UPDATE: 3 AUG 2024

On 3 Aug 2024, it was reported that the plea deal was revoked. Some news reports have been included below with additional information. The person overseeing these cases has been relieved of duty.

BBC (3 Aug 2024)

“Plea deal with accused 9/11 plotters revoked” — US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has revoked a pre-trial agreement reached with men accused of plotting the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks. In a memo on Friday, Mr Austin also said he was revoking the authority of the officer overseeing the military court who signed the agreement on Wednesday. The original deal, which would reportedly have spared the alleged attackers the death penalty, was criticised by some families of victims. The 9/11 attacks in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania were the deadliest assault on US soil since the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where 2,400 people were killed. [Source]

CNN (3 Aug 2024)

“Reporter explains ‘abrupt’ decision to revoke plea deal for 9/11 plotters” — In a suprise memo, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin abruptly revoked a plea deal for the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks and his co-conspirators. CNN’s Oren Liebermann reports, and then CNN’s Kaitlan Collins discusses with Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY). [Source]

CNN (2 Aug 2024)

Original Post

What follows is the original document from 2 Aug 2024. Much of what was written below is still applicable.

Summary

This document provides some news and information about the August 2024 plea deal with three suspected terrorists being held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. Some commentary is also included below. The plea deal will allow them to avoid the death penalty for their alleged involvement in the attack on 11 Sep 2001.

Among the list of 779 GTMO detainees over 22 years, there are 30 that remain. About half of the present detainees have never been charged with a crime and have been cleared for transfer or release.

The United States rents the land for the base from Cuba. The overall cost of the facility is about $13 million per prisoner per year. [Source]

Context

Here are links to news stories that provide some additional context.

NPR, “Biden administration releases Guantánamo inmate, its fourth transfer in a month” 9 Mar 2023 [Source] Excerpt: “A Saudi Arabian man held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for more than two decades without being put on trial has been released by the U.S. military, making him the fourth inmate transferred out of Guantánamo in roughly the past month.”
NY Times, “The Guantánamo Docket” 24 May 2024 [Source] Excerpt: “Since 2002, roughly 780 detainees have been held at the American military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Now, 30 remain. Of those, 11 have been charged with war crimes in the military commissions system — seven are awaiting trial and one has been convicted. In addition, three detainees are held in indefinite law-of-war detention and are neither facing tribunal charges nor being recommended for release. And 16 are held in law-of-war detention but have been recommended for transfer with security arrangements to another country.”
United Nations via AP, “Conditions for Guantanamo detainees are cruel, inhuman and degrading, UN investigator says” 26 Jun 2023 [Source] Excerpt: “Ní Aoláin said her visit marked the first time a U.S, administration has allowed a U.N. investigator to visit the facility, which opened in 2002. She praised the Biden administration for leading by example by opening up Guantanamo and ‘being prepared to address the hardest human rights issues,’ and urged other countries that have barred U.N. access to detention facilities to follow suit. And she said she was given access to everything she asked for, including holding meetings at the facility in Cuba with ‘high value’ and ‘non-high value’ detainees.”
United Nations via AP, “Guantanamo detainees tell first independent visitor about scars from torture and hopes to leave” 5 Jul 2023 [Source] Excerpt: “In her report issued June 26, Ní Aoláin said even though the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, were ‘crimes against humanity,’ the treatment of the detainees at Guantanamo was unjustified. The vast majority were brought there without cause and had no relationship to the terrorist attacks, she wrote, adding that all of the men still alive suffer from psychological and physical trauma.”

News Video Reports

PBS (1 Aug 2024)

“What’s in the plea deal reached with key 9/11 attack conspirators” — The man accused as the mastermind behind the September 11 terrorist attacks, and two accomplices, have agreed to a plea deal in exchange for avoiding the death penalty. The development comes 16 years after their prosecutions began. Ali Rogin discussed the latest with Jess Bravin of the Wall Street Journal and author of “The Terror Courts: Rough Justice at Guantanamo Bay.” [Source]

CNN (31 Jul 2024)

“US reaches plea deal with alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed” — The US has reached a plea deal with alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other defendants, according to the Defense Department. Mohammed, often known as KSM, was captured in Pakistan in 2003 for his alleged involvement in the terror attacks. [Source]

Deutsche Welle (31 Jul 2024)

“9/11 alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and 2 others reach US plea deal” — A man accused of plotting the September 11 terrorist attacks has agreed to a guilty plea to avoid the death sentence. [Source]

Commentary

Failure of Justice?

