Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt panned the plea deals given to three 9/11 perpetrators this week, telling Newsmax on Friday the decision by the Biden administration is "absolutely disgusting" and an "outrage."
Holt joined retired Army Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer on "The Chris Salcedo Show" to discuss the fallout from the announcement Thursday that accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and accomplices Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi will avoid the death penalty and instead get life sentences in exchange for their guilty pleas.
"It's absolutely disgusting. This should have been dealt with a long time ago," Holt began. "The honesty of 9/11 should be out there for all the American people. I hope the next administration will declassify every single atomic element of 9/11 so that we can all know it together as a nation."
Holt added that this is a pitiful bookend to the Biden administration’s national security record.
"Let's look at what just happened here. So how did this administration begin its national security journey? The failure and breaking faith with allies, partners and veterans on Afghanistan, and still so many that stood by us, trapped," Holt said. "And where do they end their administration? By letting these thugs have a plea deal. It's an outrage."
Shaffer said the plea deals send a "horrible message."
"During the Trump years, Chris, the intent was still to have a trial, to try these folks, to get that measure of justice as best we can for the families and victims. But that has been clearly eradicated by this administration," Shaffer said. "And as Blaine said, this is … the deepest cut you can do to those who have served, to those who have sacrificed, to those who have died, is to essentially neglect the need to actually bring the people who perpetrated this horrific 3,000-person death on 9/11, and that the subsequent deaths after taking Afghanistan to basically throw it all away, to say, Oh, I don't want to have to do the hard work of trying these guys.
"And it's a tragedy and it's something we should not accept. And there needs to be some recourse on this."
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