Friday, December 6, 2024

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Accused as the Main Plotter of 9/11 Attacks, Agrees to Plead Guilty

Published:

— Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused as the mastermind of al-Qaida’s Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, has agreed to plead guilty, the Defense Department said Wednesday. The development points to a long-delayed resolution in an attack that killed thousands and altered the course of the United States and much of the Middle East.

Mohammed and two accomplices, Walid Bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, are expected to enter the pleas at the commission at Guantanamo Bay, , as soon as next week.

Terry Strada, the head of one group of families of the nearly 3,000 direct victims of the 9/11 attacks, invoked the dozens of relatives who have died while awaiting justice for the killings when she heard news of the plea agreement.

“They were cowards when they planned the attack,” she said of the defendants. “And they’re cowards today.”

Pentagon officials declined to immediately release the terms of the plea bargain. The York Times, citing unidentified Pentagon officials, said the terms included the men’s longstanding condition that they be spared risk of the death penalty.

The U.S. agreement with the men comes more than 16 years after their prosecution began for al-Qaida’s attack. It comes more than 20 years after militants commandeered commercial airliners to use as fuel-filled missiles, flying them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.

Al-Qaida hijackers headed a fourth plane to…

Continue Reading This Article At Military.com

- advertisement -

Related articles

- advertisement -
AlphaDog Hosting Ad

Recent articles