Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Israeli media platform: The Degel HaTorah party, which has four members in the Knesset, announces its withdrawal from Netanyahu's cabinet.
Local Syrian sources: The raids targeted the road between the village of Al-Mazra'a and the city of Sweida, where forces and factions affiliated with the Syrian Ministry of Defense are advancing.
Local Syrian sources: New raids carried out by Israeli warplanes targeted vehicles and gatherings of military factions affiliated with the new Syrian Ministry of Defense.
Local Syrian sources: Israeli raids target, for the third time, gatherings of Syrian Defense Forces military factions in the southern countryside of Sweida.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza: Gaza Strip hospitals received 120 martyrs and 557 wounded in the past 24 hours.
The Israeli Walla! website: We are running out of stockpiles, our forces are exhausted, and the lives of the captives are in danger. It is time for a ceasefire deal in Gaza.
Several wounded in an Israeli bombardment of a tent in al-Mawasi, south of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli media: Three wounded, three killed in an ongoing operation in the Gaza Strip.
Al Mayadeen's correspondent in southern Lebanon: Israeli artillery shelling targets the outskirts of the town of Shebaa
Al-Qassam Brigades: The targeting took place at the intersection of 'Street 5' with the western line north of Khan Younis

Biden administration tries to block plea deal for 9/11 ‘architect’

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: Times
  • 9 Jan 2025 14:45
3 Min Read

The US government has filed a motion to prevent a military tribunal from accepting the plea agreements offered to three men accused of orchestrating the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Listen
  • x
  • Biden administration tries to block plea deal for 9/11 ‘architect’
    Courtroom drawing by artist Janet Hamlin and reviewed by the US military, shows Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, center, and co-defendant Walid Bin Attash, left, attending a pre-trial session at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba, on December 8, 2008. (AP)

Times reported on Thursday that the Biden administration is making a final effort to prevent a plea deal for Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, which would spare him the death penalty for allegedly orchestrating the 9/11 attacks.

As per the report, lawyers from the US Department of Justice (DoJ) informed an appeals court that the government would face "irreparable harm" if guilty pleas were accepted from Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and two co-defendants for their involvement in the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, 59, is set to enter a guilty plea on war crimes charges in exchange for a prison sentence on Friday, as part of an agreement made with the Pentagon last July. According to the report, the deal has sparked outrage among many victims' families, and senior government officials have been working to overturn it ever since.

As it stands, the man named “the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks” in the 9/11 Commission Report would be spared a trial and any possibility of capital punishment.

Related News

Bolton dismisses Trump’s Nobel hopes over Ukraine policy shift

US pressure on Lebanon grows over Resistance disarmament plan

The agreement for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, 46, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, 56, came after two years of negotiations aimed at resolving a deadlock in trial proceedings at the US military commission at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. The other two alleged plotters are expected to enter their pleas next week.

Dive deeper 

The men were captured in 2003 and transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2006. Pre-trial debates centered on whether the torture they endured during their initial years in CIA custody could compromise the evidence against them, as mentioned in the Times report.

According to the report, the trial is proceeding even though President Biden is working to commute nearly all remaining federal death sentences before he leaves office next Monday.

The DoJ said the government would be denied a chance for a public trial and the opportunity to “seek capital punishment against three men charged with a heinous act of mass murder that caused the death of thousands of people and shocked the nation and the world”.

Military prosecutors from the Department of Defense were given the authority to negotiate and approve the plea deal. However, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin rejected it and, within 48 hours, initiated the administration's efforts to have it overturned.

According to the report, a military judge at Guantanamo Bay and a military appeals panel rejected his attempts, ruling that he had no power to throw out the agreement after it had been approved by the senior Pentagon official for Guantanamo Bay.

  • United States
  • Biden administration
  • Washington
  • 9/11
  • Joe Biden

Most Read

Hezbollah SG reveals war details on Al Mayadeen for the first time

Hezbollah SG reveals war details on Al Mayadeen for the first time

  • Politics
  • 8 Jul 2025
Major ambush in Gaza kills 6 Israeli troops, injures dozens

Major ambush in Gaza kills 5 Israeli troops, injures 14

  • Politics
  • 8 Jul 2025
Israeli soldiers are seen in Beit Hanoun ahead of an operation by the al-Qassam Brigades, undated (Al-Qassam Brigades Military Media)

'Israel' on blast as media exposes report discrepancies in Gaza ambush

  • Palestine
  • 8 Jul 2025
Yemen Navy sinks ETERNITY C ship, shares footage of operation

Yemen Navy sinks ETERNITY C ship, shares footage of operation

  • Politics
  • 9 Jul 2025

Coverage

All
The Ummah's Martyrs

Read Next

All
Al Mayadeen: UN Palestine Inquiry members reportedly resigned
Politics

Al Mayadeen: UN Palestine Inquiry members reportedly resigned

Rutte, Trump
US & Canada

Trump threatens 100% secondary tariffs on Russia, sets deadline

Syrian government soldiers on a motorcycle pass by a burning tank on the outskirts of Sweida city, where clashes erupted between the Druze community and Bedouine clans, in southern Syria, Monday, July 14, 2025 (AP)
Politics

Israeli airstrikes target Syrian military factions near Sweida

Lebanon, US, disarmament
MENA

US pressure on Lebanon grows over Resistance disarmament plan

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS