Former Navy SEAL Rob O'Neill, team leader in the operation that killed Osama bin Laden, told Newsmax on Thursday that the Biden administration's plea deal with accused masterminds of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was "a slap in the face" to every America hero who died that day.
"It came out today as a slap in the face to every hero on 9/11, to everyone that worked at places like Cantor Fitzgerald, the North and South Tower [of the World Trade Center], for the Americans on flight United 93, that fought al-Qaida toe-to-toe to the death, and to the men and women who died in the Pentagon," O'Neill told "Rob Schmitt Tonight." "I mean, the problem is we've proven that 'never forget' is the slogan that's only usually remembered now in lower Manhattan."
The Department of Defense announced Wednesday that three of the five 9/11 defendants being held at Guantanamo Bay had reached a plea agreement with prosecutors. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the attacks, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi will be pleading guilty in exchange for life sentences instead of the death penalty.
O'Neill said the plead deal proves that as a country, "we're good at forgetting. It's a shame."
"This is the deadliest attack in the history of the country, and we're just going to let him go," O'Neill said. "And that just seems like what they want to do. They let him go."
O'Neill said even in "the best case," the accused should have been given solitary confinement for the rest of their lives. Instead, they're going to be at "Camp Gitmo and the Caribbean."
"It's so infuriating," he said.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters during Thursday's briefing "the White House played no role in this process."
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