Three men accused of planning 9/11 agree to confess to avoid the death penalty

The Pentagon announced that the United States has reached an agreement with three of the men behind the September 11 attacks.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man accused of planning the 2001 al-Qaeda attacks, and two of his accomplices held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, have agreed to plead guilty.

The Pentagon did not initially comment further on the terms of the deal.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the deals were almost certainly admissions of guilt in exchange for the abolition of the death penalty.

Mohammed and his accomplices Walid Bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi are expected to submit their confessions to the military commission in Guantanamo Bay as early as next week.

Defense attorneys have demanded life sentences in exchange for their guilty plea, according to letters the federal government sent to relatives of some of the nearly 3,000 people killed on the morning of Sept. 11.

The U.S. agreement with the men to a guilty plea came more than 16 years after prosecutions against them began for the al-Qaeda attacks and more than 20 years after the terrorists flew two hijacked planes into the World Trade Center, bringing down the Twin Towers.

The attack, which also saw a passenger plane fly into the Pentagon, killed nearly 3,000 people. It sparked years of US wars against militant extremist groups that fundamentally changed the countries of the Middle East.

Terry Strada, national president of 9/11 Families United, a group of victims' families, said in reacting to news of the agreement that many families simply wanted to see an admission of guilt from the men.

“Personally, I wanted to see a trial,” she said. “But they simply took away the justice that I expected: a trial and punishment.”

“They were cowards when they planned the attack. And they are still cowards today.”

Dozens of relatives of those killed have died while waiting for the case to be solved, Ms Strada added.

Mohammed was captured by authorities in 2003. During his time in CIA custody, he was subjected to waterboarding 183 times before being transferred to Guantanamo, as well as other forms of torture and coercive interrogation.

Mohammed is the most famous inmate at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, which was established in 2002 by then-US President George W. Bush to house suspected foreign militants following the September 11 attacks on the United States.

The inmate population grew to a peak of about 800 before it began to decline. Today, 30 inmates are housed there.

The use of torture proved to be one of the biggest obstacles to U.S. efforts to try the men before the military commission at Guantanamo, as evidence related to abuse was not admitted.

The delay in the trial is largely due to torture, but also to the fact that the courtroom is a plane ride away from the United States.

Michael Burke, one of the family members who received official notice of the agreement, condemned the long wait for justice and the outcome.

“The Nuremberg trials took months or a year,” said Burke, whose brother Billy, a fire captain, was killed in the collapse of the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

“It has always been a shame to me that 23 years later these guys have still not been convicted and punished for their attacks or the crime. I have never understood why it has taken so long.

“I think people would be shocked if you could go back in time and say to the people who just watched the towers fall, 'Oh, hey, in 23 years these guys who are responsible for this crime we just witnessed are going to get a deal so they can avoid death and serve a life sentence in prison.'”

The Republican leader in the US Senate, Mitch McConnell, condemned the agreements.

“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.”