Families Of 9/11 Victims Rip Plea Deal With 9/11 Mastermind
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The United States reached a plea deal with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two others who have been accused of plotting the attacks on September 11th, 2001.
The agreement takes the death penalty off the table.
The US has reached a plea deal with alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other defendants accused of plotting the 2001 terror attacks, according to the Defense Department.
The pretrial agreement – reached after 27 months of negotiations – takes the death penalty off the table for Mohammed, Walid Bin ‘Attash, and Mustafa al Hawsawi, prosecutors said in a letter, obtained by CNN, sent to the families of 9/11 victims and survivors shortly before the Department of Defense announced the news in a press release Wednesday evening.
After beginning negotiations in March 2022, the three men agreed to plead guilty to all charges, including the murder of the 2,976 people listed in the charging sheet, the families were told.
Mohammed and his co-defendants will enter guilty pleas at a plea hearing that could come as early as next week, according to the letter.
“We recognize that the status of the case in general, and this news in particular, will understandably and appropriately elicit intense emotion, and we also realize that the decision to enter into a pre-trial agreement will be met with mixed reactions amongst the thousands of family members who lost loved ones,” prosecutors wrote in the letter. “The decision to enter into a pre-trial agreement after 12 years of pre-trial litigation was not reached lightly; however, it is our collective, reasoned, and good-faith judgment that this resolution is the best path to finality and justice in this case.”
Families Of 9/11 victims blasted the plea deal.
The grieving families of the heroic first responders killed in the Sept. 11 attacks slammed a plea deal struck Wednesday that allows three alleged terrorists — including accused mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammad — to avoid the death penalty.
”I feel like I was kicked in the balls,” said retired NYPD officer Jim Smith, whose wife, Moira Smith, was the only female police officer killed in the terror attacks.
“The prosecution and families have waited for 23 years to have our day in court to put on the record what these animals did to our loved ones,” Smith told The Post.
“They took that opportunity away from us,” he said of the US government, adding of the alleged terrorists, “They committed the worst crime in the history of our country. They should receive the highest penalty.”
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“I’m angry and disappointed that enemy combatants who killed thousands of Americans in our homeland are now able to exploit the US judicial system to their benefit, receiving support from American taxpayers for shelter, food and healthcare for the rest of their lives,” said retired police officer Kathy Vigiano, who lost her husband, NYPD Det. Joseph Vigiano, in the attacks.
JD Vance blasted the plea deal saying, “Just today, I heard that the Biden-Harris Department of Justice cut a deal with al-Qaeda terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to avoid the death penalty…Now, as someone who enlisted in the Marines to serve after 9/11, that is ridiculous. But it’s not surprising.”
During a campaign speech Wednesday in Glendale, Arizona, Trump campaign vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance slammed the plea deal taken by three of the terrorists behind the Sept. 11 terror attacks awaiting trial in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
“Just today, I heard that the Biden-Harris Department of Justice cut a deal with al-Qaeda terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to avoid the death penalty. It was reported today,” Vance said. “Now, as someone who enlisted in the Marines to serve after 9/11, that is ridiculous. But it’s not surprising.”
