Roving Periscope: Fearing backlash, the poll-bound US cancels “deal” with the 9/11 mastermind

Virendra Pandit

New Delhi: Fearing a massive backlash of the non-Muslim voters ahead of the November presidential elections, the US on Friday hurriedly scrapped, just two days after announcing, a highly controversial “deal” with the 9/11 mastermind and his two accomplices, whose ‘softer’ sentences, the Democrats hoped, would appease the Muslims at home and worldwide amid the ongoing Gaza War in the Middle East.

The so-called agreements with the mastermind, Quwaiti-Pakistani mechanical engineer-turned terror plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) and his two accomplices announced Wednesday, had appeared to have moved their long-running cases toward “resolution” — but sparked anger among some relatives of those killed on September 11, 2001.

The accused remained held at the Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba, the media reported on Saturday.

Fearing an anti-Democrats wave ahead of the August 19 Democratic National Convention (DNC) to seal the candidature of Kamala Harris replacing incumbent President Joe Biden against Donald Trump, the ruling party hurriedly peddled back. It made Llyod Austin clean up the mess.

That’s why US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday scrapped a plea agreement with the 9/11 mastermind KSM. The deal would have reportedly softened the sentence and taken the death penalty off the table.

“I have determined that in light of the significance of the decision to enter into pre-trial agreements with the accused… responsibility for such a decision should rest with me,” Austin said in a memorandum addressed to Susan Escallier, who oversaw the case.

“I hereby withdraw from the three pre-trial agreements that you signed on July 31, 2024, in the above-referenced case,” the memo said, according to the media reports on Saturday.

The cases against the 9/11 defendants have been bogged down in pre-trial maneuverings for years while the accused remained jailed at the Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba.

“The New York Times” reported this week that KSM, Walid bin Attash, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi had agreed to plead guilty to the conspiracy in exchange for a life sentence, instead of facing a trial that could lead to their executions.

Much of the legal jousting surrounding the three terrorists’ cases has focused on whether they could be tried fairly after having undergone systematic torture at the hands of the CIA in the years after 9/11.

The controversial deal assumed significance as, amid the ongoing Gaza War, the poll-bound US reached an agreement with KSM whom Washington itself accused of being the mastermind of the multiple terror attacks in America on September 9, 2001, and two of his accomplices. The Democrats fancied they could benefit from the move in the November polls, attract the Muslim votes, and cement the chances of the victory of their nominee, Kamala Harris.

Over 3,000 people died in the gruesome attack in 2001, launched by crashing multiple aircraft in landmarks like the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York and other targets, in what was the world’s biggest terrorist attack ever. It prompted the then US President, George W Bush, to launch a worldwide War on Terror, attacking Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries to flush out terrorists.

While launching the War on Terror, Bush had famously named it “Infinite Justice.” When the angry Christians objected to it, saying only God could announce it, his administration rechristened the campaign as “Operation Enduring Freedom.”

The terrorist mastermind, KSM, was viewed as one of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden’s most trusted and intelligent lieutenants before his March 2003 capture in America’s close ally Pakistan, the media reported on Thursday.

He then spent three years in secret CIA prisons before arriving in Guantanamo in 2006.

Earlier, a Pentagon statement said no details of the deal would be immediately made public at this time, but “The New York Times” reported that KSM, Walid bin Attash, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi had agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy in exchange for a life sentence instead of a trial after they could get the death penalty.

Such a proposal was detailed by prosecutors in a letter last year but divided the families of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks, with some still wanting the defendants to face the ultimate penalty.

KSM, who admitted that he plotted the 9/11 attacks “from A to Z,” was involved in a string of major plots against the United States, where he had attended university for education.

Besides plotting to bring down the Twin Towers, KSM boasted he beheaded US journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 with his “blessed right hand,” and to have helped in the 1993 WTC bombing that killed six people.

Bin Attash, a Saudi of Yemeni origin, allegedly trained two of the hijackers who carried out the September 11 attacks. His US interrogators said he confessed to buying the explosives and recruiting members of the team that killed 17 sailors in an attack on the USS Cole.

He took refuge in Pakistan after the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, was captured there in 2003, and was then held in a network of secret CIA prisons.

Hawsawi was suspected of managing the finances for the 9/11 attacks. He was arrested in Pakistan on March 1, 2003, and was also held in secret prisons before being transferred to Guantanamo in 2006.

The United States used Guantanamo, an isolated naval base, to hold militants captured during the War on Terror that followed the September 11 attacks in a bid to keep the defendants from claiming rights under US law.

The facility held 800 prisoners at its peak, but they have since slowly been repatriated to other countries. President Joe Biden pledged before his 2020 election to try and shut down Guantanamo, but it remains open.

In a hand-written letter In another 9/11-related case, the Justice Department denied a request by Zacarias Moussaoui, the “20th hijacker,” to serve the remainder of his life sentence in France.

In a hand-written letter to District Judge Leonie Brinkema obtained by the website Legal Insurrection, Moussaoui — the only person convicted in the United States in connection with the September 11 attacks — expressed fears he would be executed if Donald Trump regains the presidency in November.

A Justice Department spokeswoman said the department does not discuss prisoner transfer requests but noted that Moussaoui is “serving a life sentence following conviction for terrorism offenses.”

“The Department of Justice plans to enforce this life sentence in US custody,” the spokeswoman added.