Plea Offers to 9/11 Plotters Send 'Very Dangerous Message'

With the government still seemingly nowhere close to a trial for the 5 defendants accused in the 9/11 terror attacks 22 years ago — and the recent revelation that prosecutors offered the men a plea deal that would spare them the death penalty — counterterror experts say it's clear that "an incompetent government bureaucracy" repeatedly has bungled the case and denied "justice for their own citizens."

It emerged last month that in March 2022 the U.S. had offered suspected mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other defendants a deal under which they would "accept criminal responsibility for their actions and plead guilty … in exchange for not receiving the death penalty."