the alleged main conspirator in the attacks
The U.S. plea agreement with the men comes more than 16 years after their prosecution for the Al Qaeda attack began.
More than 20 years ago, the men flew commandeered commercial airliners into New York’s landmark buildings.
The attack killed nearly 3,000 people and sparked years of U.S. wars against militant extremist groups that transformed Middle Eastern countries and, in many ways, American society.
Terry Strada, national president of a victims’ family group called 9/11 Families United, had been in federal court in Manhattan for a hearing on one of many civil lawsuits when she heard the news of the plea deal.
Strada said many families just wanted to see the men admit their guilt.
“In my personal case, I wanted to see a trial,” he said. “And they just took away the justice I was hoping for, a trial and punishment.”
“They were cowards when they planned the attack. And they are cowards today,” he said.
Dozens of relatives of those killed died while waiting for the case to be resolved, Strada said.
