WASHINGTON (AP) — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused of being the mastermind behind the terrorist attacks carried out by Al Qaeda on September 11, 2001, has agreed to plead guilty, the Department of Defense reported on Wednesday, pointing towards a resolution of an attack that altered the course of the United States and much of the Middle East.
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Sheikh Mohammed and two accomplices, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, are expected to plead guilty next week before the military commission at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
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Pentagon officials refused to make the terms of the plea agreement public. The New York Times, citing unidentified Pentagon officials, reported that the terms included the men's former condition to avoid the risk of being sentenced to death.
The agreement of the United States with the men to plead guilty comes more than 16 years after their prosecution for the Al Qaeda attack began. It also comes more than 20 years after the attackers crashed commercial planes they had taken control of. The attack caused the death of nearly 3,000 people and triggered years of US wars in Middle Eastern countries.
Terry Strada, the national president of a group of victims' families called 9/11 Families United, was at the federal court in Manhattan to attend a hearing on one of the many civil lawsuits when she learned about the guilty plea agreement.
Strada said that many families just wanted to see the men admit their guilt.
"Personally, I wanted to see a trial," he said. "And they have simply taken away the justice I was hoping for, a trial and punishment."
"They were cowards when they planned the attack. And they are cowards today," he stated.
Dozens of relatives of the murdered died while waiting for the case to be resolved, Strada said.