Accused 9/11 Mastermind Agrees to Use of Disputed Confession for Life Sentence

Politics|Accused 9/11 Mastermind Agrees to Use of Disputed Confession for Life Sentence

The man accused of being the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, has agreed to let government prosecutors use portions of a 2007 confession that he says were obtained through his torture at any future sentencing trial if his case is settled with a life sentence.

Defense lawyers have been trying for years to have those confessions excluded from the death-penalty trial against Mr. Mohammed and three other men accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001. The lawyers had argued that he was conditioned to answer his captors’ questions in a secret C.I.A. prison network where he was waterboarded, beaten and subjected to rectal abuse.

But an excerpt from his plea deal that was released by a federal court over the weekend shows that Mr. Mohammed agreed that prosecutors can use certain portions of his disputed confessions against him at a sentencing trial — if he is allowed to plead guilty.

That deal is in the midst of a heated political and legal controversy that is spilling over into the Trump administration.

On July 31, after more than a decade of litigation, a senior Pentagon appointee signed separate agreements with Mr. Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi to settle their capital case in exchange for their giving up the right to appeal their convictions and challenge certain evidence. Those deals were submitted to a military judge, under seal.

Then, two days later, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III moved to withdraw from the deals. He retroactively stripped his appointee, Susan K. Escallier, a retired Army lawyer, of the authority to reach the deal and said he wanted the men to face trial.