Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin signed a memo on Friday reserving for himself the authority to enter into pre-trial agreements with three terrorists behind the 9-11 attack on the World Trade Centers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., as well as the third jet that was being used as a missile on Sept. 11, 2001.
Austin, in a sudden pivot, has withdrawn from the pre-trial agreements that were signed in those cases. The agreements spared the terrorists from having to face the death penalty.
Three of the terrorists behind the attack are being held at a U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, on the coast of Cuba. They are Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused principal mastermind of the al Qaeda attacks, along with two alleged co-conspirators: Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi.
The secretary said in his memo: “I have determined that, in light of 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 under the Military Commissions Act of 2009. Effective immediately, I hereby withdraw your authority in the above-referenced case to enter into a pre-trial agreement and reserve such authority to myself.
“Effective immediately, in the exercise of my authority, I hereby withdraw from the three pre-trial agreements that you signed on July 31, 2024 in the above-referenced case.”
The Austin memo can be found here.