Defense Department Reaches Plea Deal With Three 9/11 Defendants

Three individuals linked to the September 11 terrorist attacks, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, have reached a plea deal with the United States Department of Defense after being detained at Guantanamo Bay for several years. The attacks, orchestrated by al-Qaeda in 2001, resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people and left many others injured. Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, a former head of al-Qaeda’s propaganda department, is accused of being the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks. He allegedly proposed the idea of hijacking planes and crashing them into U.S. buildings to Osama bin Laden in 1996 and assisted in training some of the hijackers. Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi and Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin’ Attash, the other two defendants, are accused of aiding with financial, travel, and combat training aspects related to the attacks. The specific terms of the plea agreements have not been disclosed publicly by the Department of Defense. The ACLU has stated that Khalid Sheikh Mohammad has agreed to plead guilty in exchange for life imprisonment instead of facing the death penalty. The ACLU believes that this plea deal is the right decision after nearly two decades of legal proceedings. The organization also calls for an end to indefinite detentions and unfair trials at Guantanamo Bay. 9/11 Justice, a group representing survivors and families of victims, expresses concerns about the lack of transparency in the plea deals and calls for more access to the defendants for information to provide closure to those impacted by the attacks. Please rewrite this passage.

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