Andy Worthington, closeguantanamo.org
In our latest article, Lloyd Austin Cynically Revokes 9/11 Plea Deals, Which Correctly Concluded That the Use of Torture Is Incompatible With the Pursuit of Justice, our co-founder Andy Worthington examines and condemns the cowardly and vindictive decision by the defense secretary Lloyd Austin to revoke plea deals for three of the men charged in connection with the 9/11 attacks.
Austin’s announcement came just 48 hours after the plea deals were agreed and announced by the commissions’ Convening Authority, Susan Escallier, who was previously the Chief Judge in the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals.The plea deals wisely and practically involved the U.S. government finally abandoning its pursuit of the death penalty in exchange for guilty pleas and the promise of life sentences instead, and were the only viable solution to an intractable problem that began when the men were first charged in 2008, and that has, to date, swallowed up billions of dollars of U.S. taxpayers’ money: how to prosecute capital cases against men whose torture in CIA “black sites” is incompatible with the pursuit of justice.As well as being a snub to the Convening Authority, Lloyd Austin’s decision also appears to have been motivated by fear of a Republican backlash, and, sadly, the Democrats’ own unwillingness to do anything to bring to an end the ceaseless vengeance directed at its torture victims.
Austin’s pulling of rank will be challenged in the courts as a demonstration of the exercise of “undue command influence,” and it is to be hoped that the plea deals will be restored, because otherwise there appears to be no end in sight to the fundamental cruelty of Guantánamo.
As Anthony D. Romero, the executive director of the ACLU, explained in a press release, “By revoking a signed plea agreement, Secretary Austin has prevented a guilty verdict in the most important criminal case of the 21st Century. This rash act also violates the law, and we will challenge it in court.”
Please join our latest monthly coordinated global vigils for Guantánamo’s closure this Wednesday, August 7
To join us in protesting against this latest demonstration of Guantánamo’s ongoing injustice — and also to call for the release of the 16 men who have long been approved for release — please join us this Wednesday, August 7, to mark 18 months of our monthly coordinated global vigils for the prison’s closure, which Andy initiated last February.
Please see below for the poster advertising the vigils — and if there isn’t one listed that is anywhere near you, please feel free to set up your own! Andy’s report about last month’s vigils, with photos, can be found on his website here.
Please support us with a donation if you can
If you can, please support our work throughout this year. To do so, make a donation via PayPal here.
If you can make a regular monthly donation, that would be especially welcome. Please tick the box marked, “Make this a monthly donation,” and fill in the amount you wish to donate every month.
Thanks, as ever, for your interest in our work.
The “Close Guantánamo” team