Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin revokes plea deal for accused Sept. 11 plotters

On Friday Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin revoked a plea deal that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — accused as the main plotter in al-Qaida’s Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States — agreed to earlier in the week.

In the Friday memo , Austin said "as the superior convening authority under the Military Commissions Act of 2009" he would withdraw Retired Brig. Gen. Susan K. Escallier's authority in the case "to enter into a pre-trial agreement and reserve such authority" for himself.

Escallier had signed a pre-trial agreement on Wednesday with Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi for their guilty pleas.

The deal would have been the next step in resolving accountability for an attack that altered the course of the United States and much of the Middle East.

When the plea deal was first announced, The New York Times cited anonymous Pentagon officials who said it would have spared the men the death penalty. While many details about Friday's developments are still not available, Austin's memo may mean that the death penalty is again a possibility.

FROM THE ARCHIVES | Families of victims react to potential plea deals for 9/11 defendants

AP

The legal moves 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 flew commandeered commercial airliners into buildings. The attack killed nearly 3,000 people and triggered years of U.S. wars against militant extremist groups that reshaped Middle East countries and, in many ways, U.S. society.

Terry Strada, national chairperson of a group of families of victims called 9/11 Families United, had been at Manhattan federal court for a hearing on one of many civil lawsuits when she heard news of the plea agreement.

Strada said many families have just wanted to see the men admit guilt.

“For me personally, I wanted to see a trial,” she said at the time. “And they just took away the justice I was expecting, a trial and the punishment.”

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

Dozens of relatives of those killed died while awaiting resolution of the case, Strada said.