Khalid Sheikh Mohammed plea deal: Families of 9/11 victims and FDNY union are shocked and outraged by the agreement
NEW YORK (WABC) — Relatives of 9/11 victims, survivors and the FDNY union are among those outraged by the news that three of the five defendants charged in the 9/11 Guantanamo Bay case have reached plea deals with prosecutors.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused of masterminding the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaeda attacks on the United States, and two accomplices, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, are expected to testify before the military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as early as next week.
Defense attorneys have requested that the men receive life sentences in exchange for their guilty pleas, according to letters from the federal government received by relatives of some of the nearly 3,000 people killed on the morning of Sept. 11.
As part of the agreement, the defendants agreed to answer questions from victims’ families “about their roles and reasons for carrying out the 9/11 attacks,” a process known as restorative justice.
The government said the settlement was intended to bring some “finality and justice” to the case. But Michael O’Connell was one of the first to respond to the events of 9/11 and he doesn’t mince words.
O’Connell was a probationary firefighter working at the stack. He was later diagnosed with sarcoidosis.
John Feal has undergone 46 surgeries for the injuries he suffered at Ground Zero. For them, the plea deal is like a new wound.
Both are pushing for guaranteed benefits for those who fall ill. Their attorney, Michael Barasch, says that without a trial, questions will remain unanswered.
“We didn’t understand why justice had been delayed for so many years, and we’ve heard that justice delayed is justice denied, and now it really seems like it’s official, justice is being denied, there’s no trial,” Barasch said.
Prosecutors faced legal challenges, including over whether evidence obtained through torture could be admissible. Some believed the plea deal was the best outcome, but the president of the New York Fire Department Uniformed Firefighters Association issued a statement saying they were “disgusted and disappointed.”
Feal and O’Connell are also disappointed.
“When those towers came down, we were all breathing in that toxic dust,” O’Connell said. “The people who planned that are entirely responsible for people getting sick and dying, so there will never be closure.”
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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