The pretrial hearings for the 9/11 trial at Guantanamo Bay (or "Gitmo") have been canceled again, while the Biden administration is reportedly attempting to strike plea deals with the alleged al-Qaida plotters — terms which could potentially remove any consideration of the death penalty as the primary punishment.
Preliminary hearings were slated to start this month; but now, the proceedings running through March might be postponed, according to the Washington Examiner.
Plea negotiations have been ongoing for a full year.
As a result, the canceled hearings have been difficult to advance to the next stage, writes the Examiner.
More than 21 years have passed since the 9/11 terror attacks on New York City, Washington D.C., and Flight 93 — which crash-landed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania — resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people.
And yet, the five trainers who are suspected to be responsible for the terror plot's extensive planning and execution have yet to stand trial.
Regarding last month's cancelation, the al-Qaida plotters' defense team cited "the ongoing plea negotiations between Trial Counsel and the Defense that include the review of the 'Policy Principles' by various levels" within the Biden administration as a reason to further delay the pretrial proceedings.
Also, a new lead defense lawyer had been recently appointed for Walid bin Attash, one of the alleged 9/11 hijacking trainers.
According to the Examiner, negotiations between prosecutors and defense attorneys based in Gitmo could lead to "guilty" pleas.
However, the pleas might also stipulate that "capital punishment" wouldn't be part of the punishment given to 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-defendants — including bin Attash.
A number of House Republicans weren't enamored with initial reports of the death penalty being omitted from any plea deals.
"Joe Biden’s allies are negotiating lesser sentences for 9/11 attackers," Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the soon-to-be-chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, tweeted on the 21st anniversary of 9/11. "If they won't punish terrorists, how can we trust them to lock up criminals in your neighborhood?"
Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, the incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, also concurred with Jordan about the Biden White House's apparent leniency on a highly sensitive and very-public matter.
"Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his accomplices planned the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks [and are] responsible for the deaths of nearly 3,000 Americans," Turner told the Examiner last year. "It is unconscionable that military prosecutors would even entertain the idea of a plea agreement that removed the possibility of the death penalty."
The prosecution declined to confirm any reports of the plea negotiations, other than saying the process is "currently undergoing a security review."
Recently, Air Force Col. Matthew McCall, the presiding judge in the 9/11 case, said that KSM's defense team had "joined in the request" to cancel the early 2023 hearings, the Examiner reports.
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