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WASHINGTON D.C. (WSAU) – In a letter sent to President Biden on Friday, the House Oversight Committee notified him that it would be looking into his administration’s involvement in a plea agreement that spared the two terrorists and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, from execution.
The White House Security Council asserted on Thursday that the president “played no role in the negotiations,” despite House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) writing to Biden that the “timeline” of the negotiations for the plea agreement “falls entirely within your administration,” according to the New York Post.
“You are allowing these terrorists to avoid the death penalty, signaling to our enemies that the United States is reluctant to pursue full justice against those who attack our nation,” Comer said in the letter.
The pre-trial agreements with co-conspirators Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, as well as the mastermind of the al Qaeda attacks that killed 2,976 people and former Osama Bin Laden ally, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, were confirmed by the Office of Military Commissions on Wednesday.
In an interview with the Post, Edgardo Lopez, 57, an ex-NYPD officer and 9/11 first responder, stated that the defendants ought to have received “an automatic death sentence right off the bat.” Lopez developed throat cancer in the years since the attacks and lost a voice cord as a result of an intense course of chemotherapy and radiation.
“I’m an eye for an eye type person,” Lopez added. “If you commit a heinous act, causing the death of not one but about 3,000 people, nah, I don’t think so. They got it easy.”
The US Justice Department “has done a disservice to families who lost loved ones on 9/11, as well as the families of innocent first responders and survivors who have been sickened with cancer in the aftermath,” retired Deputy FDNY Chief Richie Alles, 67, told the Post.
At least 343 members of the FDNY died on September 11, 2001, and many continue to die from illnesses related to the attacks more than two decades later. FDNY Uniformed Firefighters Association President, Andy Ansbro, expressed the union’s “shock and disgust” at the US government’s decision to grant the terror suspects a plea bargain to the Post, saying, “Every month we are losing firefighters to 9/11 illnesses. We are disgusted that they allowed this to happen without seeing this through to executions.”
There are still an estimated 74,000 9/11 survivors living today. According to the most recent data available from the WTC Health Program, 74% of respondents who are enrolled in the program have been diagnosed with at least one physical or mental health condition that is directly related to their exposure to the events of 9/11. This includes 28% of mental health conditions and 20% of cancer.
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