Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused of masterminding the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States, has agreed to plead guilty, the U.S. Department of Defense announced. The development marks the long-delayed conclusion of the headline-grabbing case for an attack that left thousands dead and changed the course of the United States, much of the Middle East and the world at large.
Mohammed and his two accomplices, Walid bin Atas and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, are expected to present their pleas to the military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, next week.
Defense attorneys have asked the men to receive life in prison 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.
Terry Strada, who heads a group of families of nearly 3,000 direct victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, cited the many relatives who died while awaiting justice for their deaths when he heard news of the plea deal.
“They were cowards when they planned the attack,” he said of the defendants. “And they are cowards today.”