३ ऑगस्ट, २०२४

"Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III on Friday overruled the overseer of the war court at Guantánamo Bay and revoked a plea agreement reached earlier this week..."

"... with the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and two alleged accomplices.... In taking away the authority, Mr. Austin assumed direct oversight of the case and canceled the agreement, effectively reinstating it as a death-penalty case.... Mr. Austin’s decision brought relief to family members of victims who had expressed anger over the deal, but it also left uncertain the next steps of the prosecution over America’s deadliest terrorist attack.... The case had become mired in more than a decade of pretrial proceedings that focused on whether the detainees’ torture in secret C.I.A. prisons had contaminated the evidence against them.... Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the longtime Republican leader, called the agreement 'a revolting abdication of the government’s responsibility to defend America and provide justice.' Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas called the deal 'disgraceful and an insult to the victims of the attacks,' and introduced legislation intended to nullify it. But Senator Richard J. Durbin, an Illinois Democrat who is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, hailed the plea agreement as a 'small measure of justice and finality to the victims and their loved ones.'"

From "Defense Secretary Revokes Plea Deal for Accused Sept. 11 Plotters/Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III assumed direct oversight of the case and effectively put the death penalty back on the table" (NYT).

४८ टिप्पण्या:

n.n म्हणाले...

It's capital punishment (with due process), not Capitol punishment (with political expediency). We are a nation of laws, not empathetic/sympathetic appeals. It's a timely choice to mitigate progress. Good for him.

Sebastian म्हणाले...

"The case had become mired in more than a decade of pretrial proceedings"

Illustrating the absurdity of the "war on terror" and the "rule of law."

R C Belaire म्हणाले...

Without knowing all the details, it seems Austin deserves an attaboy here (can I even use that term?).

GatorNavy म्हणाले...

A possibility is that this plea bargain coupled with the coddling of the Hamas rioters, the insanity of the squad, the antisemitism displayed by the Ivy’s and the ham-fisted treatment of Netanyahu by President Biden and his annointed successor Vice-President Harris, would have certainly given Trump victory in New Jersey and put New York in play.

Temujin म्हणाले...

Just out of curiosity, who exactly is running the US today, August 3, 2024?

For that matter, who's been running things since 2020?

I will assume they will remain in charge of things if Kamala wins. Why not? They put her in place for a reason.

Nice country you have there. Be a shame to lose it.

DJ99 म्हणाले...

Why did these cases end up in a military court? Are terrorists prisoners of war? No. They should be tried in Manhattan in a federal criminal trial,where the main crime occurred, like any other murderers.This would have been over a long time ago.

n.n म्हणाले...

Hold the trial in New York where they can be assured an equitable trial in a Democratsy.

donald म्हणाले...

They could absolutely walk in New York. It’s amazing how things have changed.

exhelodrvr1 म्हणाले...

While I disagree with the plea deals, more frustrated that Austin is overruling the WHite House - apparently no one is really in charge?

Iman म्हणाले...

Spokeshole Kirby said “we just found out about this deal a few days ago”. So… who IS running the show?

RCOCEAN II म्हणाले...

I hate these clownish Republican Senators who are always popping off on Defense and Foreign policy matters. Its just noise. And we already have a POTUS.

McConnell wont say or do a damn thing for the average Republican voter, but he and Miss Lindsey will constantly bloviate about Putin or Israel, or Ukraine. Good God, just shut up.

narciso म्हणाले...

They are terrorist they should be tried by military tribunal what is this 2009 one of the Justices jackson defended the 20th hijacker

Bob Boyd म्हणाले...

Are the plotters actually guilty of plotting 9/11? I would never have questioned this before, but now I have to think, look whose telling us these guys are responsible for planning 9/11.
The Justice Department? Federal intelligence agencies?

They're calling Trump supporters terrorists now. Why should I believe anything they say? They tried to imprison Trump and it's not at all unreasonable to suspect they tried to kill him. I think it's a fair question. Why should anyone believe anything they say?

Political Junkie म्हणाले...

If this was 2021 would Austin have done what he did? I guess "no". Politics. Dirty Hairy Shitbag Terrorist (DHST) and all his entire family tree should have been killed (with extreme prejudice and cruelty) a long time ago.

narciso म्हणाले...

Ksm has proudly admitted he was behind this the other man attash was a recruiter the third hawsawi was the money man

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

Why were these clowns not tried, convicted, and executed about a year after their arrests. Sure, we needed time to question them and gather info. After that? The drop.

Will they now be executed?

And what political genius decided that releasing this 'deal' 3 months before an election was a good idea? You know he/she was a democrat. Bonehead move.

