On September 11, 2001, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York collapsed due to an attack.
On July 12th, local time, it was reported that the Federal Appeal Court of the US Columbia District ruled on the 11th day of the month to reject a deal that would allow the main perpetrator of the September 11th terrorist attack, Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, to confess in exchange for avoiding the death penalty. This deal completely overturned a two-year effort to end the military trial.
The agreement, approved by US military prosecutors and senior officials in charge of Guantanamo matters at the Pentagon in 2024, stipulated that Mohammed and two co-perpetrators would be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, and promised to cooperate in answering all questions from the victims’ families. However, the then US Defense Secretary Austin denied the agreement after it was reached, stating that “the decision on whether to impose the death penalty must be made personally by the Defense Secretary,” triggering legal controversy. The Biden administration subsequently appealed, and the Trump administration continued this action. Eventually, the federal court determined that Austin’s exercise of power was legal and his denial was valid.
The court ruling stated: “The then Defense Secretary (Austin) believed that both the American public and the victims’ families have the right to witness the trial process in a military court, and his actions were within legal limits.”
This case has been ongoing for more than 20 years since Mohammed was arrested in 2003, and pre-trial procedures are still ongoing. The families of the victims are clearly divided over this disagreement.
Opponents of the agreement, such as Brett Igelsen (his father was killed in the attack), stated that “the confession agreement will only wrap up and seal the truth, making it forgotten.” He insisted that only a public trial can reveal the facts.
Supporters of the agreement, such as Elizabeth Miller (her father was a firefighter who died in the line of duty), expressed that “it’s already 2025 and even the formal trial hasn’t started,” and expressed opposition to the death penalty, hoping to end the long-term psychological torment.
On September 11, 2001, the United States was attacked by terrorist organizations affiliated with “Al-Qaeda”. The terrorists hijacked four US civilian aircraft. Among them, two crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, one crashed into a corner of the Pentagon in Washington DC, and one crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. No one survived on these four planes. This series of attacks resulted in approximately 3,000 deaths and caused hundreds of billions of dollars in economic losses. Khaled Sheikh Mohammed was accused as the main perpetrator of the terrorist attacks.（By Liu Xiaoqiang）