Pentagon asks court to block 9/11 plea deals

The Justice Department, on behalf of the Pentagon, on Tuesday asked an appeals court to block an effort to enforce plea deals reached with four accused conspirators of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The request was filed in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals by Justice Department (DOJ) lawyers Matthew Olsen, assistant attorney general for national security, and Brian Fletcher, principal deputy solicitor general.

They requested to block a military commission appeals court legal ruling that rejected Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's effort to reverse the plea deals.

The case concerns Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, the alleged mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, and two of his accused conspirators, Walid Bin ‘Attash and Mustafa al Hawsawi, each of whom reached a plea deal agreement for life sentences at the end of July.

Austin revoked the plea deals at the beginning of August, but a military judge ruled that he had no authority to revoke the agreement already reached by the top court authority at Guantanamo Bay, the facility in Cuba where the men are being held.

A military appeals court ruled against Austin again at the end of December.

But in the legal filing Tuesday, Olsen and Fletcher argued that Austin "had clear and indisputable authority to reserve for himself decisions related to pretrial agreement."

"The Secretary has principal statutory and regulatory authority over the military commission process," they wrote.

The DOJ lawyers also disputed the claim that the deals can't be revoked because the defendants were already carrying out the reached agreements, arguing the "Secretary of Defense lawfully withdrew from the pretrial agreements before the respondents had begun performing any of the promises contained in the agreements."