9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed agrees to plea deal to avoid death penalty

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the man who planned the September 11 terror attacks in 2001 that killed nearly 3,000 people, has accepted a plea deal for a life sentence, according to prosecutors. I wanted the death penalty — the government has failed us,” Daniel D’Allara, whose brother, NYPD officer John D’Allara, was killed on 9/11, told The New York Post. “The United States chose to secretly detain and torture the men it now seeks to punish.” The process to try KSM and his accomplices at a military court at Guantánamo, which operates under different rules than the normal US criminal legal system, has been beset with other delays, including an 18-month pause during the height of the Covid pandemic, and an Obama administration plan to try the plotter in New York, which was rejected by local officials and Congress. “We are also pleased that there is finally an outcome for at least some of the accused, who were tortured and then languished in detention without trial for more than two decades.” Last year, Joe Biden rejected parts of a potential plea deal for the detainees, over demands the men be spared solitary confinement and receive trauma care for their torture at the hands of the CIA, the National Security Council said at the time.