Alleged 9/11 planner open to working against S. Arabia

WASHINGTON

The man suspected of masterminding the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. is open to cooperating with victims in their lawsuit against Saudi Arabia, according to a report published Monday.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed offered his support if the U.S. federal government drops the death penalty in its prosecution of him in a military tribunal, the Wall Street Journal reported based on a court filing made Friday.

The lawsuit accuses the Saudi government of helping to coordinate the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 victims. Terrorist hijackers took over passenger aircraft and crashed two into the World Trade Center, and another into the Pentagon.

A fourth plane that was likely headed for either the White House or the U.S. Capitol Building was prevented from reaching its target after passengers wrested control from hijackers before it crashed in an empty field in rural Pennsylvania.

Saudi Arabia has denied any role in the attacks.

A previous attempt to broker a plea agreement with Mohammed and four other defendants was scrapped over concerns that dropping the death penalty would serve as an official censure of the government's torture of the detainees.

A person familiar with the military proceedings told the Journal that one of the primary goals in those negotiations was gaining the defendants' cooperation.

“One of the main things that the 9/11 defendants have to offer is closure, particularly closure for the victims,” according to the person whom the Journal did not identify. “With capital charges gone, there is an opportunity to tell the story of 9/11 once and for all.”

Mohammed was captured in a joint CIA operation alongside Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency in the city of Rawalpindi in March 2003. He was then transferred to CIA black sites where he was repeatedly subjected to interrogation methods criticized as torture.