Negotiations between prosecutors and defense attorneys at Guantanamo Bay could reportedly result in guilty plea deals in which the death penalty is taken off the table for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-defendants. Top Republicans quickly criticized any such possibility.

In the two decades since 19 al Qaeda terrorists crashed hijacked planes into the World Trade Center buildings, the Pentagon, and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 people, the five men said to be responsible for the planning and execution of the plot have yet to stand trial. The key question of whether confessions obtained by the FBI after their CIA custody should be admissible remains unresolved.