Nearly 25 years after the attacks that killed almost 3,000 Americans, another ruling raises questions about whether the accused conspirators will ever face trial.
By Lucretia Hughes Klucken
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — A military judge has thrown out confessions made by the fourth remaining defendant accused of participating in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, delivering another significant setback to federal prosecutors in one of the longest-running terrorism cases in American history.
Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Schrama ruled Wednesday that statements made by Walid bin Attash to federal investigators could not be introduced as evidence because the government failed to establish that the confessions were voluntary.
Bin Attash is accused of helping train two of the hijackers involved in the coordinated al-Qaida attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center towers, damaged the Pentagon and brought down United Airlines Flight 93 in Pennsylvania.
The ruling marks the fifth time military judges have rejected confessions obtained through a controversial interrogation process developed after the defendants were transferred from secret CIA detention facilities to Guantanamo Bay.
With Wednesday’s decision, the government has now lost its efforts to introduce the disputed FBI confessions of all four remaining defendants.
Confessions Ruled Inadmissible After Years of CIA Interrogations
The controversy centers on what federal officials described as a clean-team interrogation program.
Following the Sept. 11 attacks, the CIA captured and detained suspected al-Qaida operatives at secret overseas facilities, where prisoners were subjected to interrogation techniques that included physical and psychological coercion.
By 2006, several high-value detainees had been transferred to the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.
Recognizing that earlier statements obtained through CIA interrogations could face serious legal challenges, the George W. Bush administration developed a process in which FBI agents questioned prisoners separately.
The objective was to obtain new statements that prosecutors could introduce in military court without relying directly on the earlier CIA interrogations.
But defense attorneys argued that the coercive conditions of the prisoners’ previous detention continued to influence their statements, making the subsequent confessions involuntary.
Military judges have repeatedly agreed.
In Wednesday’s ruling, Schrama determined that federal agents failed to adequately inform bin Attash that statements previously extracted during CIA interrogations could not be used against him.
The judge also examined interrogation techniques involving food and other incentives, finding similarities to methods previously employed by CIA interrogators.
Those circumstances undermined the government’s argument that the FBI interviews were sufficiently independent of the earlier coercion.
A Confession Prosecutors Considered Critical
According to reporting by The New York Times cited in The Gateway Pundit, bin Attash made statements during a January 2007 interrogation acknowledging his involvement in what al-Qaida called the Planes Operation.
Prosecutors considered the statements important evidence connecting him to the attacks.
However, the judge’s decision means those particular statements cannot be used against him at trial.
The ruling does not establish that bin Attash is innocent, dismiss the charges against him or require his release.
Instead, it limits the evidence prosecutors may present and leaves the government to pursue its case using other admissible evidence.
That distinction is significant.
The military commission must determine whether prosecutors can prove the charges under applicable law, regardless of how serious the accusations may be.
All Four Remaining Defendants Have Now Won Confession Challenges
Wednesday’s decision follows a series of similar rulings involving other defendants in the Sept. 11 prosecution.
On Aug. 28, Schrama excluded FBI statements made by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused architect of the terrorist attacks, after determining the government had not established that the confession was voluntary.
Mohammed had been subjected to extensive CIA interrogation following his capture in Pakistan in 2003.
On Oct. 2, the judge also excluded statements made by Mustafa al-Hawsawi, who is accused of helping finance and arrange travel for the hijackers.
In that ruling, the judge examined the government’s decision not to provide a Miranda-style warning during FBI questioning in January 2007.
Together, the decisions represent a major setback to a prosecution that has been delayed for more than two decades by legal disputes over interrogation practices, classified evidence, military commission procedures and plea agreements.
Families Still Waiting for Justice 25 Years Later
The Sept. 11 attacks remain the deadliest terrorist assault in American history.
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaida terrorists hijacked four commercial aircraft.
Two planes struck the World Trade Center towers in New York City.
A third crashed into the Pentagon outside Washington.
The fourth, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew members attempted to regain control of the aircraft.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed.
Thousands of families lost husbands, wives, children, parents, siblings and friends.
First responders rushed into burning buildings, many never returning home.
Twenty-five years later, the principal military prosecution arising from those attacks has yet to reach trial.
For victims’ families, the prolonged proceedings have become another painful chapter in a tragedy that permanently changed the country.
Some relatives have supported negotiated guilty pleas that could bring a conclusion to the case. Others have opposed agreements that would remove the possibility of capital punishment.
The disagreements reflect the difficult choices facing families who have waited a quarter-century for accountability.
Plea Deal Controversy Complicated the Prosecution
The case became even more contentious in July 2024 when military prosecutors reached plea agreements with Mohammed, bin Attash and al-Hawsawi.
Under those agreements, the defendants would plead guilty in exchange for the government agreeing not to pursue the death penalty.
Then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin attempted to withdraw the agreements shortly after they were approved.
The dispute triggered additional litigation over whether the agreements were legally binding and whether the defense secretary possessed the authority to cancel them.
The legal battle further delayed proceedings already burdened by years of pretrial hearings.
The Justice Department continued defending the government’s position in court, while attorneys for the defendants sought to enforce the agreements.
Trial Scheduled for 2028, But Questions Remain
The military judge has scheduled the trial of Mohammed and three other defendants for June 2028.
By that time, nearly 27 years will have passed since the terrorist attacks.
Even that timetable remains uncertain.
Legal experts have questioned whether the military commission can successfully complete a prosecution involving evidence collected decades ago, allegations of torture and unresolved procedural disputes.
The latest confession ruling adds another obstacle.
Prosecutors must now determine how to proceed without statements they spent years defending as admissible.
The government may still rely on other evidence, including records, witness testimony and materials obtained independently of the disputed interrogations.
But the continuing exclusion of confessions demonstrates how decisions made during the early years of the war on terrorism continue to shape the government’s ability to prosecute the case today.
A Quarter-Century Later, America Still Awaits Accountability
The legal questions surrounding the Sept. 11 prosecution are complicated, but the central issue remains straightforward.
Nearly 3,000 Americans were murdered in an act of terrorism.
Their families have waited 25 years for the accused conspirators to face a completed criminal proceeding.
The Constitution and the rule of law require that criminal convictions rest on admissible evidence and lawful procedures. Those protections do not disappear because the allegations involve terrorism.
At the same time, Americans have legitimate questions about how a prosecution of this magnitude has remained unresolved for more than two decades.
The repeated suppression of confessions illustrates the lasting consequences of the government’s post-9/11 interrogation policies.
And it raises a difficult question for the military justice system.
Can the government finally bring this case to trial while preserving the legal standards that distinguish American justice from the terrorism it seeks to punish?
For the families who lost loved ones on Sept. 11, the answer cannot come soon enough.
Twenty-five years have passed. The memories remain. And the fight for accountability continues.
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