Tag: 9/11

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US Defence Chief Revokes Plea Deal With Accused 9/11 Masterminds

The US military commission overseeing the cases of five defendants in the September 11 attacks has been stuck in pre-trial hearings and other preliminary court action since 2008.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has overrode a plea agreement reached earlier this week for the accused mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks and two other defendants, reinstating them as death penalty cases, media reported.

The move comes two days after the military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, announced it had reached plea deals with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two accused accomplices, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa Al-Hawsawi, in the attacks, The Arab News reported.

Austin wrote in an order released on Friday night that “in light of the significance of the decision,” he had decided that the authority to decide on accepting the plea agreements was his. He nullified the agreements.

“I have determined that in light of the significance of the decision to enter into pre-trial agreements with the accused… responsibility for such a decision should rest with me,” Austin said in a memorandum addressed to Susan Escallier, who oversaw the case.

“I hereby withdraw from the three pre-trial agreements that you signed on July 31, 2024, in the above-referenced case,” the memo said.

Letters sent to families of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the Al-Qaeda attacks said the plea agreement stipulated the three would serve life sentences.

Some families of the attack’s victims condemned the deal for cutting off any possibility of full trials and possible death penalties.

Republicans were quick to fault the Biden administration for the deal, although the White House said after it was announced it had no knowledge of it, The Arab News reported.

Mohammed and the other defendants had been expected to formally enter their pleas under the deal as soon as next week.

The US military commission overseeing the cases of five defendants in the September 11 attacks has been stuck in pre-trial hearings and other preliminary court action since 2008.

The torture that the defendants underwent while in CIA custody has slowed the cases and left the prospect of full trials and verdicts still uncertain, in part because of the inadmissibility of evidence linked to the torture.

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US Marks 9/11 Anniversary with Over 1,000 Victims Unidentified

The number of 9/11 first responders who have died from Ground Zero-related health complications is nearly equal to the number of first responders who died during the attacks…reports Asian Lite News

Over 1,000 victims remain unidentified as the US marked the 22nd anniversary of 9/11 terrorist attacks.

A commemoration ceremony was held on Monday at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in Lower Manhattan, New York, where the 2,977 people killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks were honored, reports Xinhua news agency.

Days ahead of the anniversary, the identification of two victims — a man and a woman whose names were withheld at the request of their families — from the deadliest terror attack on US soil was announced.

The two new identifications represented the 1,648th and 1,649th persons identified since 2001 using advanced testing by New York City’s DNA Laboratory, according to a statement by the mayor’s office.

They were the first new identifications of World Trade Center victims since September 2021.

However, 1,104 victims – 40 per cent of those who died – remained unidentified, it said.

The number of 9/11 first responders who have died from Ground Zero-related health complications is nearly equal to the number of first responders who died during the attacks.

“When the towers fell on that terrible day, we lost 343 New York City Firefighters… In the years that have followed, over 341 more FDNY members have died from rare cancers and diseases caused by the toxic dust at Ground Zero,” the Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York wrote in a Facebook post on Monday.

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Terrorism failed to shake our belief in freedom: Johnson

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson ’s address to commemorate victims of 9/11 attacks will be played at a memorial event at the Olympic Park in east London today, reports Asian Lite Newsdesk

On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the horrific 9/11 attacks, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the terrorists behind attacks in the United States failed “to shake our belief in freedom and democracy.”

In a message to mark the 20th anniversary, the prime minister said that while the terror threat remained, people refused “to live in permanent fear”, the BBC reported.

“That we are coming together today – in sorrow but also in faith and resolve – demonstrates the failure of terrorism.”

Johnson
A woman mourns the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York, the United States. (Xinhua/Qin Lang/IANS)

On September 11, 2001, the United States faced the deadliest terrorist attack in its history. A total of 2,977 people were killed in the terror attacks. In a span of just 102 minutes, both towers of New York’s World Trade Center collapsed after planes hijacked by Al Qaeda operatives crashed into them.

In the prime minister’s address, which will be played at a memorial event at the Olympic Park in east London on Saturday, he said recent events in Afghanistan had only strengthened people’s belief in freedom and democracy.

