Someone remembered there's an election coming up
I thought about that, but from what I know about Austin, he's not the political animal that some Secretaries of Defense have been.
I think he did this primarily because he felt reaching a plea deal was reprehensible and morally wrong.
If this were only about politics, I'm thinking he wouldn't have relieved the head of the commission of her duties in this case (she remains in charge of other cases for Guantanamo prisoners).
NPR is saying that "many 9/11 families" welcomed the plea deals.
That's interesting, because the vast majority of what I've heard has been extreme displeasure from the families who lost loved ones in the attacks.
What annoys me is that these aholes weren't executed years ago.