After two decades of dysfunctional, and possibly illegal proceedings at Guantánamo Bay, authorities cut a plea deal with three of the alleged leaders of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Lloyd Austin has revoked the deal.
I have no doubt that the people in question are guilty as hell, but it is also true that the proceedings, both in the sham courts at Gitmo and before that in the CIA torture sites, have so polluted the proceedings that no credible trial is possible.
Unfortunately, because someone is concerned about the inevitable attack ads, they only possibility for a resolution has been unceremoniously dumped:
The US secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, has revoked a plea deal for the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and two other defendants, reinstating them as death-penalty cases, according to a memo sent to Susan Escallier, who is overseeing the war court proceedings.
The short-lived deal came 16 years after prosecution of the three men began.
On Wednesday, Escallier announced that she signed a deal with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two of his accomplices, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi. Defense lawyers had requested that the men receive life sentences in exchange for the guilty pleas.
In Friday’s memo, Austin argued that due to the “significance of the decision to enter into pre-trial agreements with the accused in the above-referenced case, responsibility for such a decision should rest with me as the superior convening authority”.
………
News of the original plea deal elicited sharp criticism from Republican lawmakers, including Mitch McConnell and JD Vance, who decried the deal, and the New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who accused the Biden-Harris administration of betraying the American people.
This is simply cowardice.
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