US court rejects plea deal for '9/11 mastermind' Khalil Sheikh Mohammed
Under the deal, families of the 9/11 victims would have been allowed to pose questions to Mohammed, who would be required to "answer their questions fully and truthfully", lawyers said. Relatives of the victims were split on the deal, according to the BBC's US partner CBS News. Those who objected felt a trial was the best path to justice and to uncovering more information about the attacks. Supporters saw it as the best hope for getting some answers and finally closing the painful case.The plea deal was negotiated over two years and approved by military prosecutors and the senior Pentagon official in Guantanamo Bay. Pre-trial hearings have been going on for more than a decade, complicated by questions over whether torture Mohammed and other defendants faced while in US custody taints the evidence.In court with the '9/11 mastermind', two decades after his arrestThe '9/11 mastermind' wants to plead guilty. Why is the US trying to stop him?Following his arrest in Pakistan in 2003, Mohammed spent three years at secret CIA prisons known as "black sites", where he was subjected to simulated drowning, or "waterboarding", 183 times, among other so-called "advanced interrogation techniques" that included sleep deprivation and forced nudity.In July last year, the Biden administration announced it had struck deals with Mohammed and three other co-defendants. But then Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin overruled the agreement two days later, saying he was the sole authority who could enter such an agreement. A military court ruled against Austin's effort in December, which put the agreement to avoid the death penalty back on the table. On Friday, the appeals court tossed the deal, saying Austin was acting within his authority in December 2024. "Having properly assumed the convening authority, the Secretary determined that the 'families and the American public deserve the opportunity to see military commission trials carried out.' The Secretary acted within the bounds of his legal authority, and we decline to second-guess his judgment," judges Patricia Millett and Neomi Rao wrote, as reported by the Associated Press. Judge Robert Wilkins disagreed, saying the government "has not come within a country mile of proving clearly and indisputably that the Military Judge erred."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
29 minutes ago
- The Guardian
With Trump wreaking havoc, a question for the US Democrats: when will you ever learn?
Nothing is more insufferable than someone saying 'I told you so'; so please forgive me for being insufferable. On 29 September 2023, after a couple of months spent in the US, I published a column that was well summarised in its Guardian headline: 'Unless Joe Biden stands aside, the world must prepare for President Trump 2.0'. We can never definitely say 'what would have happened if …?', but there's a very good chance that had Biden cleared the way for a Democratic primary in autumn 2023 the strongest candidate could have defeated Trump. The entire world would have been spared the disaster now unfolding. 'No use crying over spilt milk,' you may say. Yes, but it's always worth learning lessons for the future. I'm back in the US now, and a recent poll for the Wall Street Journal found that 63% of voters hold an unfavourable view of the Democratic party. To put it mildly, the Democrats have a way to go. So what, given all that is happening and everything we now know, are the right lessons? The point of mentioning my old column is not to boast of some special insider insight into Washington high politics; the point is precisely that I had none. It was just obviously crazy to put up a visibly old and frail candidate who would be 86 years old by the end of his second term. For comparison, the leaders of the Soviet Union who we think of as the epitome of decrepit gerontocracy were, at their respective moments of unlamented demise, 75 (Leonid Brezhnev), 69 (Yuri Andropov) and 73 (Konstantin Chernenko). It required no special knowledge to see this and most Americans already did. By the time I wrote my column, an opinion poll had found that 77% of Americans thought Biden was too old to be president for another four years. It was only the political insiders, the liberal commentariat, the Democratic establishment, who went on agreeing with the president, his family and what was (you couldn't make this up) actually known informally as the 'politburo' of his closest advisers that he was the only man for the job. In their recent, much noticed book, Original Sin, two leading Washington journalists, CNN's Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson of Axios, argue that there was, as their subtitle suggests, a cover up. Biden's family and the politburo tried to hide his precipitate cognitive decline, confining most of his meetings to between 10am and 4pm. Even cabinet members did not see him up close for many months and in-depth media interviews were as rare as a Pride parade in the Vatican. The authors generously apportion blame to the president, his