Majid Khan’s sentencing hearing in October of 2021 produced a sea change in the Guantanamo military commissions. These proceedings include the pre-trial hearings of the five men accused of plotting and supporting the 9/11 attacks, which have hopelessly faltered after the Obama Administration failed to end them and move trials to federal courts.
Mr. Khan was the first “high-value detainee” held at Guantanamo to settle a case in the military commissions through a plea agreement. At his sentencing he was allowed to speak publicly about his torture. The jury of senior military officers who sentenced him were outraged by Khan’s torture and issued a statement supporting clemency.
These developments were recounted during the Senate Judiciary Hearing on December 7, 2021, “Closing Guantanamo: Ending 20 Years of Injustice,” which included testimony from Colleen Kelly, a co-founder of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows that detailed the failure of the 9/11 military commission to deliver justice to the families whose relatives were killed in the 9/11 attacks.
Peaceful Tomorrows has supported plea agreements in the 9/11 military commission at Guantanamo since 2017, when five years after the arraignment of Khalid Sheik Mohammad and four other men accused of planning and supporting the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it became clear to Peaceful Tomorrows’ members that no trial would ever take place. The principal obstacle was the interminable litigation over what evidence the government would declassify and allow to be presented in the courtroom.
The prosecution repeatedly blocked defense motions to allow more information about the defendants’ “enhanced interrogation” at CIA black sites. The defense persistently pursued more details about their interrogation by the CIA and later the FBI, in an effort to demonstrate that statements the defendants had made about their activities was inadmissible because they were obtained through torture. Despite the clear failure to progress beyond pre-trial litigation, the 9/11 case ground on for another five years until 2022.
Now as Peaceful Tomorrows argues in its amicus brief in support of Majid Khan, Khan MUST be released so that other cases can be similarly resolved. On March 1, 2022, Khan had served his sentence. If the 9/11 defendants and the other men charged in the Guantanamo military commissions are also going to cooperate, the government must honor Khan’s plea agreement.
Peaceful Tomorrows’ brief states: “The government’s failure to transfer [Majid Khan] and abide by the terms of its plea bargain with [Khan}—in a case likely to be closely watched by the 9/11 Defendants, their defense counsel and prosecutors—may dissuade the 9/11 Defendants from pleading guilty, depriving the victims of September 11 (including the members of Peaceful Tomorrow) of the finality, justice and information to which they are entitled.”
Peaceful Tomorrows’ brief concludes: “For two decades Peaceful Tomorrows’ families have waited for answers, information, acceptance of responsibility, and reliable, final convictions pursuant to the rule of law. In that time, many of Peaceful Tomorrows’ members, and other victims’ family members, have passed away never having seen a measure of justice served for the crimes that occurred on September 11, 2001. The government now has a chance—perhaps its last—to resolve the case against the 9/11 Defendants and provide these victims with the justice, finality and information they deserve. The success of that effort depends to a large degree on whether the government will follow through on its commitments and legal obligations.”
Majid Khan’s detention at Guantanamo must end.
