US Fails to Try 9/11 Mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed After 25 Years
As the U.S. marks 25 years since the 9/11 attacks, the trial of alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed remains stalled. A military judge recently threw out his key FBI confessions due to the legacy of CIA torture.
A Quarter-Century Without Justice
This coming Friday, the United States will mark the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Yet, the American justice system has still failed to deliver a final verdict for the nearly 3,000 victims killed on that day, and the additional 4,300 people who died in the years that followed—mostly first responders who contracted severe illnesses from toxic exposure at Ground Zero.
While Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011, the trial of the man accused of masterminding the deadliest terror attack in history has not even begun, despite his 23 years in custody. The failure to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed stands as the most symbolic breakdown of the U.S. post-9/11 response. Years of detainee torture in CIA "black sites" and indefinite detention at the Guantanamo Bay military prison continue to paralyze the American legal process.
From Capture to Guantanamo
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was 37 or 38 years old when he was captured on March 1, 2003, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, during a joint raid by the CIA and Pakistani security forces. Following his capture, he was held for three and a half years in secret CIA detention facilities worldwide, where he was subjected to severe interrogation tactics, before being transferred in September 2006 to the military detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
His first formal indictment was filed in February 2008, charging him with conspiracy, hijacking, and murder in violation of the laws of war—including 2,977 individual counts of murder for every person killed at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in the Pennsylvania plane crash. The U.S. government also links him to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings, and the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl. If convicted, he faces the death penalty.
The Legal Quagmire of Torture
Military prosecutors based a significant portion of their case on Mohammed's confessions. However, they excluded statements obtained during his time in CIA custody, which included 183 rounds of waterboarding. Instead, the prosecution relied on confessions he made to FBI agents during subsequent interrogations at Guantanamo.
In 2009, the administration of President Barack Obama announced plans to transfer Mohammed to a civilian federal court in New York. Then-Attorney General Eric Holder argued:
"There is no more appropriate venue to put Mohammed on trial than in a courtroom where he will have to look into the eyes of 12 jurors and see that our laws are stronger than anything he tried to destroy."
The decision met fierce political and public opposition, with critics arguing that terrorists should not be tried in civilian courts. Congress subsequently passed legislation blocking funding for the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to U.S. soil, forcing the Obama administration to return the case to the military commission system in 2011.
The Judge's Ruling
The military commission system, built from scratch for post-9/11 detainees, has been plagued by legal instability, high turnover of military judges, and procedural uncertainty. Any ruling by military judges triggers lengthy appeals in U.S. civilian courts, freezing the process for years.
In 2024, Mohammed agreed to a plea deal to plead guilty to most charges in exchange for removing the death penalty, but the deal was subsequently canceled by defense authorities amid political backlash.
Now, even military judges are rejecting the prosecution's core evidence. Last week, military judge Lieutenant Colonel Michael Sharma ruled that Mohammed's 2007 confessions to the FBI at Guantanamo were not given voluntarily, throwing out what prosecutors called the government's most critical evidence. In a 45-page ruling, Sharma wrote that the prosecution failed to prove that Mr. Mohammed's statements to the FBI were voluntary, noting that agents deliberately avoided informing him of his right to remain silent and consult an attorney.
Defense attorneys argued:
"The defendant was effectively conditioned by the CIA through torture and years of isolation to tell FBI agents exactly what they wanted to hear."
Lt. Col. Sharma has set a tentative trial date for June 5, 2028. If the prosecution appeals the exclusion of the confession, that date is expected to be delayed further. Now 60 or 61 years old and facing multiple health issues, it remains uncertain if Mohammed will ever stand trial, leaving aging survivors and victims' families fearing they will never see the case resolved.
