Confessions of guilt for 9/11 were delayed after government resistance

The US government has succeeded in temporarily preventing the accused mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks from pleading guilty amid a dispute over the terms of a plea deal.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two co-defendants reached deals last summer to plead guilty to all charges in exchange for not facing a trial with the death penalty.

In a filing to a federal appeals court, the government argued that it and the American people would be irreparably harmed if the pleas were granted.

A three-judge panel said they needed more time to consider the case and stayed the proceedings. They stressed that the delay “should in no way be interpreted as adjudicating the merits” of the case.

It comes after a military judge and appeals panel rejected an earlier move by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to cancel the agreementssigned by a senior official appointed by him.

Almost 3,000 people were killed in the attacks of September 11, 2001, when hijackers seized passenger planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington. Another plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers fought back.

The three men have been in US custody for more than 20 years, and pretrial hearings in the case have continued for more than a decade.

The arguments centered on whether the evidence was tainted by torture the defendants were subjected to in CIA custody after their arrests.

Muhammad was subjected to simulated drowning or “waterboarding” 183 times while held in secret CIA prisons after his arrest in 2003. Other so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” include sleep deprivation and forced nudity.

Families of some of those killed in the 9/11 attacks criticized the settlements as too lenient or lacking in transparency, while others saw them as a way to move the complicated and long-running case forward.

Those who had traveled to the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to watch Muhammad plead guilty spoke to reporters when news of the delay was announced.

“The U.S. government has once again failed families since 9/11. They had the chance to do the right thing and they chose not to do it,” said Tom Resta, whose brother, sister-in-law and their unborn child were killed in the attacks.

The government argued that going ahead with the deals would mean it was denied the chance to “seek the death penalty against three men accused of a heinous act of mass murder that left thousands dead and shocked the nation and the world”.

“A brief delay to allow this court to consider the merits of the government's motion in this important case will not materially prejudice the defendants,” it said.

In its response, Mohammed's team said the agreement offered “the first opportunity for real closure” in nearly a quarter of a century. It said the plea negotiations, which have been ongoing for two years, “directly involved the White House.”

In its decision Thursday night, the federal appeals court said its ruling was intended to give the justices time to receive a full briefing and hear arguments “on an expedited basis.”

The delay means the matter will now fall to the incoming Trump administration.

Full details of the deals reached with Mohammed and two of his co-defendants have not been disclosed.

At a court hearing at Guantanamo Bay on Wednesday, his legal team confirmed that he had agreed to plead guilty to all charges.

If the deals are confirmed and the pleas are accepted by the court, the next steps will be to appoint a military jury, known as a panel, to hear evidence during a sentencing hearing.

In court on Wednesday, it was described by lawyers as a form of public trial where survivors and family members of those killed would be given the opportunity to testify.

Under the settlement, the families will also be able to ask questions of Mohammed, who will have to “fully and truthfully answer their questions,” lawyers said.