President Joe Biden refused to approve some of the conditions that lawyers for defendants in the Sept. 11 attacks had sought in a possible plea bargain, ruling out a presidential guarantee that they would be spared solitary confinement and provided care for the trauma of their torture in CIA custody, a White House National Security Council official said.
Biden agreed with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s recommendation not to accept the proposed terms as a basis for plea negotiations, according to the National Security Council official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The White House had been reluctant to weigh in on the matter. Biden believed that the decision was the responsibility of the senior military official overseeing the U.S. military proceedings at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to another person familiar with the matter who also was not authorized to comment and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Pretrial hearings for the five have been under way at the U.S. military commission at Guantanamo Bay for more than a decade, with no trial date set. Legal questions, including the legal ramifications of the torture the men underwent after capture in the years immediately after the attack, have complicated the case. So have the logistical challenges of holding the proceedings outside the United States.
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