All of you saying 'Good for Austin,' you don't understand the point.

We are not a serious nation.

Charlie म्हणाले...

Who is in charge in Washington DC?

Cheryl म्हणाले...

A small measure of justice is no justice at all.

narciso म्हणाले...

Lawfare from the lawyers who would not defend j6 defendants but were find with terrorists

Birches म्हणाले...

The bubble must be extreme to even consider this a good idea. If Kamala wins, this country's elite deserve everything that is coming to us. Most of our citizens don't deserve it however.

Political Junkie म्हणाले...

Those who say DHST should be handled through civilian courts are sadly mistaken. This was/is war.
It will never stop, there will just be intervals.
Google Ramzi Yousef. He is another DHST who is in jail until he dies for the first WTC attack in 1992. Guess who is uncle is. KSM. We should have killed the whole family tree.

Ramzi Yousef said "they will be back" after the 1992 WTC attack.

They will be back.

Birches म्हणाले...

*Clarifying addition

To consider the plea deal a good idea in the first place

traditionalguy म्हणाले...

Bleak House redux.

Leland म्हणाले...

I’m happy Sec. Austin took action. It is no longer a small measure of justice for the victims of 9/11, but all the men and women and their families that sacrificed to bring Khalid Mohammed to justice. If we want troops to continue capturing prisoners, then you don’t let one’s like Khalid Mohammed face a light sentence for expediency. Expediency could have been served at the time of capture.

MikeD म्हणाले...

And Secretary Blinken, (winken & nod weren't available), just ordered a naval task force to the Middle East. So, who's POTUS these daze?

Michael K म्हणाले...

President Austin did the right thing. We appreciate it.

Megthered म्हणाले...

Wouldn't the potus have something to say about this, too. If he had a thought in his head he might. But oatmeal doesn't think.

Duty of Inquiry म्हणाले...

This is like the Russians and Rudolf Hess.

narciso म्हणाले...

Durbin who cried crocodile tears over the 20th hijacker

loudogblog म्हणाले...

I'm surprised that they've held on to them for so long. Any intelligence that they got out of them is decades old by now and it's been so long that they don't any useful information to give up anymore. They should have been tried and sentenced a long time ago.

JAORE म्हणाले...

Terrorists given a positive deal.
Reactions are negative.
Deal changed.

Substitute a number of "good ideas" for terrorists and you have Kamala in a nutshell.

Defund police popular.
Hells yeah!
Crime rises,
Gotta get more cops,

End all fracking.
Penn. has a robust fracking industry,
Penn is a must win state for Kamala.
I won't end fracking (spokesperson)

And on and on.
She's not a flip-flop, she's a weather vane.

Dixcus म्हणाले...

It should be noted that Lloyd Austin is not the Commander In Chief of the Armed Forces in the United States.

Joe Biden is (in theory). Joe Biden did not take this action and can reverse it, of course.

As can Donald Trump. When Barack Obama was the President, he declared a US citizen never accused of any crime of representing a clear and present danger to the security of the United States of America and had that person executed without a trial. Murdered.

Donald Trump will be able to do that, too. Once he gets back in. Even if Biden were to rescind Austin's order, Trump can order the death of these terrorists. And Lloyd Austin. And Joe Biden. Anyone he declares represents this danger.

And he has complete immunity for taking these actions as President, according to the US Supreme Court.

Rabel म्हणाले...

"They should be tried in Manhattan in a federal criminal trial,where the main crime occurred, like any other murderers.This would have been over a long time ago."

There's a good possibility that if ordinary criminal prosecution procedure had been followed it would have sent them out the door as free men.

Torturing a defendant usually spoils your case. So Bush put them under military court jurisdiction.

Also, the plea agreement was announced on the DOD website. Any claims that the administration did not know this was happening are either lies or evidence of gross mismanagement.

DOD

Scotty, beam me up... म्हणाले...

Biden wants to close Gitmo before his time ended as part of his legacy. With him now out of the race, his time as “president” is running out. Plus, the Dems need to placate all of the Muslim voters that they have been shedding in Michigan. So, he (or whoever - Obama? - is running things behind the curtain) strikes a plea deal to take the death penalty off the table in some secret arrangement with the 3 terrorists and making it look like the DOD was doing it and not the administration. If it goes well, Biden takes the credit. If it goes bad, blame the military. They thought with almost a quarter century gone, the memory of 9/11 had faded and counted on the people being ok with the plea. Except, the people hadn’t forgotten 9/11 and raised a ruckus to where Kamala and down ticket Dems would lose more votes nationwide than they would receive from some Muslims coming back to the fold in Michigan. So the word was sent down to Sec. Austin to fix it and fix it quickly. And so he did, discarding the deal and throwing a loyal officer(s) on the military tribunal under the bus who were just following orders from their “commander-in-chief” to make the terrorists cases “go away”. These soldiers’ careers are now screwed with the reprimands on their records for following orders issued by the people now screwing them. No wonder our military recruiting is way down in the only demographics (white males) that are willing to volunteer in large numbers - first DEI initiatives and now knowing going in that they could be scapegoats for Dem politicians.

