Judicial Watch Statement on the Biden Administration Plea Deal with 9/11 Terrorists

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton issued the following statement after the revelation that the Biden Defense Department agreed to a plea deal with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and two other top terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba:

Jihadist terrorists and other American enemies are surely celebrating their comrades’ plea deal victory, made possible by the Biden administration’s surrender in court to the men responsible for helping murder nearly 3,000 Americans. America is less safe as a result of this Harris-Biden betrayal.

The Left has been opposing the timely prosecution of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed for years. (Obama tried to shut down Gitmo, for example.) Judicial Watch representatives have been monitoring the proceedings in Gitmo, and our representative is there now as an observer. We can attest based on extensive experience that the process has been a circus from the get-go.

9/11 survivors and families — and all Americans — are rightly outraged by this miscarriage of justice.

Judicial Watch is America’s leading organization of issues related to the 9/11 attacks. As noted above, Judicial Watch is running a longstanding monitoring project of the proceedings against the terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Its representatives have visited the facility at least 80 times to observe the proceedings.

For more than 20 years Judicial Watch has represented Lynn Faulkner, the husband of a 9/11 victim, in litigation now pending in New York federal court seeking to hold defendants accountable including Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and others.

Judicial Watch has compiled the largest collection of government records pertaining to the spiritual leader of the 9/11 hijackers, Anwar al-Awlaki through its investigations and litigation.

In July, Judicial Watch reported that the Transportation Safety Administration, created after 9/11 to protect the nation’s transportation, has no idea how aviation security was affected when it plucked federal air marshals from their duties to help with the Mexican border crisis.

In June 2023, it reported that the U.S. has failed to properly remove millions who overstayed their visas, which at least four of the September 11 hijackers did.

In June 2021, Judicial Watch reported that four “forever prisoners” were released as part of a Biden administration initiative to clear out the top security facility that houses the world’s most dangerous Islamic terrorists, including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

In September 2020, it reported that it took nearly two decades after the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil for every state to finally comply with a federal law requiring minimum security standards for driver’s licenses and identification cards.

In September 2015, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking records of communications between the Office of the Secretary of State and the White House/Executive Office of the President following the capture and slaying of Osama bin Laden.

In June 2004, Judicial Watch submitted to the 9/11 Commission documents that show that Saudi Arabian nationals, including bin Laden family members, were allowed to fly out of the United States immediately following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The documents represent the first admission by the government that the flights occurred at all. Judicial Watch is asking the 9/11 Commission to investigate and reconcile previous contradictory testimony about Saudis being allowed to leave the country.

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