Defense Secretary Austin revoking plea deals only deepens the grief of 9/11 families | Opinion

On Sept. 11, 2001, I was among thousands of people who learned the devastating news that a member of their extended family — in my case, my nephew — was among the nearly 3,000 people whom terrorists murdered that malevolent day.

We have waited for justice and answers ever since. Last week, we learned the wait might soon end because three of the key architects of the attacks agreed to plead guilty to murder in exchange for not being subject to the death penalty. More than that, the agreement, as I noted on my “Faith Matters” blog, would give 9/11 families like mine the opportunity to hear from the terrorists their explanations of the role they played in this international catastrophe and why they participated in it.

Now all of that — inexplicably — has collapsed. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin quickly revoked the plea deals with the man accused of masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and two accomplices, who are held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Austin’s action was outrageous and will drag out the agony for families like mine even more. The way this whole case has been handled from the beginning — torture for those captured, lack of anything like a fair and swift legal process, military commissions instead of real courts — has been an embarrassment to the United States and a way of adding to the agony of grieving families.

Through an organization called September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, my sister and her husband, parents of my nephew Karleton Fyfe, and I have been kept up to date on developments as the group continues to work for a more peaceful future. Among other things, we’ve been able to learn from defense attorneys representing the 9/11 defendants what they’re doing and why they’re doing it.

But Secretary Austin’s recent action blindsided them just as it shocked Peaceful Tomorrows members. And no one knows what’s next.

Graeme Wood, a staff writer at The Atlantic, said it well in a recent piece: Austin’s intervention was “one of the most bizarre and inexplicable decisions since the commissions’ bizarre and inexplicable inception.”

If Austin doesn’t change his mind and accept the plea deals as negotiated over years and years, the result, Wood wrote, will be that “the pointless sacrifice of money and time will continue.”

In effect, the prisoners are staying alive without having to plead guilty to anything as long as this plea agreement is set aside. It’s ridiculous, painful and shameful. In fact, as long as all of this is dead in the water, the only thing continuing is the anguish for families and the national shame that is the prison at Guantanamo.

There are two 9/11 Gitmo prisoners in addition to the three who agreed to the plea deal. One is considered so mentally and physically damaged (by torture and other mistreatment) as to be unable to understand what a plea deal might be. The other continues to negotiate for a deal that might have been wrapped into the now-canceled deal, or that could become a separate deal.

As you can see, following this case has been like watching a demolition derby revved up to fast-forward speed, except that it has rarely moved forward at all and certainly never quickly.

What I find especially frustrating is that it now looks as if none of the questions I’ve already submitted as possibilities to ask Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other two defendants may never get asked. Knowing that other 9/11 family members probably would ask about whether the terrorists had support from the government of Saudi Arabia (most of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudis), I focused instead on such questions as:

• If you believed that your actions were sanctioned in some way by Islam, how did you draw that conclusion — a conclusion I, a Christian, reject as an insult to Islam?
• Have you changed your mind about whether your 9/11 actions were in harmony with Islamic teaching? If so, do you now regret that you misused Islam so horrifically?

So Austin and President Joe Biden have some explaining to do about all of this. If things stand as they are now, the likelihood of 9/11 families getting anything like justice is zero. And we deserve so much more than that.

Bill Tammeus, a former Kansas City Star columnist, now writes for Flatland, KCPT-TV’s digital magazine. His latest book is “Love, Loss and Endurance: A 9-11 Story of Resilience and Hope in an Age of Anxiety.” Email him at wtammeus@gmail.com