Mr Wibble म्हणाले...

Biden wants to close Gitmo before his time ended as part of his legacy. With him now out of the race, his time as “president” is running out.

This is absolutely it. They wanted to push through a bunch of plea agreements, transfer the prisoners out, and then close it, but didn't count on there being a public outcry.

Big Mike म्हणाले...

They are still alive 23 years longer than 2,977 ordinary people who came to work on an ordinary September day, or boarded a routine flight to the west coast, or bravely ran into a burning building in an attempt to rescue people, or otherwise were in the wrong place on a bad morning to be in wrong place.

Execute these bastards by smothering them in a vat of pig shit.

Dixcus म्हणाले...

Mr. Wibble noted: "They wanted to push through a bunch of plea agreements, transfer the prisoners out, and then close it, but didn't count on there being a public outcry."

And Donald Trump can open it right back up. He can then put Joe Biden in it for funding terrorists in Iran.

That would cement Joe Biden's shameful legacy.

Another old lawyer म्हणाले...

Look for this plea deal to be resurrected after the election should Harris be declared the winner. Though the deal might be slightly modified to save face (i.e., to avoid Austin's intervention here being seen as motivated by naked election year politics - which it was). Whoever is running the executive branch will want this off of Harris' plate, and Biden can go out with his version of 'Mission Accomplished' with Gitmo.

For that last reason, it might even be re-agreed to if Trump wins, and concluded before he's sworn in.

Of course, all that assumes Austin can reverse the plea deal at this point. I expect terrorist counsel will argue that it's too late, a deal is a deal, etc. and only the court can reject under whatever standard the court applies to approve it and that doesn't include DOD changing its mind.

Ambrose म्हणाले...

Harris owes him a big thank you. Despite the rabid pro-terror wing of her party, the pleas deal would have hurt her chances.

rwnutjob म्हणाले...

They should have been summarily executed.

Josephbleau म्हणाले...

No one in the admin deserves credit for this. It was a pure political play. Beiden was going to ship these people to a supermax and close gitmo to pander to the hate America wing of the dem party. They misjudged the feedback from normal voters and had to kill the whole deal.

So this admin cant even do a trial balloon play without it going tits up.

Narayanan म्हणाले...

y'all not thinking far enough ahead - with death penalty comes the issue of burial rites!

with or without pig blankets

Dave64 म्हणाले...

The Brigadier General who oversaw the military board and okayed it is who I'm interested in. How did she do this on her own with no input from the White House and the Defense Secretary? Susan Escallier is her name I believe.

Rabel म्हणाले...

"How did she do this on her own with no input from the White House and the Defense Secretary?"

It looks to me like she had the authority. It goes with her (former) position which is intentionally walled-off from undue command influence. The Secretary overrode that by replacing her.

Were the DOD and the White House given advance notice is my question.

The Godfather म्हणाले...

Although it's a long time ago, I used to be a pretty good marksman with an M-14. Set these suckers up, and I'll be happy to take the first shot at each of them. I don't think a second shot will be required.

If there's any doubt of their guilt, that ought to have been resolved by now. They were "waterboarded"? My oh oh my. I repeat my question: is there any doubt of their guilt?

JIM म्हणाले...

If you admit your guilt and don't make a statement of remorse why would anyone offer you a plea deal? They should have been executed years ago.
Imagine the outrage in the "news" if Trump had offered a plea deal.

Marc in Eugene म्हणाले...

I pay very little attention, generally speaking, to the characters screwing up the federal government. But since it became obvious that Mr Biden's mind comes and goes, I'm increasingly concerned about who is exercising the functions of Chief Magistrate and this in an especial way since the archons (saw someone on X use the term this morning) in DC seem to have decided not to remove him from office via the 25th Amendment.

Rusty म्हणाले...

narciso said...
"They are terrorist they should be tried by military tribunal what is this 2009 one of the Justices jackson defended the 20th hijacker"
Their corpses should have been rotting at some shithole roadside years ago.