wife, other family members and his closest advisers, but there's one set of people they curiously spare: themselves and their fellow Washington insider journalists. Now, I haven't gone back over all their reporting on CNN and Axios, and there are certainly some pieces that should be cited to defend their journalistic record. But there is no doubt that American political journalists in general, and the liberal commentariat in particular, were slow and late to say what most 'ordinary' Americans had long since seen. Why? The New York Times writer Ezra Klein digs into this in an episode of his excellent podcast. Frankly acknowledging that his own February 2024 call for Biden to stand aside was 'late', Klein explores in conversation with Tapper why most others were even later. The answer seems to be a mix of ingredients: journalistic fear of losing access; the vindictive tribalism of the Democratic establishment; deference to an imperial presidency; fear of Donald Trump; worry about Kamala Harris as the presumptive alternative candidate. Fear of losing access is a professional disease of journalism. 'You felt like you were destroying all of your relationships with the White House all at once,' says Klein, recalling his February 2024 demarche. 'Yes, not just with the White House but the Democratic party,' adds Tapper. My own September 2023 notebook sums up a private conversation with a Washington-based columnist: 'Yes, Biden should stand aside. He [the columnist] can't say it.' (My note continues: 'Jill Biden could, but she likes it.') I know, also from other sources, just how threatening the Democratic establishment could be when trying to close down any questioning of Biden's fitness to serve a second term. Even in the critical articles that did appear in US media there was a kind of residual deference to the presidency, almost as though they were asking a king to abdicate rather than just another politician to stand aside. Partly this stems from the 237-year-old US constitutional device of rolling your prime minister and monarch into one. In Britain, we confine our residual deference to the monarch while the prime minister gets roasted every Wednesday at prime minister's questions in the House of Commons. Someone in Biden's 2023 state of dotage wouldn't have survived two weeks in Westminster. Then there's the fact that people were already panicking about Trump and it was somehow thought, especially after Democratic successes in the 2022 midterm elections, that Biden was the only guy to beat him. The more so since the presumptive alternative was Harris, who was seen as a relatively weak candidate. And so, for fear of getting Harris and then Trump, they got Harris and then Trump. Some lessons, then, are clear. Tapper and Thompson open their book with a quotation from George Orwell: 'To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle.' But Orwell also calls on us always to say what we do see, even if – no, especially if – it's uncomfortable for our own side. There's the double test for journalists: see it and say it. For the Democratic establishment: don't try to intimidate the media into self-censorship with the argument that they are giving succour to the enemy. You would have been better served by journalists just doing their job, in the spirit of Orwell. Then: change out your old guard. Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Democratic caucus in the Senate, is older than Chernenko and rapidly catching up on Brezhnev. Oh yes, and simply listen to the people you're meant to represent. The tragedy of this whole story is that the Democrats have a profusion of talent in younger generations – from Pete Buttigieg, Josh Shapiro, Gretchen Whitmer and Gavin Newsom to New York's new star, Zohran Mamdani. They don't yet have the shared platform that could win a presidential election, but thinkers such as Klein and Derek Thompson, co-authors of Abundance, the other book of the moment, are already working up some good ideas. The Democrats can probably swing the House of Representatives in the midterm elections next year with a few fresh faces – and by focusing on the already visible negative consequences of Trump for working- and middle-class Americans. But by 2027, in the run-up to the next presidential election, they will need everything they so spectacularly failed to produce in 2023. Timothy Garton Ash is a historian, political writer and Guardian columnist
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
German finance minister to push for steel quotas on Washington trip
