[pjw] NEWS: Three Sept. 11 suspects agree to plead guilty at Guantanamo (Reuters 7/31)

[Peace and Justice Works]

IAG supporters
Our friends at Amnesty International tipped me off to this latest 
development at Guantanamo. The three who pleaded guilty get to avoid the 
death penalty, which a "civilized" nation wouldn't have as an option 
anyway. Well, to see the true nature of America read Mitch McConnell's 
quote at the end saying accepting a plea is negotiating with terrorists 
and cowardly.

I'm not seeing an update on how many of the 30 remaining people have been 
convicted or pleaded guilty at the Close Guantanamo site.

https://www.closeguantanamo.org

but it does say there are 16 people who are cleared to be released but 
are still there. Remember, this place was set up 22 and a half years ago.

So I guess some kind of "closure" is better than perpetual incarceration 
without charges (or death for that matter). I think Congress made it so 
even those convicted can't be moved to prisons in the US.

For sure we'll be talking about this at Friday Rally tomorrow. Be sure to 
bring water and dress for possible 95 degree weather!
dan handelman
peace and justice works iraq affinity group

  https://www.reuters.com/world/us/three-sept-11-suspects-agree-plead-guilty-guantanamo-new-york-times-reports-2024-07-31/
Three Sept. 11 suspects agree to plead guilty at Guantanamo
Reuters, July 31, 20246:10 PM PDT

WASHINGTON, July 31 (Reuters) - The man accused of masterminding the Sept. 
11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and two of his accomplices, held at 
the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have agreed to plead 
guilty, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

The Pentagon did not elaborate on the plea deals.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the plea deals 
almost certainly involved guilty pleas in exchange for taking the death 
penalty off the table.

The official said the terms of the agreement had not been publicly 
disclosed but acknowledged a plea for a life sentence was possible.

Mohammed is the most well known inmate at the detention facility in 
Guantanamo Bay, which was set up in 2002 by then-U.S. President George W. 
Bush to house foreign militant suspects following the Sept. 11, 2001 
attacks on the United States.

Its population grew to a peak of about 800 inmates before it started to 
shrink. There are 30 inmates today.

Mohammed is accused of masterminding the plot to fly hijacked commercial 
passenger aircraft into the World Trade Center in New York City and into 
the Pentagon. The 9/11 attacks, as they're known, killed nearly 3,000 
people and plunged the United States into what would become a 
two-decade-long war in Afghanistan.

His interrogations have long been the subject of scrutiny. A 2014 Senate 
Intelligence Committee report on the CIA's use of waterboarding and other 
"enhanced interrogation techniques" said that Mohammed had been 
waterboarded at least 183 times.

Plea deals were also reached by two other detainees: Walid Muhammad Salih 
Mubarak Bin 'Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, according to a 
Pentagon statement.

The three men were initially charged jointly and arraigned on June 5, 
2008, and then were again charged jointly and arraigned a second time on 
May 5, 2012, the Pentagon statement said.

U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell condemned the plea deals.

"The only thing worse than negotiating with terrorists is negotiating with 
them after they are in custody," McConnell said in a statement, accusing 
the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden of "cowardice in the 
face of terror."


Reporting by Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali, Eric Beech and Kanishka Singh; 
Editing by Diane Craft