Defense Department reaches plea agreement with 3 of the men charged in 9/11 attacks

Transcript

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

After spending almost two decades at Guantanamo Bay, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks and two accomplices have agreed to plea deals. They will plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence in prison rather than face a death penalty trial. The settlement was announced by the Pentagon just a few hours ago, and NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer, who's been covering the 9/11 case for years, has details. Hi, Sacha.

SACHA PFEIFFER, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.

CHANG: All right, so tell us more about what this plea deal says.

PFEIFFER: So in the Guantanamo world, this is a really big deal. This is a case that has been dragging on for more than two decades. Increasingly, it was looking unlikely ever to go to trial. It had become a legal morass, an enormous expense, tying up a ton of government resources.

CHANG: Yeah.

PFEIFFER: So the three men are Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, alleged 9/11 mastermind, as you said, Walid Bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi. These are his accomplices. They have agreed to plead guilty to all charges - that includes the murder of nearly 3,000 people on 9/11. That means they will no longer face the risk of a death penalty trial, which, again, was looking increasingly unlikely, but they will spend the rest of their lives in prison. As a condition, they're also going to have to answer questions submitted by family members about their roles in the 9/11 attacks and why they did it. So it's a big resolution to something that had just been looking just so bogged down that it was just time of the courts.

CHANG: Yeah, a huge resolution - I mean, it's been almost 20 years. Why did this plea deal happen now?

PFEIFFER: So the government isn't saying, but settlement talks had started a little over two years ago. Then they stalled out because the Biden administration would not agree to some conditions the defense attorneys wanted, like no solitary confinement if they do life in prison, and they wanted rehab because all these men were tortured in secret CIA prisons. Biden disagreed. There was a theory that maybe Biden now being a lame duck was doing this on the way out the door, but the National Security Council issued a statement today saying that the president and the White House played no role in this process. So there's that.

It's also possible the Pentagon was motivated by the possibility of a Trump presidency because if Trump was elected, it's very unlikely there would be a plea deal. Also, again, this litigation had been going on for 20 years. It's possible that the wear and tear of going back and forth to Cuba, monthlong hearings in Cuba motivated the lawyers to do this. Also, the case had not been going well for prosecutors. They were getting a lot of pushback on introducing evidence gained through torture, so they might have been facing reality that they were not going to do very well on the litigation front.

CHANG: So many possible factors at play here - OK, so what happens to the other 9/11 defendants who have not pleaded guilty?

PFEIFFER: Originally, this case had five men. About a year ago, one of them was removed because he was found mentally incompetent. It's unclear yet how his case will proceed. The final man, Ammar al-Baluchi, I talked with one of his lawyers today and she said because this plea deal does not address the request for no solitary confinement and no torture rehab, they weren't willing to sign it. But she did say they're continuing settlement discussions, so that might settle eventually.

CHANG: And what's been the reaction so far from family members of 9/11 victims?

PFEIFFER: It is split. A lot of the family members who really never believed a trial was going to happen felt like a plea deal was the only way to end this. It was the only realistic resolution. They're clearly going to be glad that this is finally going to put an end to this. Some family members really wanted to see the defendants put to death, even though that was unlikely ever to happen. So they will be disappointed. Some of them also had hoped a trial would make public more details about the planning of the attacks. But as I mentioned, Ailsa, the plea deal says the defendants will have to answer questions from family members. So the family members may get the information they want.

CHANG: That is NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer. Thank you so much, Sacha.

PFEIFFER: You're welcome, Ailsa. Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.