Washington — The Republican-led House Oversight and Accountability Committee is opening an investigation into whether the White House was involved in the affair. plea deal reached by military prosecutors with the alleged architect of the September 11 terrorist attacks and two other defendants.
Kentucky Republican Rep. James Comer, chairman of the oversight panel, sent a letter to President Biden on Friday requesting information about pretrial agreements reached with the three defendants: Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, accused of masterminding the attacks, and his two accomplices, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi.
The three men were captured by the United States in 2003, but their trial was hampered by years of judicial delays over whether evidence obtained during their interrogations in secret CIA prisons could be used. They were transferred to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2006 and formally charged in 2008.
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The Pentagon confirmed the plea deal in a brief news release Wednesday, which said only that prosecutors had reached pretrial agreements with the three detainees. The Defense Department said the specific terms and conditions of the deal were not yet made public. But the families of the 9/11 victims were informed in a letter from prosecutors that the men had agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy and murder in exchange for life in prison, removing the death penalty as a possible sentence.
Under the terms of the agreement, the defendants agreed to answer questions from family members about their roles and why they carried out the September 11, 2001, attacks.
But Terry Strada, national president of 9/11 Families United, scoffed at the idea that it could help families heal.
“Why would a family member want to hear from him?” she asked. “He’s not going to suddenly say, ‘I’m sorry,’ or give you an honest answer. The only answers he’s going to give are sending the message he wants his followers to hear.”
The surveillance investigation
A National Security Council spokesman said the White House was briefed on the pretrial agreements negotiated by military prosecutors the same day the Pentagon announced them, and that neither the president nor the White House played any role in the process.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan reiterated Thursday that he, Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were not involved.
“We were informed yesterday, the same day, that they came out and publicly [said] “This pretrial agreement was accepted by the convening authority,” he told reporters. “What the president did when he learned of this was to direct his team to consult, as appropriate, with officials and attorneys at the Department of Defense on this issue. Those consultations are ongoing.”
But Comer, the Oversight Committee chairman, said his panel had questions about the White House’s role in the decision to enter into the plea deal and was “concerned” about what he called a lack of transparency around the agreements.
“You are allowing these terrorists to avoid the death penalty, signaling to our enemies that the United States is unwilling to seek full justice against those who attack our nation,” he wrote.
The preliminary agreements were reached after 27 months of negotiations and approved by a senior Pentagon official who oversees the Guantanamo military tribunal. Comer said those events took place under the Biden administration and criticized the White House for saying it had no role in the discussions.
“That White House officials and you, as President and Commander in Chief, would seek to distance your administration from this decision is understandable given its absurdity, but it is far from credible or appropriate,” he wrote.
He set an Aug. 16 deadline for the White House to turn over eight tranches of documents, including an unredacted copy of the agreements, as well as communications with the Defense Department and the Justice Department about the deal and the case.
In addition to the Comer investigation, Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, has introduced a bill to overturn the plea deal and require the three detainees to be held in solitary confinement at Guantanamo and bar their extradition to another country.
A “punch in the gut” for the victims’ families
The Pentagon told the families of the victims of September 11 Last year, a plea deal was being considered for Mohammad and other Guantanamo detainees. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the terrorist attacks more than 20 years ago, when two hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center in New York, a third hit the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., and a fourth crashed in a Pennsylvania field. The fourth plane was bound for Washington and, due to the actions of the passengers, was the only plane that failed to reach its intended target.
News of the settlement angered the victims’ families, some of whom learned of it after a day in a Manhattan federal courtroom where their lawyers presented evidence in their lawsuit against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its alleged role in the attacks. For them, the news came as a “huge blow.”
“It was a physical reaction, but also an emotional one, to hear that a plea deal had been reached,” Strada said. “We didn’t know that was going to happen, so it was a shock. And to hear it on the same day that we were analyzing all this new evidence that we had never seen or heard before, it almost made me lose my mind.”
Strada said she supported Comer’s investigation, calling for “full transparency” about the transactions.
“I feel betrayed,” she said. “This is not justice. To take a plea deal and tell them they don’t have to face the death penalty is what they wanted. This is a victory for them. I wanted a victory for us. I wanted a victory for my late husband.”
