9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and 2 others reach plea deal

Three of the five 9/11 defendants at Guantanamo -- including alleged mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammad -- have reached a plea agreement with prosecutors, the Pentagon announced Wednesday.

The trial of the five 9/11 conspirators had been stuck in legal delays for a very long time. No details about the specific terms and conditions of the pre-trial agreement have been made public. The other two conspirators who have agreed to the agreement aside from Mohammad are Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi.

Last September, ABC News reported that President Joe Biden rejected a set of demands to form a basis for plea negotiations offered by the five defendants.

Biden agreed with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin's recommendation not to accept their demands, known as "joint policy principles," that they wanted prior to entering into plea agreement talks with prosecutors. According to the New York Times, those demands included avoiding solitary confinement and receiving health treatment for injuries the detainees claim were a result of CIA interrogation methods when they were in the CIA's "black prisons."

"The 9/11 attacks were the single worst assault on the United States since Pearl Harbor," a National Security Council spokesperson told ABC News in a statement in September 2023. "The President does not believe that accepting the joint policy principles as a basis for a pre-trial agreement would be appropriate in these circumstances. The Administration is committed to ensuring that the military commissions process is fair and delivers justice to the victims, survivors, families, and those accused of crimes."

The five detainees, including the alleged mastermind behind the attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, were transferred to the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2006. Their case has been held up by legal proceedings for years, with no trial date set.