The current Convening Authority for Military Commissions, Susan Escallier, didn’t go rogue.
In 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions learned the then Convening Authority "was exploring potential plea deals to end the long-delayed prosecution of five suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks, a move that would foreclose the possibility of execution ..." President Trump fired Convening Authority Harvey Rishikof.
Escallier made a deal this July, knowing full well what she could concede because President Biden declined to accept the terms in an offer last September but let negotiations continue.
The facts demonstrate that the White House oversaw the negotiations.
Kamala Harris knows the deal and is not being questioned. It had to look like an independent decision, not a miscalculation made by a President with diminishing mental faculties.
If this agreement stands – and it might – it will let the admitted mass-murderers of 3,000 men, women, and children avoid the death penalty. But Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his underlings didn’t agree to trade communal living at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, aka Gitmo, to do life in grim solitary confinement cells at Supermax.
If the agreement’s full terms were revealed now, the concessions made to al Qaeda’s top terrorists might shock the nation and tip the outcome of the 2024 Presidential election.
Does the deal include communal living with previously convicted Islamist terrorists at FCI Terra Haute, conjugal visits, or transfer to another country to serve sentences that do not mandate they die in prison? How convenient is it that Lloyd Austin’s court filing to withdraw the plea agreement might keep it under seal until after the next President takes office? The Defense Secretary resumed Convening Authority over the trial after receiving backlash from Members of Congress and 9/11 family members. It will take up to two years for the courts to rule if the agreement can be withdrawn.
Reportedly, only now will the White House “start asking questions.” That statement is false, And the administration is putting out misinformation:
White House press briefing, August 1, 2024: Mr. [Jake] Sullivan: “And we had no role in that process. The president had no role. The vice president had no role. I had no role. The White House had no role. And we were informed yesterday — the same day that they went out publicly that the convening authority had accepted this pretrial agreement.”
Within the 9/11 family community (which includes my family), it is widely known that the Military Commission’s Chief Prosecutor (for eleven years) was forced to retire in September 2021 when he resisted efforts to open plea bargain negotiations. The prosecution had built a massive case and produced more than 500,000 pages of evidence during discovery. They believed they would achieve convictions and the death penalty even if the evidence and incriminating statements obtained from interrogations were ruled inadmissible. He was and is a patriot, as are others with similar tenure on the team or who followed him out the door. The departures sent signals …
Six months later, on March 15, 2022, The Hill reported, “Prosecutors have reportedly opened negotiations for a potential plea deal that could eliminate a death penalty trial for the accused plotters behind the 9/11 terror attacks, including alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.” Eight hours after that news broke, our 9/11 family community was notified by the Victims Liaison Office. In part, their email to us reads:
“… we will only say at this time that the prosecution is always open to discussing the possibility of coming to agreements between the parties calling for the five accused to accept responsibility for the attacks of September 11 if the terms meet the needs and interests of the United States.”
For the first time in my memory, they did not invite comments, but they received plenty of them.
Secretary Austin delegated the Convening Authority to Escallier in August 2023. Two weeks later, a New York Times headline read, ‘Biden Rejects Proposed Conditions for Plea Deals in Sept. 11 Case.’ The Times’ source was an official filing submitted to the 9/11 trial judge:
“The administration declines to accept the terms of the proposed joint policy principles offered by the accused in the military commission's case, United States v. Mohammed, et al.,” prosecutors said in the filing…”
Escallier ordered the prosecution to continue negotiations, and the Victims Liaison Office sent another mass email.
The Commander-in-Chief decides who gets tried by the Military Commission and the terms of plea bargains. VP Harris was in the room when Barack Obama’s surrogates in the current administration, including National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Director of National Intelligence Avril Hanes, and U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, set the limits for the deal Escallier signed and filed with the court while Austin was flying home from overseas.
Serious journalists should immediately ask Harris about this, starting with: As President, would she allow negotiations to resume if the courts ruled Austin had the authority to rescind the agreement?
On October 11, 2024, 9/11 trial Judge Colonel McCall will hear arguments by seven news organizations who have petitioned the court requesting he let the public read the plea agreements.
It would be the right thing to do.
Candidate Kamala Harris knows the deal; early and Election Day voters must also know it.