Lawyer for news organizations presses Guantanamo judge to make public a plea deal for 9/11 accused

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Lawyer for news organizations presses Guantanamo judge to make public a plea deal for 9/11 accused

2024-10-12 07:55 Last Updated At：08:00

FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — A lawyer for news organizations urged the U.S. military commission at Guantanamo Bay to unseal the plea deal struck with accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two others, saying the public has a constitutional right and compelling need to follow one of the “most-disputed, debated, argued-about prosecutions that have happened in this country."

The plea agreement was reached in August by the three accused, their U.S. government prosecutors and the Guantanamo commission's top official, but it was abruptly revoked by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin days after it became public. It has become one of the most fiercely debated chapters in more than a decade of military hearings related to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people and triggered long-running U.S. military invasions abroad.

The plea agreement would have spared Mohammed and two co-defendants the risk of the death penalty, in exchange for their guilty pleas in the al-Qaida attacks.

After news of the deal broke, however, top Republican lawmakers denounced it and the White House expressed concerns. Families of the victims variously expressed shock and approval of the plea deal, which was aimed at resolving more than a decade of pre-trial hearings in a legally troubled case for the government.

Austin said in revoking the military commission's approval of the plea bargain that he had decided responsibility for any such grave decision should rest with him as secretary of defense. Mohammed and the two co-defendants have filed challenges, saying Austin's action was illegal and that the actions by the Biden administration, lawmakers and others amounted to undue outside influence in the case.

Seven news organizations — Fox News, NBC, NPR, The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Univision — challenged the sealing of the plea deal.

Friday's hearing highlighted the ad hoc nature of the military commission, which U.S. leaders created to try accused violent extremists in the wake of the 2001 attacks. The lawyers and judge pivoted Friday between civilian and military legal precedents in arguing for and against making terms of the plea agreement public.

The hearing also highlighted the obstacles facing the public, including news organizations, in obtaining information about proceedings against the 9/11 defendants and the few dozen other remaining detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In civilian courts, a plea agreement is traditionally a matter of public record.

Both defense and prosecution lawyers in the case asked the commission judge, Air Force Col. Matthew McCall, to deny the news organizations' request to make the plea deal public.

They argued that allowing the public to know all the terms of the deal that the government struck with defendants Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi could wait. Prosecutors and defense lawyers offered different proposals for how long to wait — until after any rulings on challenges to Austin's overturning of the plea deal, or until after any military sentencing panel is ever seated in the case, or forever.

Prosecutors were concerned about an “oversaturation of information” about the men's willingness to plead guilty tainting any future sentencing panel, lead prosecutor Clay Trivett told McCall.

Defense lawyer Walter Ruiz, representing Hawsawi, said “press gluttony and greed” for profits was driving the news media request to make the terms public. Ruiz criticized news organizations for making the existence of the plea bargain public, and said they were seeking to add to “the very debate they helped to create that impacted this process.”

Lawyer David Schulz, representing the seven news outlets, argued that the Guantanamo court had failed to show any level of threat to the conduct of the 9/11 hearings that warranted hamstringing the public's legal rights to know what courts and the government at large are doing.

“It's just inappropriate to have a knee-jerk reaction and say, ‘Well, we have to keep all this from the press,’ Schulz told McCall. ”Particularly in this context ... of one of the most disputed, debated, argued-about prosecutions that have happened in this country involving ... the most horrendous crime that ever happened on American soil."

“People have a right to know what’s happening here, and they have a right to know now, not two or three years from now, or whatever," Schulz said.

McCall indicated a decision on the motion to unseal could come as soon as November.

Residents slog through flooded streets, clear debris after Hurricane Milton tore through Florida

2024-10-12 07:53 Last Updated At：08:00

LITHIA, Fla. (AP) — Florida residents slogged through flooded streets, gathered up scattered debris and assessed damage to their homes on Friday after Hurricane Milton smashed through coastal communities and spawned a barrage of deadly tornadoes.

At least 10 people were dead, and rescuers were still saving people from swollen rivers, but many expressed relief that Milton wasn’t worse. The hurricane spared densely populated Tampa a direct hit, and the lethal storm surge that scientists feared never materialized.

Gov. Ron DeSantis warned people to not let down their guard, however, citing ongoing safety threats including downed power lines and standing water that could hide dangerous objects.

“We’re now in the period where you have fatalities that are preventable,” DeSantis said. “You have to make the proper decisions and know that there are hazards out there."

About 2.2 million customers remained without power in the state, according to poweroutage.us. St. Petersburg's 260,000 residents were told to boil water before drinking, cooking or brushing their teeth, until at least Monday.

