All posts tagged "Lloyd Austin"

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday "effectively put the death penalty back on the table” in the war court case against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the New York Times reports.

The Times’ Carol Rosenberg, reporting from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, says the Pentagon "announced the decision with the release of a memorandum relieving the senior official at the Defense Department responsible for military commissions of her oversight” in the case against Mohammed “and two alleged accomplices … for the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York City, at the Pentagon and in a Pennsylvania field.”

In the memo, released Friday by Austin, the secretary of defense “determined that, in light of the significance of the decision to enter into pre- trial agreements with the accused in the above-referenced case, responsibility for such a decision should rest with me as the superior convening authority under the Military Commissions Act of 2009.”

“Effective immediately, I hereby withdraw your authority in the above-referenced case to enter into a pre- trial agreement and reserve such authority to myself,” Austin wrote in the memo addressed to retired Brig. Gen. Susan K. Escallier, who was overseeing the war court and “signed a pretrial agreement on Wednesday with Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi that exchanged guilty pleas for sentences of at most life in prison,” the Times reports.

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The Times adds, “In taking away the authority, Mr. Austin assumed direct oversight of the case and canceled the agreement, effectively reinstating it as a death-penalty case.”

Austin’s remarks come after several Republicans criticized Escallier’s approval of the plea deal, which the Times reports came as “Austin was traveling abroad and returned to the United States later [Wednesday]."

Per Rosenberg’s report:...

The United States is scrutinizing the delivery of further pending military aid to Israel after pausing a weapons shipment to the close ally, the State Department said on Wednesday. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said earlier in the day during testimony in Congress that "one shipment of high-payload munitions" had been halted, confirming reports in US media. Hours later, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller called into question other deliveries. "We have paused one shipment of near-term assistance and we are reviewing others," he told reporters. "But that said, our long-term commitme......

U.S. Army reservist Christopher Woodall organized a “white nationalist” paramilitary camp while serving in the North Carolina Army National Guard.

He boasted of his Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi ties.

He openly supported Russia’s war on Ukraine....

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has prostate cancer, the hospital treating him says. The disease was recognized early and the prognosis for a cure is "excellent," Walter Reed Military Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland - outside of the US capital - announced on Tuesday. The Pentagon in Washington has been criticized for not telling either President Joe Biden or the public quickly about Austin's condition. The 70-year-old has been hospitalized since the beginning of the year due to complications following an operation at the end of December. The prostate cancer was diagnosed at the beginning o......

Washington (AFP) - US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was hospitalized earlier this week due to complications from a medical procedure, the Pentagon said Friday, at a time when Washington is facing a growing crisis in the Middle East. Austin was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on the evening of January 1 "for complications following a recent elective medical procedure," Pentagon Press Secretary Major General Pat Ryder said in a statement, without providing details on the complications or the duration of the hospital stay. "He is recovering well and is expecting to resum......

The United States on Monday announced a new multinational security initiative to counter an increasing number of attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea by Yemen's Houthi rebels. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that the new initiative, called Operation Prosperity Guardian, will "address security challenges in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, with the goal of ensuring freedom of navigation for all countries and bolstering regional security and prosperity." Countries including Britain, France, Italy and Norway will join the mission, Austin said in a statement. "This is a......