The Pentagon and FBI have informed relatives of some of the thousands killed in the September 11 terror attacks that the alleged architect behind the attack may be granted a plea bargain after two decades of a lengthy trial.

The letter obtained by the Associated Press details that repeated delays and disputes, including their torture at the hands of CIA agents, have slowed the prosecution process of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others currently held in Guantanamo Bay with no prosecution date in sight.

After considering several possibilities such as detaining, deporting, or prosecuting them, one senior official remarked, "Why don't we just kill them?"
A new book exposes the #CIA's rendition and torture techniques, linking them to the practices of #AbuGhraib prison authorities. pic.twitter.com/o2h2A2uDKl

— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) April 13, 2022

Read more: Voices from the Inside Speak Of 9/11

According to the contents, “The Office of the Chief Prosecutor has been negotiating and is considering entering into pre-trial agreements,” or PTAs, adding that a possibility of a PTA may remove the possibility of the death penalty for the accused.

Mohammed was the alleged mastermind behind the attack on the US, with the US 9/11 Commission claiming that he received authorization from Osama bin Laden to undertake the terror attacks. The other four defendants are accused of allegedly aiding and abetting Mohammed in numerous methods. 

Read next: Oldest Guantanamo Bay victim released after 19 years of innocence

CIA recruited at least two 9/11 hijackers: Court filing

A new court filing in April dropped a bombshell unmasking one of the CIA's most atrocious scandals in decades: At least two 9/11 hijackers had been recruited into a highly covert CIA-Saudi intelligence operation.

The filing, which has recently been publicized, revealed that the contact between two 9/11 hijackers and Alec Station, a CIA unit allegedly created to track Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his associates, was covered up at the highest levels of the FBI.

CBS News previously reported that new documents come about two months after the bureau published a 16-page document revealing the significant logistical support that two Saudi hijackers received in the United States.

The office had previously investigated three Saudi nationals believed to have prior knowledge of the attack, including an official at the Saudi embassy in Washington. 

Relatives of the victims sought to obtain the records, trying to prove the complicity of the Saudi government, and the Saudi embassy in Washington did not comment on the issued memo.

In May, research showed that the wars launched by the US in the Middle East and North Africa in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks have directly or indirectly killed at least 4.5 million people and displaced millions more.

The study by Brown University Watson Institute's Costs of War project detailed how almost one million people have directly died as a result of conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Libya, and Somalia.

The report released on May 15 noted that at least 3.6 to 3.7 million of the casualties were "indirect" deaths caused by a variety of factors, such as failed economies, extreme poverty, malnutrition, disease, destroyed health infrastructure, environmental contamination, and reverberating trauma and violence.

After more than two decades, the number of direct and indirect war victims from ongoing worldwide conflicts continues to rise, according to the research.