Also Friday, the owner of a major phosphate mine disclosed that pollution spilled into Tampa Bay during the hurricane.

The Mosaic Company said in a statement that heavy rains from the storm overwhelmed a collection system at its Riverview site, pushing excess water out of a manhole and into discharges that lead to the bay. The company said the leak was fixed Thursday.

Mosaic said the spill likely exceeded a 17,500-gallon minimum reporting standard, though it did not provide a figure for what the total volume might have been.

Calls and emails to Mosaic seeking additional information about Riverview and the company’s other Florida mines received no response, as did a voicemail left with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

The state has 25 such stacks containing more than 1 billion tons of phosphogypsum, a solid waste byproduct of the phosphate fertilizer mining industry that contains radium, which decays to form radon gas. Both radium and radon are radioactive and can cause cancer. Phosphogypsum may also contain toxic heavy metals and other carcinogens, such as arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury and nickel.

Florida's vital tourism industry has started to return to normal, meanwhile, as Walt Disney World and other theme parks reopened. The state’s busiest airport, in Orlando, resumed full operations Friday.

Arriving just two weeks after the devastating Hurricane Helene, Milton flooded barrier islands, tore the roof off the Tampa Bay Rays ' baseball stadium and toppled a construction crane.

Crews from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office on Friday were assisting with rescues of people, including a 92-year-old woman, who were stranded in rising waters along the Alafia River. The river is 25 miles (40 kilometers) long and runs from eastern Hillsborough County, east of Tampa, into Tampa Bay.

In Pinellas County, deputies used high-water vehicles to shuttle people back and forth to their homes in a flooded Palm Harbor neighborhood where waters continued to rise.

Ashley Cabrera left with her 18- and 11-year-old sons and their three dogs, Eeyore, Poe and Molly. It was the first time since Milton struck that they had been able to leave the neighborhood, and they were now headed to a hotel in Orlando.

“I’m extremely thankful that we could get out now and go for the weekend somewhere we can get a hot meal and some gas,” Cabrera said. “I thought we’d be able to get out as soon as the storm was over. These roads have never flooded like this in all the years that I’ve lived here.”

Animals were being saved, too. Cindy Evers helped rescue a large pig stuck in high water at a strip mall in Lithia, east of Tampa. She had already rescued a donkey and several goats after the storm.

“I’m high and dry where I’m at, and I have a barn and 9 acres,” Evers said, adding that she will soon start to work to find the animals’ owners.

In the Gulf Coast city of Venice, Milton left behind several feet of sand in some beachfront condos, with one unit nearly filled. A swimming pool was packed full of sand, with only its handrails poking out.

Some warnings were heeded and lessons learned. When 8 feet (2.4 meters) of seawater flooded Punta Gorda during Hurricane Helene last month, 121 people had to be rescued, Mayor Lynne Matthews said. Milton brought at least 5 feet (1.5 meters) of flooding, but rescuers only had to save three people.

“So people listened to the evacuation order,” Matthews said.

Heaps of fruit were scattered across the ground and trees toppled over after both Milton and Hurricane Helene swept through Polk County and other orange-growing regions, Matt Joyner of trade group Florida Citrus Mutual said Friday.

Milton arrived at the start of the orange growing season, so it is still too early to evaluate the full scope of the damage.

Florida has already seen orange production diminish over the years, with the industry still recovering from hurricanes of years past while also waging an ongoing battle against a deadly greening disease. Milton could be the knockout punch for some growers, Joyce said.

In the western coastal city of Clearwater, Kelvin Glenn said it took less than an hour early Thursday for water to rise to his waist inside his apartment. He and seven children, ranging in age from 3 to 16, were trapped in the brown, foul floodwaters for about three hours before an upstairs neighbor opened their home to them.

Later that day, first responders arrived in boats to ferry them away from the building.

“Sitting in that cold, nasty water was kind of bad," Glenn said.

Short-term survival is now turning into long-term worries. A hotel is $160 a night. Everything inside Glenn's apartment is gone. And it can take time to get assistance.

“I ain't going to say we’re homeless,” Glenn said. “But we’ve got to start all over again.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has enough money to deal with the immediate needs of people impacted by Helene and Milton but will need additional funding at some point, FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell said Friday.

The disaster assistance fund helps pay for the swift response to hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and other disasters. Congress recently replenished the fund with $20 billion — the same amount as last year.

Farrington reported from St. Petersburg, Florida. Associated Press journalists Terry Spencer outside of Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Stephany Matat in Fort Pierce, Florida; Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale; Lolita Baldor and Michael Biesecker in Washington; and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed.