WASHINGTON - US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was caught by surprise by a defense official's decision to agree to plea deals with the man accused of masterminding the Sept 11 attacks, along with two of his accomplices, the Pentagon said on Monday, a move the Pentagon chief revoked last week.

On Friday, Austin revoked the plea deals for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and two others, and relieved Susan Escallier, who oversees the Pentagon's Guantanamo war court, of her authority to enter into pre-trial agreements in the case and took on the responsibility himself. Austin's move means that the three could eventually face a death penalty trial.

"The secretary was certainly surprised, as we all were," Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said. Singh said that throughout the entire process, the secretary was not consulted because it is an independent process.

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She added that Austin found out about the deal when it was made public on July 31 when he was flying back from a trip to the Philippines.

Many Republican lawmakers, including House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, had strongly criticized the plea deals.

Mohammed is the most well known inmate at the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, which was set up in 2002 by then-US President George W. Bush to house foreign militant suspects following the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

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Mohammed is accused of masterminding the plot to fly hijacked commercial passenger aircraft into the World Trade Center in New York City and into the Pentagon. The 9/11 attacks, as they're known, killed nearly 3,000 people and plunged the United States into what would become a two-decade-long war in Afghanistan.

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