Plea deals for 9/11 mastermind and two terrorists reinstated by judge

A military judge has said that plea deals sparing the Sept. 11 architect and two other terrorists should be reinstated in a shock ruling. 

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawasawi all agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy charges in exchange for a life sentence earlier this year. 

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin dramatically revoked their deals after widespread outrage over them. 

The order, which hasn't been posted publicly yet, voided the demands of Austin and was first reported by the Associated Press. 

The agreements would spare Mohammed and the others the risk of the death penalty in exchange for guilty pleas in the long-running 9/11 case. 

Government prosecutors had negotiated the deals with defense attorneys under government auspices, and the top official for the military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had approved them. 

Within days of the deals becoming public this summer, Austin issued a brief order saying he was nullifying them. 

Plea bargains in possible death penalty cases tied to one of the gravest crimes ever carried out on U.S. soil were a momentous step that should only be decided by the defense secretary, Austin said at the time. 

The Pentagon is reviewing the judge's decision and had no immediate further comment, said Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary. 

All three men have been in US custody at Guantanamo Bay since the early 2000s. Mohammed, an al Qaeda militant, has been accused of being the principal architect of the attacks. 

The families of victims of 9/11 said they were 'deeply troubled' after learning of the deals earlier this year. 

'We are deeply troubled by these plea deals. While we acknowledge the decision to avoid the death penalty, our primary concern remains access to these individuals for information,' said 9/11 Justice President Brett Eagleson.

'These plea deals should not perpetuate a system of closed-door agreements, where crucial information is hidden without giving the families of the victims the chance to learn the full truth.'

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The prosecution of the men has been troubled by repeated delays and legal disputes, especially over the legal ramifications of the interrogation under torture that the men initially underwent while in CIA custody. 

The Pentagon and the FBI advised families of the victims last August that the death penalty may have to be taken off the table in the prosecution of the men. 

They were captured at various times and places in 2002 and 2003 and sent to Guantanamo for trial in 2006.

On September 11, 2001, conspirators from al-Qaida seized control of airplanes and hit New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon near Washington.

A fourth plane was headed for Washington but crashed in Pennsylvania after crew members and passengers tried to storm the cockpit.

It was Mohammed who presented the very idea of such an attack on the United States to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. 

Mohammed also received authorization from bin Laden to craft what became the Sept. 11 attacks, the United States' 9/11 Commission concluded.

The other defendants are alleged to have supported the hijackers in various other ways.

Mohammed was captured alongside Hawsawi in March 2003 before being held in CIA prisons until their transfer to Guantanamo in 2006. 

Officially, the casualty count associated with the attacks is numbered at 2,996 - including 2,977 victims and 19 hijackers.