US secretary of defense pulls rank and withdraws agreements for trio accused of involvement in 2001 terror attacks
The US secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, has revoked a plea deal for the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and two other defendants, reinstating them as death-penalty cases, according to a memo sent to Susan Escallier, who is overseeing the war court proceedings.
The short-lived deal came 16 years after prosecution of the three men began.
Continue reading...Alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed among trio to plead guilty to conspiracy in exchange for life sentence
Three men accused of being involved in the 9/11 terrorist attack – including the self-proclaimed mastermind of the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon – have agreed to plea deals at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
“The Convening Authority for Military Commissions, Susan Escallier, has entered into pre-trial agreements with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi, three of the co-accused in the 9/11 case,” the Pentagon said in a short statement.
Continue reading...Footage was unsealed in court action by families of victims who claim Saudi government was complicit in event
A 25-year-old video has come to light of a man identified by the FBI as a Saudi intelligence agent filming locations in the center of Washington three months before Al-Qaida decided to carry out the 9/11 attacks.
The footage, shot in the summer of 1999 and in the possession of the FBI, was unsealed in a court action by families of the victims of 9/11, who claim that Saudi Arabia’s government was complicit in the event, which the country’s rulers deny. It was obtained by CBS and shown on the 60 Minutes program.
Continue reading...The US response to 9/11 was dogged by a threat posed by an ill-defined enemy, which led to human rights abuses associated with Guantánamo
When Joe Biden, the US president, spoke to Israelis during his brief visit this week, he said he and “many Americans” understood “their shock, pain and rage”.
Then he added a warning. “Justice must be done. But I caution this – while you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it. After 9/11, we were enraged in the United States. While we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes.”
Continue reading...Ramzi bin al-Shibh was one of five defendants facing trial in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people in the 9/11 attacks by al-Qaida
A military judge at Guantánamo Bay has ruled a 9/11 defendant incompetent to stand trial after a military medical panel found that the man’s sustained abuse in CIA custody years earlier had rendered him lastingly psychotic.
A Guantánamo military commission spokesman, Ronald Flesvig, confirmed on Friday the ruling by Judge Col Matthew McCall. The ruling means Ramzi bin al-Shibh will not be tried together with his four 9/11 co-defendants, whose case will now proceed without him.
Continue reading...Exclusive: For 21 years, the detainee has been in US custody without charge, tortured and sexually humiliated, with no prospect for release
• Warning: the images and descriptions of torture in this article are extremely graphic
A detainee held in the US prison camp at Guantánamo Bay who was used as a human guinea pig in the CIA’s post-9/11 torture program has produced the most comprehensive and detailed account yet seen of the brutal techniques to which he was subjected.
Abu Zubaydah has created a series of 40 drawings that chronicle the torture he endured in a number of CIA dark sites between 2002 and 2006 and at Guantánamo Bay. In the absence of a full official accounting of the torture program, which the CIA and the FBI have labored for years to keep secret, the images give a unique and searing insight into a grisly period in US history.
Continue reading...Pitcher who played for three major league teams before becoming Port Authority officer, was going to work at 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan
Anthony Varvaro, a former US Major League Baseball pitcher who retired in 2016 to become a police officer in the New York City area, was killed in a car accident Sunday morning on his way to work at the September 11 memorial ceremony in Manhattan, according to police officials and his former teams.
Varvaro, 37, was an officer for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He played baseball at St John’s University in New York before a six-year career in the majors as a relief pitcher with the Seattle Mariners, Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox.
Continue reading...Former US secretary of state makes an impassioned attack on turn towards extremism and divisiveness in American politics
Hillary Clinton seized the opportunity presented by Sunday’s 21st anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington to make a thinly-veiled attack on the extremism and divisiveness stoked by Donald Trump, as she called for a return to national unity.
The former US secretary of state and first lady invoked the bipartisan mood of the country in the wake of the 9/11 attack in which almost 3,000 people were killed.
Continue reading...President ordered strike on Kabul safe house last month during a high-level meeting, administration says
A US drone strike in Afghanistan has killed the top al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, Joe Biden announced on Monday.
The US president described the death of Zawahiri, who was Osama bin Laden’s deputy and successor, as a major blow to the terrorist network behind the September 11 2001 attacks.
Continue reading...New York Times reports talks under way for plea agreement that could bring an end to one of biggest criminal cases in US history
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-defendants accused of planning the 9/11 attacks are reportedly in talks with US prosecutors over a potential plea deal that would see them plead guilty in exchange for avoiding the death penalty.