BERLIN, Aug 4 (Reuters) - German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil will advocate for a quota system on steel exports to be included in the EU's trade deal with the United States at a meeting with his U.S. counterpart, Scott Bessent, later on Monday, he told a radio broadcaster. "There is talk of a quota system for steel, and it would be good if there were one," Klingbeil told Deutschlandfunk radio on Monday before his planned meeting in Washington. There are a number of chapters that have not yet been finalised in the trade deal struck, said Klingbeil, and steel is a particularly important issue for the German economy and jobs. "I will test out what steps the American government is prepared to take and what the solution might look like," said Klingbeil, even though the EU is responsible for negotiations. The EU's trade deal with Trump in July was greeted with a mix of relief and anger, with tariffs set at 15% for most products but negotiations continuing for certain sectors, including steel and aluminium, which carry tariffs of 50%. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had said on Friday the EU will negotiate with the United States on steel, with a focus on quotas that can be exported without too high tariffs. Klingbeil also urged quick clarification of other outstanding details in the trade dispute, including the investments promised by the EU and in the energy sector. "It should happen in the next few days," he said.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Teen learns his fate after accidentally shooting 10-year-old cousin while playing with a gun
A Wisconsin teenager has been sentenced to a decade behind bars after recklessly firing a gun that killed his 10-year-old cousin while she slept. Javier Rodriguez, now 19, was handed a 10-year prison stretch on Thursday, with credit for just under 14 months already served in custody, after admitting to killing his cousin last year. He pleaded guilty in June to second-degree reckless homicide in the May 2024 death of Isdennyeliz Ortiz, a 'bright and bubbly' fourth-grader who had just celebrated her 10th birthday weeks earlier. Following his release, Rodriguez will spend an additional eight years under supervised release, a Milwaukee County judge ruled. The tragedy unfolded shortly after 12:40am on May 31, 2024, inside a three-story home in Milwaukee where several generations of the same family lived. Isdennyeliz, affectionately known as 'Issey' to family and friends, was asleep in her mother's bed with her baby brother by her side when the bullet struck her in the chest. The round had pierced through the floor and ceiling above, where police say Rodriguez had been recklessly handling a firearm on the upper level. According to a criminal complaint, Rodriguez ran down the stairs in a panic telling the girl's mother, 'It's my fault. I'm sorry. Please forgive me.' Her 14-year-old sister later told investigators that Rodriguez repeated the same words in a panic, 'I'm sorry. It's my fault. I did it.' Her mother turned on the light, only to see her daughter bleeding and unresponsive, and a fresh bullet hole in the ceiling above her. The child died before paramedics could arrive on the scene. Rodriguez, who was 18 at the time, fled the home before police arrived but was identified on home surveillance footage and arrested days later. Security footage showed him carrying what police described as a 'tan firearm' while wearing a blue rubber glove, just before a loud bang was captured by the camera's audio. Court documents also revealed Rodriguez had fired a gun in the home once before, a month prior, although no one was injured on that occasion. Investigators recovered a small arsenal of firearms from a closet, including three loaded pistols, a drum magazine, and several boxes of ammunition. 'Now we have a family whose 10-year-old daughter is not here,' said Marty Calderon to TMJ4. Calderon is a local activist with Milwaukee's Promise Keepers, a group that responded to the family after the shooting. 'How much more do we have to keep telling people - leave guns alone,' Calderon added. The emotional weight of the sentencing was felt throughout the courtroom. Although prosecutors did not allege Rodriguez intended to kill his cousin, they argued that his reckless behavior proved fatal. Isdennyeliz Ortiz was described by loved ones as a joyful girl who loved making YouTube videos and playing volleyball. She was looking forward to an upcoming family trip to Wisconsin Dells, her mother said. 'There is no other way to describe this horrific incident other than to say it is utterly unacceptable,' said Milwaukee Alderwoman JoCasta Zamarripa in a statement. 'Far too many young people continue to be impacted by gun violence across our city. These gun-related incidents are wholly preventable, and we must do better to stop them.' According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Homicide Database, youth homicide victims are tragically common in the city: 12% of homicide victims in 2024 were between between 10 and 17 years old. 'We have to give people the knowledge of how to safely handle a gun, how to safely protect yourself,' said Teneen Rucker with the nonprofit Safe and Sound, which plans to host a gun violence awareness event later this summer. 'This can't keep happening.' Rodriguez had faced a potential 25-year sentence before agreeing to a plea deal in June. In court, he showed remorse and accepted responsibility for his actions but the sentence, family members say can never bring back the child they lost. As part of the judge's ruling, Rodriguez is prohibited from owning or possessing firearms for the rest of his life.
