A chorus of prominent military veterans on Thursday castigated the recent plea deal that the Biden-Harris administration locked down with the accused Sept. 11 terror attack mastermind and two other terrorists detained at Guantánamo Bay, sparing them from the death penalty.
For many who served overseas in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the plea deal is a stinging blow – especially as it comes under the same presidential administration that botched the 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“It’s sickening that the people who planned and funded the attacks on 9/11 received a plea deal. They were the catalysts for the War on Terror,” Kate Monroe, who served as a marine and is the CEO of VetComm, an organization that helps disabled veterans, told The Post.
“As someone who works with thousands of our nation’s veterans, I witness the devastating physical and mental injuries they endure daily, many stemming from this very war,” she lamented. “This plea deal feels like a slap in the face to these veterans, who sacrificed so much and now feel their efforts were in vain.”
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged architect of the attack that killed 2,976, as well as co-conspirators, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, agreed Wednesday to plead guilty to the spate of charges against them in exchange for removing the death penalty.
The White House distanced itself from the move, claiming to have only learned about the plea deal Wednesday. A National Security Council official told The Post that President Biden played “no role in this process.”
Monroe underscored how scores of veterans have “lost time, limbs, and friends, while at war” due to the war caused by the 9/11 masterminds – and emphasized that the nation still loses “between 20-30 veterans a day” to post-traumatic stress disorder-related suicides.
“This decision to make a plea deal, on top of the terrible Afghanistan withdrawal, just doubles down on the resentment the veteran community has on the Biden/Harris administration,” she said. “Making this deal with terrorists will severely impact the already fragile psyche of millions of our nation’s heroes.”
Scott Mann, a former Green Beret and veteran PTSD advocate, similarly decried the development as a “slap in the face to every veteran and military family member who fought in the global war on terror.”
Mann created Task Force Pineapple, which brought together military veterans who wanted to help Afghan allies escape Kabul after it fell to the Taliban two weeks before the last US troops left Afghanistan on Aug. 30, 2021.
“It is pure kerosene, added to the fire of an already raging moral injury, and every institutional leader in the US government who participated in this plea-bargain should be ashamed of themselves at the betrayal that they have heaped upon the thousands of victims of 9/11, and the warfighters who defended this nation following the heinous attack (Mohammed) planned,” he told The Post.
Chad Robichaux, a Marine who founded The Mighty Oaks Foundation and helped spearhead one of the largest private rescue operations out of Afghanistan in 2021, called for a release of the specific plea deals, which prosecutors on Thursday asked the court to seal.
“The families of the victims of 9/11 and the American people have a right to know without delay what type of agreement our government conceded for one of the most evil acts against in American history,” he said.
Shawn Ryan, a former Navy Seal and CIA Contractor who hosts his own podcast, contended that the plea deal wasn’t made in the interest of the American public.
“The US negotiating a plea deal with the mastermind of 9/11 is something I never thought I’d see. Makes you wonder if the decision was made solely to instigate a future war because it certainly wasn’t in the best interest of the American people or our safety,” he said.
Rob O’Neill, the Navy Seal who is credited with killing Osama Bin Laden, lambasted the plea deal and argued that the trio should’ve been executed years ago, adding that he would’ve been eager to do it “personally.”
“The White House is also quick to say that the president had nothing to do with this, just like he really has nothing to do with anything,” he told the DailyMail. “These three terrorists are culpable for the worst attack in US history and will now be living the remainder of their worthless lives.”
“The attorneys representing them are detestable and the prosecutors are weak. Families of the fallen have waited 23 years for the proper verdict and are, again, let down by our flawed system,” he added.
Thomas Sullivan, who serves in the Army Reserve and is vying for the New York State Assembly in District 23, also bemoaned the development.
“As a 9/11 Survivor, Veteran and someone who lost many friends and coworkers, I am deeply disheartened that a plea agreement was agreed to with the terrorist masterminds of 9/11,” he posted on X.
“The United States should never make deals with terrorists. The full details of the plea agreement should be made public before it is finalized. We must continue to pray for the Victims, and Families of 9/11, and Never Forget,” he added.
Mohammed, bin Attash and al-Hawsawi have been held prisoner at Guantánamo Bay off the coast of Cuba since 2003.
All three men stand accused of giving financial support, training, and other assistance to the 19 terrorists who hijacked planes and rammed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Shanksville, Pa.
Complicating their case has been the government’s alleged use of torture against them in CIA black sites to wring critical information out of them during the battle to take down Al-Qaeda.
Defense attorneys and prosecutors quarreled for years over the extent to which information extracted via those methods could be used in court.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre affirmed Thursday that closing the Guantánamo Bay prison facility is “still something that the president wants to do,” though she didn’t have any more details to provide.
The deal was reached between the Convening Authority for Military Commissions and the trio’s defense attorneys.