Lawyer for news organizations presses Guantanamo judge to make public a plea deal for 9/11 accused

FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — A lawyer for news organizations urged the U.S. military commission at Guantanamo Bay to unseal the plea deal struck with accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two others, saying the public has a constitutional right and compelling need to follow one of the “most-disputed, debated, argued-about prosecutions that have happened in this country."

The plea agreement was reached in August by the three accused, their U.S. government prosecutors and the Guantanamo commission's top official, but it was abruptly revoked by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin days after it became public. It has become one of the most fiercely debated chapters in more than a decade of military hearings related to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people and triggered long-running U.S. military invasions abroad.

The plea agreement would have spared Mohammed and two co-defendants the risk of the death penalty, in exchange for their guilty pleas in the al-Qaida attacks.

After news of the deal broke, however, top Republican lawmakers denounced it and the White House expressed concerns. Families of the victims variously expressed shock and approval of the plea deal, which was aimed at resolving more than a decade of pre-trial hearings in a legally troubled case for the government.