AS THE CLOCK UNWINDS, A DECISION ON THE JAN 6-17 9/11 PTA ENTRIES HEDGES ON THE BALANCE

January 1, 2025

2025 begins by ringing in the New Year with family in the south eastern corner of PA, idoling 100 miles from Andrew’s Air Force Base, after boarding my dog and driving 430 miles from Burlington Vermont. This first box on the calendar finds me checking email periodically for a notice from the Pentagon if my son and I, along with eight other VFMs, will be boarding a flight to Cuba in less than 60 hours.

Why? Because I was selected in a newly installed War Court lottery for a chair in the GTMO gallery for hearings set for January 6th, to witness the guilty plea entry of the planner of the “planes plan” attacks on September 11th, 2001, in which my husband’s body, and my livelihood were spontaneously rendered to dust. It is the only lottery I have ever won.

December 31st, the prosecution (government) filed an appeal to the DoJ to issue a Continuance (delay) for a decision on the plea entries until Jan. 27th. This action follows the plan laid out by prosecution during the final week of hearings November 11-15th, when the Military Judge reinstated the Pre-Trial Agreements (PTAs), ruling that Secretary of Defense (SoD) Lloyd Austin’s August 2nd revocation of the plea deals signed by three of 9/11 detainees on July 31st, was both untimely and unlawful influence by Congress (as he’d assigned this authority to the Convening Authority, BG Susan Escallier). November 25th, SoD Austin reacted by stripping the CA from all three terrorism cases at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base assigning himself as the sole arbiter of plea deals during the waning days of the Biden administration. Following the Military Judge’s December 13th docketing order for entry of the PTAs beginning Jan. 6th, the prosecution called on the the U.S. Court of Military Commission Review board (CMCR) to provide a ruling on the matter. Anticipating the outcome of this ruling, the prosecution prepared an appeal for a continuance. Family members present for the Military Judge’s ruling on November 12th, were briefed by the prosecution of their planned course of action to file a Writ of Mandamus/prohibition with the CMCR followed by an appeal to the DoJ for a continuance and possibly an emergency Stay until at least Jan. 27th in order to buy more time to pursue further review in the D.C. Circuit Court. As the clock unwinds, a decision on the scheduled Jan 6-17 PTA entries in the Military Court hedges on the balance.

Below is a current timeline of the PTA seesaw.

December 30th: The CMCR denies the government’s petition (writ) to vacate the military judge’s ruling regarding the pretrial agreements. This puts the PTAs back on track for guilty plea hearings. The CMCR agrees with the Military Judge that the secretary of defense did not have the authority to revoke the accused’s existing PTAs because the accused had started performance of the PTA’s. They did, however, rule that the SoD has the authority as the principal assistant to the president in all matters relative to the Department of Defense to appoint himself as a convening authority for the PTAs. “He is the superior Convening Authority.”

December 24th: The proseution requests postponement of KSM‘s plea hearing until after January 27th — for time to consult with the department of justice lawyers to seek modification of the PTAs at the federal appeal circuit court.

December 16th: The prosecution submits a reply prohibition brief in support of its mandamus to the CMCR.

December 13th: The Military Judge, AF Lt Col Matthew N. McCall, issues his docketing order which indicated that the Pre-Trial Agreement court proceedings regarding Khalid Shaikh Mohammad (KSM) will occur during the first week of the session (6-10 January 2025) and that an additional scheduling order regarding the specific dates for Walid bin ‘Attash (WBS) and Mustafa al Hawsawi (MAH) will follow. 

November 26: In response to the government’s/prosecution’s request, the CMCR assigns a panel of judges to address the prosecution’s request for expediting a briefing on the petition of the mandamus to advise on the military judge’s rulings in order to delay the January 6th PTA entries.

November 25th: SoD Lloyd Austin removes the CA, Susan Escallier, from all three terrorism cases at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center, assigning himself as the sole arbiter of plea deals. The cases: 9/11, U.S.S. Cole bombing, Bali nightclub bombings.

November 12th: The Military Judge Lt Col Matthew McCall, announces that the weeks of January 6th and 13th will be set for entering the PTAs; for KSM in the first week and for MAH and WBA in the second week. Travel orders to GTMO for council and staff are set into motion.

November 10th: The Military Judge grants the government’s/ prosecution’s motion to seek postponement of any pleas under the pretrial agreements so that the government has the opportunity to challenge the Commission’s ruling on the pretrial agreements before the U.S. Court of Military Commission Review (CMCR) appellate court.  