The New York Times reported that negotiations are under way for a possible plea agreement that could bring to an end what is arguably the biggest criminal case in US history. The five defendants were first charged in 2008 with plotting or logistically supporting the terrorist attacks that led to the murder of almost 3,000 people in New York’s Twin Towers, the Pentagon in Washington, and in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Continue reading...Money would go toward humanitarian efforts for Afghan people and to US victims of terrorism, keeping it out of hands of Taliban
Joe Biden signed an executive order on Friday releasing $7bn in frozen Afghan reserves to be split between humanitarian efforts for the Afghan people and American victims of terrorism, including relatives of 9/11.
In a highly unusual move, the convoluted plan is designed to tackle a myriad of legal bottlenecks stemming from the 2001 terrorist attacks and the chaotic end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan, which ignited a humanitarian and political crisis, the New York times reports.
Continue reading...Government board says Mohammed al-Qahtani, who now has significant mental health issues, should be repatriated to Saudi Arabia
US authorities have recommended releasing an inmate with significant mental health issues from Guantánamo Bay and repatriating him to Saudi Arabia, according to a government document published Friday.
Suspected of being al-Qaida’s intended 20th hijacker for the September 11, 2001 attacks, Mohammed al-Qahtani was tortured by interrogators at the US military base in Cuba where he has been detained for nearly two decades.
Continue reading...Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker of the US Congress, has likened the 6 January attack to 9/11, saying one had been an assault on US democracy from within and the other from the outside. Speaking at a Chatham House seminar in London on Friday, she also claimed the Republicans had been hijacked by a cult that believed neither in science nor government, making it hard for the US to be governed
Continue reading...Ceremonies in New York, Pennsylvania and at Pentagon mark the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks
Some wept. Some held photos of loved ones At 8.46am, precisely two decades after a passenger plane became a new and deadly weapon here, all fell silent in remembrance.
Families of the victims gathered at the 9/11 memorial plaza in New York on Saturday to mark the 20th anniversary of terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people and helped shape the 21st century.
Continue reading...Biden and Harris among leaders at ceremonies in New York, at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania
• Sign up to receive First Thing – our daily briefing by email
The Guardian’s David Smith has the full report on today’s commemorations so far:
Some wept. Some held photos of loved ones. At 8:46am, precisely two decades after a passenger plane became a new and deadly weapon here, all fell silent in remembrance.
Families of the victims gathered at the 9/11 memorial plaza in New York on Saturday to mark the 20th anniversary of terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people and helped shape the 21st century.
Related: America mourns as leaders and families mark 20th anniversary of 9/11 attacks
Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrived in Pennsylvania earlier and walked out to the Flight 93 National Memorial, where they bowed their heads as they helped to place a wreath of white and red roses.
Continue reading...The 9/11 terrorists failed to undermine the faith of 'free peoples' around the world in open societies, Boris Johnson has said, marking the 20th anniversary of the attacks. 'The fact that we are coming together today – in sorrow but also in faith and resolve – demonstrates the failure of terrorism and the strength of the bonds between us,' Johnson said. A total of 2,977 people were killed in the atrocity, including 67 Britons
Their faces were on front pages across the world in the days after the World Trade Center collapsed. Here’s how they, and their families, look back on those terrifying hours
Continue reading...The September 11 2001 attacks heralded a big increase in repression in the name of the ‘war on terror’
The moment Wahid Sheikh’s life changed forever was broadcast on television to a global audience of millions, including him. At the time, it appeared to be happening entirely to others, a long way from his Mumbai home. “I watched the buildings collapse, slowly and gradually, sad to watch ordinary people dying,” he recalls.
Continue reading...The legal carte blanche signed days after the 2001 attacks is still used to authorise military action – just one way US society has been shaped, or corroded, by its backlash to terror
Over the past few weeks, the Biden administration has launched drone strikes against suspected terrorist targets in Somalia and Afghanistan, based on congressional authority dating to September 2001. This week, five terror suspects have been in court for pre-trial hearings now entering their ninth year in Guantánamo Bay, which opened its prison gates in January 2002.
The aftershocks of 9/11 are everywhere. The families of the nearly 3,000 victims are still struggling with the justice department to lift the secrecy over the FBI investigation into the attacks and the possible complicity of Saudi officials. Last week they asked the department’s inspector general to look into FBI claims to have lost critical evidence, including pictures and video footage.
Continue reading...In the years that followed the terrorist attacks, Muslim Americans faced intense suspicion and discrimination. Here, Kausam Salam, Zainab Johnson, Sabiha Hussain, Mehdi Hasan and Jaime 'Mujahid' Fletcher reflect on the events of that day – and how stereotypes, disinformation and the 'war on terror' changed their everyday lives
Continue reading...