The masterminds behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks have not only cost the United States thousands of lives, but also hundreds of millions of dollars to keep them in prison.
A plea deal reached would have kept them in prison for life without the possibility of the death penalty, but Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stepped in and pulled that deal off the table Friday night after it was widely ridiculed.
The man accused of masterminding the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and two of his accomplices have agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy and murder charges in exchange for a life sentence rather than a death penalty trial, prosecutors said this week.
After more than two years of negotiations and more than two decades in prison, defendants Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi agreed to the deal, which was approved by a senior Pentagon official overseeing the war tribunal.
In a stunning move, Austin not only nullified the agreement, but also removed the head of the U.S. military commissions that approved the accords from the 9/11 case altogether. The case is now back in a state of legal limbo.
This Saturday, March 1, 2003, file photo obtained by The Associated Press shows Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, shortly after his capture in Pakistan.
The masterminds have been held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and it is unclear whether they will be moved to the notorious supermax facility ADX Florence in Colorado if convicted.
In any case, the time they will spend in prison until their death is estimated at almost a billion dollars in total from taxpayers.
The Guantanamo Bay prison has become increasingly secretive during its 20 years of operation, even though it costs taxpayers millions of dollars each year.
The Biden administration had signaled it intends to close the military prison in Cuba before leaving office, reviving an Obama-era pledge. Biden said this week he is “determined” to close Guantanamo before he leaves office in January.
Congress stymied Obama’s effort by banning any detainees from setting foot on the U.S. mainland.
Guantanamo has reportedly cost American taxpayers more than $7 billion since its creation.
American taxpayers spend about $13 million per prisoner, per year, according to a New York Times estimate. a 2021 report. The prison currently has 39 inmates.
That compares with $78,000 per inmate at the maximum-security prison in Florence, Colorado, home to some of the highest-risk inmates in the United States.
The US government has been vague about the total cost of imprisoning these alleged killers, but a calculation by DailyMail.com of how much their lifetime incarceration will cost puts the figure at more than $750 million.
The man accused of masterminding the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and two of his accomplices have agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy and murder charges in exchange for a life sentence rather than a death penalty trial, Guantanamo Bay prosecutors said this week.
If we assume the $13 million cost held up to today, the five men who planned and helped carry out the attack have cost American taxpayers $260 million in unclassified prison costs alone between 2021 and 2024. They will likely remain at Guantanamo until 2025, as their sentencing hearing is not until at least next summer — another $65 million.
This will surely be accompanied by classified costs, such as the presence of the CIA.
The cost per prisoner has skyrocketed over time, and fewer inmates are housed at the complex. In 2013, the operating cost was just $2.7 million per prisoner, meaning that from 2006, when the 9/11 masterminds were transferred to Guantanamo, through 2013 it cost taxpayers about $108 million.
Assuming costs were somewhere between $2.7 million and $13 million between 2013 and 2021, prisoners cost $320 million.
But from the time they were captured in 2003 until they arrived at Guantanamo in 2006, they were held in US custody abroad, which apparently cost them millions there as well.
For years, the United States has been trying to close Guantanamo, once considered “America’s smallest boutique prison, reserved exclusively for suspected geriatric jihadists.” The facility costs more than $500 million a year to operate.
For years, the United States has been trying to close Guantanamo, once considered “America’s smallest boutique prison, reserved exclusively for suspected geriatric jihadists.” The facility costs more than $500 million a year to operate.
Even some Democrats were dissatisfied with the available details of the now-defunct deal.
“I’m very concerned about this plea agreement,” Connecticut Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, a former trial lawyer, told DailyMail.com on Thursday. “I think we should look at it very carefully.”
“I think there are interests here that may not have been represented as fairly and aggressively as they should have been.”
According to local media, more than 150 of the nearly 3,000 victims of the horrific 9/11 plot were Connecticut residents. And Blumenthal joined in calling for details of Saudi Arabia’s involvement to be revealed.
“I have defended the families of the 9/11 attacks and their legal actions against Saudi Arabia,” Blumenthal continued. “There is so much here that we don’t know, and we have an obligation to inform the American people about the potential complicity, not only of these defendants, but of Saudi Arabia and other countries.”
The Democrat demanded that the White House explain the reasoning behind the deal.
“There is no explanation. And they owe me and Congress an explanation. But more importantly, they owe it to the families of the 9/11 attackers and to the American people.”
It is still unclear where the terrorists will serve their sentences. Joe Biden has wanted to close the Guantanamo base where they are being held since he took office.
If the military base’s detention center, known as Camp Delta, is closed, detainees could be moved to ADX Florence in Colorado, the only maximum-security prison in the United States that already houses 9/11 terrorists.
That prison had an operating cost of $78,000 per prisoner in 2018. Assuming it kept up with inflation, that would mean housing each inmate would cost about $107,000.
Two of the five defendants were not included in the deal. One of them, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, was deemed unfit to stand trial due to mental illness. Another, Ammar al-Baluchi, could be tried alone.
If the three men involved in the plea deal were transferred there after being convicted and lived another 20 years, it would cost another $6.4 million. It is not known how long the other two would remain at Guantanamo.
All of these prison costs do not take into account the cost of filing a lawsuit against terrorists or the tens of billions the government pays through a compensation fund for victims.
In 2023 alone, the fund awarded $12.8 billion to more than 56,000 claimants: the families of those who lost their lives that day and those who developed cancer years later allegedly from being exposed to toxins on the day of the attack.