“Twenty years ago, September 11 2001 became, in President Roosevelt’s words after Pearl Harbor, a ‘date which will live in infamy’,” the BBC quoted Johnson as saying.

“On a crystal clear morning, terrorists attacked the United States with the simple goal of killing or maiming as many human beings as possible, and by inflicting such bloodshed in the world’s greatest democracy, they tried to destroy the faith of free peoples everywhere in the open societies which terrorists despise and which we cherish.”

He said that “precisely because of the openness and tolerance of the United States” almost every nationality and religion were among those murdered that day, the report quoted Johnson.

“But while the terrorists imposed their burden of grief and suffering, and while the threat persists today, we can now say with the perspective of 20 years that they failed to shake our belief in freedom and democracy; they failed to drive our nations apart, or cause us to abandon our values, or to live in permanent fear,” he added.

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden, on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the horrific 9/11 attacks, commemorated the lives of 2,977 people who lost their lives on the day twenty years ago.

“To the families of 2,977 people from more than 90 nations killed on September 11, 2001, in New York City, Arlington, Virginia and Shanksville, Pennsylvania and a thousand more who were injured. America commemorates you and your loved ones,” Biden said in a video message posted on the Twitter account of the US President.

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during an event at the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua/IANS)

He also said this tragedy highlights how even at our most vulnerable, unity is our greatest strength.

Biden also lauded forces who risked and gave their lives in and after the attacks.

“We honour the firefighters, police officers, EMTs and construction workers, doctors and nurses, faith leaders, service members, and all of the everybody people who gave their all to rescue, recover and rebuild,” he added.

Earlier, the White House informed that Biden and first lady Jill Biden will travel to New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.

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9/11:Biden sets deadline for pullout

US President-Elect Joe Biden

“The United States will begin our final withdrawal, begin it on May 1 of this year,” said Biden…reports Asian Lite News

US President Joe Biden has announced that all US troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan before September 11, a move to end the longest war in American history.

“The United States will begin our final withdrawal, begin it on May 1 of this year,” Biden said on Wednesday in his remarks at the White House, Xinhua news agency reported.

“US troops, as well as forces deployed by our NATO allies and operational partners, will be out of Afghanistan before we mark the 20th anniversary of that heinous attack on September 11th.”

“It is time to end America’s longest war. It is time for American troops to come home,” he said, noting that the US has achieved counterterrorism objectives in Afghanistan.

US troops in Afghanistan.

In his remarks, Biden made clear that the withdrawal is not subject to any changes of conditions on the ground.

“We cannot continue the cycle of extending or expanding our military presence in Afghanistan hoping to create ideal conditions for the withdrawal and expecting a different result,” he said.

“I’m now the fourth United States president to preside over American troop presence in Afghanistan. Two Republicans, two Democrats. I will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth.”

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The upcoming September 11 is the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that drew the United States into war in Afghanistan. Biden said that 2,488 US military personnel were killed, and 20,722 have been wounded in this longest war in American history.

Biden highlighted that the US would continue to support the Afghan government and provide assistance to the Afghan military after the withdrawal. “While we will not stay involved in Afghanistan militarily, our diplomatic and humanitarian work will continue.”

Afghan security force members take part in a military operation in Ghazni province, eastern Afghanistan

Meanwhile, he voiced US support for the peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban facilitated by the United Nations.

Biden spoke with Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani earlier in the day. The two leaders discussed continued commitment to a strong bilateral partnership following the departure of US troops from Afghanistan, according to a readout issued by the White House.

The latest decision extends the deadline negotiated between the previous administration and the Afghan Taliban last year to pull US troops out of the country on May 1.

The United States and the Taliban signed an agreement in late February 2020, which called for a full withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan by May 2021 if the Taliban meets the conditions of the deal, including severing ties with terrorist groups.

The Biden administration had concluded that the Taliban had not met its commitment under the US-Taliban deal.

The Pentagon said that there are roughly 2,500 US troops in Afghanistan, but US media recently said the number did not include 1,000 more US special forces in the country. Besides, about 7,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan rely on US logistics and security support.

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