Family members of Sept. 11 victims slammed a December 2024 court ruling that effectively clears the way for three 9/11 terrorists detained at Guantanamo Bay to avoid the death penalty.
On the Biden administration’s watch, a military judge approved the plea deals for the three terrorists — including suspected 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — in July before Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin intervened to nix the agreements days later. On Monday, an appellate court affirmed an earlier ruling blocking Austin’s intervention on the grounds that he was too late and acting beyond his authority in vacating the deals, putting them back on the table and frustrating family members of victims in the worst terror attack in U.S. history.
Specifically, the deals would take the death penalty off the table in exchange for the three Guantanamo Bay prisoners pleading guilty to war crimes charges. The detainees that would be covered by the deals include Mohammed, widely believed to be the mastermind behind the attacks, Walid bin Attash — who is accused of training and assisting hijackers in advance — and Mustafa al Hawsawi, who is suspected of providing financial and logistical support to some of the 9/11 hijackers.
Joe Connor, who lost his cousin Steve Schlag on 9/11 decades after his father was killed by Puerto Rican terrorists, said that the back-and-forth nature of the proceedings is adding even more emotional weight to a difficult and sensitive situation.
“This back and forth is agonizing for families. The terrorists and now the U.S. government have sentenced the family members to life; a life of endless uncertainty and anxiety. Will we ever see justice for cousin Steve Schlag and 3,000 others?” Connor told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Our family again feels betrayed for Steve and all the 9/11 victims by our government who had a confession to the capital punishment crimes years ago from these mass murderers and now again will allow them to avoid the death penalty … It’s sickening, our family has never gotten justice for Steve Schlag and Frank Connor; for the families feels like justice is ‘just us.’”
Helen Quinn lost her husband, Michael, years after Sept. 11. Michael was a hardworking electrician who spent more than two years working at Ground Zero on the massive post-9/11 cleanup effort, eventually succumbing from kidney disease she says he developed due to the toxic fumes and particles that workers like her husband were exposed to as they labored in the area of the collapsed towers.
“I think the consensus is, yeah, these guys should definitely be held accountable, for sure. It’s not just the lives they took that day. There have been so many more since it happened, and it’s still going on,” Quinn told the DCNF. “It’s kids losing their parents and divorces, because people can’t deal with being a caretaker, it’s people dying slowly of terrible diseases many years later. It’s a snowball effect, and it’s been going on for 20-something years. I think that it would be very unfortunate if they’re going to give these people a plea deal, I think that would be pretty terrible.”
“It’s a real slap in the face if these guys get off without being brought to justice, and especially if it’s just because of some red tape,” Quinn added.
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