The protests of the families of the victims of September 11th and the controversies of the Republicans have ruined the plea deal with the mastermind of the attacks on the Twin Towers and two of his accomplices. The head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin, has relieved the supervisor of the Guantanamo Bay war tribunal from his role and has revoked the agreement reached in recent days with the three men who, in exchange for their guilty pleas, would have avoided punishment capital.

Now they risk the death sentence again. The Pentagon announced the decision with the release of a memorandum relieving the senior Department of Defense official in charge of military commissions from his oversight of the case against Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his alleged accomplices Walid bin Attach and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, for attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York City, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania camp.

The supervisor, retired Brigadier General Susan K. Escallier, had signed a pretrial agreement with the three defendants offering them a life sentence in exchange for their guilty pleas. In the revocation act, Austin assumed direct supervision of the proceedings, which are now once again listed as a capital punishment case.

(Unioneonline/vf)

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