(NewsNation) — A leading advocate for the families of 9/11 victims is angry that a judge has upheld the plea agreements struck by alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two co-defendants.
“Everything about this case, everything about 9/11, is shrouded in secrecy,” said Brett Eagleson, president of 9/11 Justice.
A government official says the decision voided an order by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to throw out the deals, a decision Austin made a few days after the arrangements were announced.
Eagleson is not only angry at the most recent news but at what he says has been the systematic exclusion of 9/11 families from the legal process.
“We are the very reason that we’re even sitting here talking about this,” he told NewsNation’s “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.”
“You would think that we would be consulted. You would think that we would have a part in this,” he added.
Eagleson said the biggest question about the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, centers on Saudi Arabia.
“What did Saudi Arabia do, and why is our government still protecting them?” he said.
He also dismissed the notion that Washington’s complicated alliance with Saudi Arabia remains a major reason so much information about the attacks remains secret.
“The people, the elements of the Saudi government that existed 23 years ago, have nothing to do with the current regime,” he said.
Eagleson also dismissed concerns that evidence against the plotters could never be admitted at trial since much of it was gathered through torture: waterboarding Mohammed nearly 200 times over five “sessions of ill-treatment,” as the Red Cross put it in a 2007 report.
“It’s not our fault that the CIA chose to torture these people. We’re being revictimized over and over again, especially by the lack of respect that the federal government gives to us,” said Eagleson.
“The best way to information is through a public trial,” he added.