The plea deal is perceived to be a failure of justice and example of weakness on the part of the current President — more evidence of a “soft on crime” administration that lets violent criminals go unpunished.

The actual point of failure seems to have been caused by some overzealous “tough on crime” enthusiasts who were allegedly engaging in torture of the inmates for the purpose of obtaining information, getting a confession, or perhaps just administering justice without a trial. Camp Justice is the name given to the facility by those who serve there.

Torture is considered a war crime by agencies like the Red Cross and the United Nations. It is considered to be ineffective and counterproductive in criminal proceedings because a person under duress may admit to doing something they haven’t done, or they may implicate someone who was innocent. For this reason, a case can be considered to have been compromised if the accused was tortured. If we punish or kill someone thought to be guilty, who really wasn’t guilty, then the actual guilty person or people may end up not getting caught or prosecuted. This puts the general public at risk. Thus, everyone loses.

For this reason, concerns about torture and other inhumane treatment hindered the smooth prosecution of Guantanamo detainees.

Some who advocated a war on terror, believed we could torture and bomb our way to a more peaceful world. The more peaceful world never materialized, and the war on terror seemed to only fuel more extremist ideologies and groups. We would kill a terrorist leader and three even more extreme and violent leaders would rise up to replace the former leader.

Innocent Detainees?

Over the years, some detainees have eventually been released after years of being held without charges and without a trial. Their wrongful detention has been corroborated by Republican Lawrence B. Wilkerson, former chief of staff to then-secretary of state Colin Powell. Here is an excerpt from a CBC report in 2009. [Source]

“Many detainees locked up in Guantanamo Bay were innocent men swept up by U.S. forces unable to distinguish enemies from noncombatants, a former Bush administration official said … ‘There are still innocent people there …. Some have been there six or seven years.'” [Source]

Human Rights Concerns

The Guantánamo Bay detention center became the focus of groups that monitor human rights violations around the world. This became an embarrassment to the United States.

In March 2024, Amnesty International reported the following. [Source]

Former US President Barack Obama issued an executive order to close the facility in 2009, and there is global consensus from the international community that the facility continuously violates human rights law. Despite this, 30 men remain detained at Guantanamo today. Most of these men were never charged with a crime, and many of them were tortured. Over half of them were cleared for release or transfer years ago and are still awaiting next steps – which never seem to come.

In January 2022, the ACLU concluded the following. [Source]

Twenty years have passed since the first detainees arrived in Guantánamo Bay, making it the longest-standing war prison in U.S. history. Since 2002, 779 Muslim men and boys have been held at Guantánamo, nearly all of them without charge or trial. Today, 39 men remain indefinitely detained there, and 27 of them have never even been charged with any crime. Fourteen of those 27 have been cleared for transfer or release, some for years. Many of the remaining men are torture survivors; the CIA formerly disappeared some of them at “black sites” before our government sent them to Guantánamo. All of the prisoners have been exposed to the physical and psychological trauma associated with prolonged indefinite detention. Around the world, Guantánamo is a symbol of racial and religious injustice, abuse, and disregard for the rule of law. Our government’s embrace of systematic torture shattered lives, shredded this country’s reputation in the world, and compromised national security.

Stories of Survivors

The stories of Guantanamo survivors are harrowing. An example is Mansoor Adayfi who was captured at age 18. He was accused of being an al-Qaida leader, kidnapped by Afghan warlords and handed over to the CIA. An August 2021 report in the Guardian conveyed Mansoor’s experience. [Source]

Adayfi was part of a detainee population that was thought to be largely innocent. A startling 86% of detainees at Guantánamo were captured after the US distributed flyers in Pakistan and Afghanistan offering huge bounties for “suspicious people”. Many were handed over by rival farmers. Only 8% of inmates were thought to be al-Qaida fighters. [Source]
Only eight detainees were ever convicted – four of whom had their convictions overturned – and yet they are still treated as terrorists: they face routine interrogation, abuse and imprisonment. Many have health conditions from their time as detainees that have led to death. [Source]

Plea Deal Brings Closure

Because of the apparent botched judicial process, a plea deal is the most effective and least embarrassing way to bring closure to the disappointing Guantánamo Bay failure.

Of the 779 Guantanamo detainees over 20 years, the three who are being offered a plea deal are not among those known to be innocent. Having them be the focus of attention now, will help take attention away from the many innocent people detained without charges.

Many U.S. presidents have promised to close the Guantánamo Bay facility, but they were not successful. Perhaps soon the facility can be closed.

Given what has transpired, this is likely the best possible way to bring the Guantánamo Bay story to a conclusion.

GTMO Plea Deal 2024