A Saudi prisoner accused of plotting Al Qaeda’s bombing of the U.S.S. Cole warship in 2000 has signed an offer to plead guilty to avoid a death-penalty trial, his lawyer announced Monday.
The lawyer, Allison F. Miller, made the disclosure at the start of a two-week hearing in the war crimes case while describing an atmosphere of chaos and uncertainty at her Pentagon office over expected staff and budget cuts.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would be considering the offer under the current formula for the military commission system. But Ms. Miller said a military chain of command has yet to send it to him.
The defendant, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, 60, sat silently with his legal team, at times swiveling in his chair, while Ms. Miller described the pretrial agreement, as the plea offer is called.
Mr. Nashiri, who has been in U.S. custody since 2002, is charged in the longest-running death penalty case at Guantánamo Bay. Two suicide bombers blew up a bomb-landed skiff alongside the Cole during a refueling stop in Yemen on Oct. 12, 2000. Mr. Nashiri is accused of helping to orchestrate the attack, which killed 17 U.S. sailors and wounded dozens of others.
