(CBS) On the 21st anniversary of 9/11, CBS News has confirmed that military prosecutors and attorneys for five defendants charged for their roles in the attacks are negotiating potential plea deals that could take the death penalty off the table and keep the detention camp at the military base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, open for the foreseeable future.
Their cases have stalled over access to CIA evidence and, more recently, delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The chief defendant is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-described architect of 9/11. The other four defendants are Ramzi Binalshibh, Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, Walid bin Attash and Ammar al-Baluchi.
The possibility of a plea deal has angered the families of some 9/11 victims, including Debra Burlingame, whose brother, pilot Charles “Chic” Burlingame, was killed when al Qaeda terrorists took over his plane, American Airlines Flight 77, and crashed it into the Pentagon.
