Accused Sept 11 plotters agree to plead guilty at Guantanamo Bay

The man accused of plotting the attacks of Sept. 11 and two of his accomplices have agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy and murder charges in exchange for a life sentence rather than a death-penalty trial at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Prosecutors said the deal was meant to bring some "finality and justice" to the case, particularly for the families of nearly 3,000 people who were killed in the attacks in New York City, at the Pentagon and in a Pennsylvania field.

The defendants Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi reached the deal in talks with prosecutors across 27 months at Guantánamo and approved Wednesday by a senior Pentagon official overseeing the war court.

The men have been in US custody since 2003. But the case had become mired in more than a decade of pretrial proceedings that focused on the question...