Justice for 9/11 mastermind KSM delayed again as court pauses plea deal.

The scheduled military court hearing for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two co-conspirators to plead guilty as part of a deal with prosecutors has been postponed until a later date.

The pause, despite being welcomed by many who opposed plea deals, prolongs a decades-long fight for justice by the victims' families.

The three 9/11 terrorists who received plea deals and were spared the death penalty, instead facing life in prison, have sparked significant public backlash and internal conflict within the Biden administration to reverse the decision.

On New Year's Eve, a military appeals court ruled that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin lacked the authority to halt the agreement between military prosecutors and defense attorneys.

Then, on Wednesday, the Department of Justice appealed that ruling.

The court ruled that the plea deals struck by military prosecutors and defense lawyers were lawful and binding, and that Austin overstepped his bounds when he attempted to annul them subsequently.

The defense has until January 17 to respond to the Department of Justice's request to invalidate the plea deals. Afterward, the government will have until January 22 to respond with a rebuttal, and there may be oral arguments on the matter.

The plea deals offered to Mohammed and two co-conspirators were intended to bring closure to the families of the victims who have been waiting over two decades for the conviction of the terrorists responsible for their loved ones' deaths. These deals would enable prosecutors to avoid going to trial.

What was the reason behind the government's decision to accept a plea deal after 23 years of pursuing a case?

No one thinks these plea deals were a good idea, according to Brett Eagleson, president of 9/11 Justice, as most people are horrified.

According to Eagleson, Austin rescinded the decision in name only, just before the election, in an attempt to save face politically.

The government claims that the respondents are responsible for the most heinous crime in American history - the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

"The military commission judge plans to enforce pretrial plea agreements that will deny the public a trial on the respondents' guilt and the possibility of capital punishment, even though the Secretary of Defense has legally withdrawn those agreements. The irreparable harm to the government and the public will occur when the judge accepts the pleas, which is scheduled to begin on January 10, 2025."

If the military commission approves the guilty pleas, it is unlikely that the situation will return to its original state.

The defense lawyers for the suspected 9/11 perpetrators contended that Austin's efforts to reject the plea deals that his own military had negotiated and approved were the latest in a series of "fitful" and "negligent" mishandlings of the case, which has been ongoing for over two decades.

If the plea deal is accepted, the architects of the attacks that resulted in the deaths of 2,976 and thousands more who inhaled toxic dust during rescue missions will not face the death penalty for their crimes.

Eagleson stated that the government has an opportunity to rectify the situation and should be eager to bring justice, but instead, they keep everything under wraps and rush to finalize plea deals, disregarding the opposition of the public.

"We demand transparency. We require the information that has been produced. In this instance, we need to know who these individuals are that they are talking to? On what basis does our government believe these individuals are guilty? Why can't they disclose this information to us? It has been 23 years. You cannot claim that you need to safeguard national security sources and methods because, quite honestly, if we are using the same sources and methods that we were 23 years ago, we have more pressing matters to attend to."

The government decided to prosecute five individuals in one case rather than separately for the same incident. Mohammed is accused of orchestrating the plot and presenting it to Usama bin Laden. Two others are alleged to have assisted the hijackers with financial support.

In 2023, a medical panel determined that Ramzi bin al-Shibh was not fit to stand trial and removed him from the case. Mohammed, Mustafa al-Hawsawi, and Walid bin Attash are all part of a plea agreement that will allow them to avoid the death penalty. One other individual will go to trial.

John Ryan, a retired agent on the FBI's joint terrorism task force in New York, stated that the military commission has been a failure.

In the U.S., hundreds of individuals have been charged with terrorism offenses. In 1997, Ramzi Yousef, the individual responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was convicted.

The 9/11 case of the military commission has experienced a succession of judges, each taking time to familiarize themselves with the 400,000 pages and exhibits in the case. Col. Matthew N. McCall of the Air Force, who is the fourth judge to preside over the hearings, plans to retire in the first quarter of 2025 before any trial commences.

In August 2021, McCall was assigned to the case and held only two rounds of hearings before suspending the proceedings in March 2022 for plea negotiations. As a result, another judge would have to get up to speed, and it could take another five to 10 years before a conviction, according to Ryan, who observed many of the hearings at Guantánamo.

He stated that he knows that his parents and grandparents, who are now in their 80s and are victims, desire justice in their lifetime.

"They prefer the death penalty but are accepting the plea agreement."

Over the course of 23 years, critical witnesses have passed away, and others' memories of the event have faded.

For many years, the trial was delayed due to the disagreement between the prosecution and defense regarding the admissibility of evidence obtained through torture by the CIA. The defense contended that their clients had been conditioned to make false statements under this method.

Eric Holder, the former Attorney General, has accused "political hacks" of hindering a U.S. trial, resulting in a plea deal.

Numerous delays have resulted from the use of the untested military commissions system over many years.

In 2009, the holder wanted to try the men in the Manhattan court system and promised to seek the death penalty, but he faced opposition from Congress members who opposed bringing the suspected terrorists onto U.S. soil.

In 2013, Holder stated that if the case had gone through the federal court system as he proposed, Mohammed and his co-conspirators would currently be on "death row."

In 2019, Attorney General William Barr attempted to bring Guantánamo detainees to the U.S. for a trial in federal court, stating in his memoir that the military commission process had become a "hopeless mess."

Barr faced opposition from Republicans in Congress and then-President Trump while trying to complete the trial.