Three suspects of September 11, 2001, attacks held for years at Guantanamo Bay in pre-trial detention have reached a plea deal agreement with the United States government, the Pentagon has shared on Wednesday, without sharing further details of the deal. The suspects include the alleged architect of 9/11 attacks Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi. In a press statement, the Depart of Defense has also confirmed that “terms and details of the pretrial agreement” are not public yet.
Mohammed, prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay, a U.S. military prison in Cuba—established in 2002 by the then U.S. President George W. Bush—had been subjected to various torture techniques during his over two decades long detention. In 2008, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had admitted to “waterboarding” Mohammed and two others. A U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee report highlighted that Mohammed was subjected to waterboarding at least 183 times during his interrogation. His defense team had also accused military tribunal officials of destroying evidence in Mohammed’s case by destroying “black sites” which the CIA operated outside the US. Amnesty International and other human rights monitors maintain that Mohammed and other Guantanamo Bay detainees, had previously been subjected to incommunicado detentions and enforced disappearance on the said sites. Mohammed is a Kuwaiti of Pakistani descent.