November 6th: The Military Judge rules on the pre-trial agreements (PTA’s) for the three defendants announcing his ruling to void Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s memorandum, stating he did not withhold authority already given to and exercised by the CA, to rescind the PTAs ex post facto. He does not have the legal authority to withdraw the three pre-trial plea agreements reached with Khalid Shaikh Mohammad (KSM), Walid Mohammad Salih Mubarek Bin ‘Attash (MBA), and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi (MAH), which had been approved by the Convening Authority, Brig. Gen (Ret.) Susan Escallier, on July 31, 2024. The PTAs are reinstated, and the pre-trial hearing phases for the three defendants will end upon their guilty pleas being entered to the court at a date to be set by the Judge.

August 2: SoD Lloyd J. Austin III revokes the PTAs reinstating it as a death penalty case. The CA, BG Susan K. Escallier, senior Defense Department official, is relieved of her oversight of the case, leaving her on the other two Military Commisions cases (U.S.S. Cole & Bali nightclub bombings). The SoD assumes direct oversight of the 9/11 case.

August 1: Senator John Cotton (R-Ark) introduces a bill, “ Justice for 9/11 act”; 1. The plea agreements and judgments “do not preclude trials.” 2. Sentencing of death shall be available. 3. Confinement shall be at the U.S. Naval Base Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in solitary confinement; no psychiatric treatment; no transfer to the continental U.S.

August 1: Lead prosecutor, Clay Trivett, formally notifies the military judge that an agreement was reached, and both sides were eager to move forward with entering plea agreements (PTAs) to the court. The military judge seals the PTAs until next year when a jury is empanelled.

July 31: Ms. Escallier approves a prosecution plea deal with the man accused of masterminding the September 11th plot with KSM and two other defendants. In exchange for pleading guilty, they would serve life in prison instead of someday possibly facing a death sentence.

July 29 and 30, 2024: The prosecution/government, and the accused, signed stipulations of fact, and the accused sign PTAs.

October 8, 2023: Susan Escallier is formally appointed as the Convening Authority for the accused in the Military Court.

September 4, 2023: Congress denies consent for the terms of the proposed PTA’s. This recommendation is made by the secretary of defense Lloyd Austin III, with no rationale. Chief government prosecutor Rear Adm Aaron Rugh and his prosecution team state that “a guilty plea achieves judicial finality” because a guilty plea nullifies the right to appeal.

August 1, 2023: A letter sent by the prosecution to notify of plans to meet with and inform VFMs states, “a guilty plea is conclusive evidence of guilt.”

March 15, 2022: The prosecution enters PTAs for the accused of the 9/11 attacks, commuting the death penalty, in exchange for guilty pleas and maximizing punishment of life in prison.

February 17, 2018: The Convening Authority, Harvey Rishikof, is severed from the 9/11 case for entering into plea discussions with defense teams. He is accused of “unlawful influence.”

Mid 2017: The Convening Authority, Harvey Rishikof, fails in an effort to secure PTAs with defense teams.

May 5, 2012: Five detainees are arraigned and charged with planning and facilitating the 9/11 attacks.

April, 2012: A Convening Authority is assigned and referred to death penalty charges regarding the detainees accused in the 9/11 attacks.

April 2011: The 9/11 case is sent back to the Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The government’s prosecution team would start afresh under a new Military Commissions system with bans on evidence obtained from cruel treatment, and with enhanced defense rights to counsel.

January 2009: President Obama takes office and immediately suspends the Military Commissions system, issuing an executive order to close the detention center within one year. Later in 2009, President Obama’s administration decides to hold 9/11 trials in the lower Manhattan Federal Court, further delaying proceedings.

December 2008: The five 9/11 defendants state that they want to plead guilty. However, the Military Judge, Army Col Stephen Henley, determines that Ramzi bin al Shibh and Mustafa al Hawsawi could not make decisions about their own cases due to their questionable mental competence.

September-December 2006: KSM, MAH, AAA, RBS, and WBA are transferred from black sites under CIA custody to FBI custody in the detention center at the United States Naval Base Guntanamo Bay, Cuba.

Updates will be added to this post ad tempus — staying the continuous discontinuity of my 9/11 life.

© Deborah Garcia 2025, all rights reserved
Feature Photo by Deborah Garcia – 2024