Families of 9/11 victims rip plea deal allowing mastermind KSM to avoid death penalty

The grieving families of the heroic first responders killed in the Sept. 11 attacks slammed a plea deal struck Wednesday that allows three alleged terrorists — including accused mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammad — to avoid the death penalty.

”I feel like I was kicked in the balls,” said retired police officer Jim Smith, whose wife, Moira Smith, was the only female NYPD cop killed in the terror attacks.

“The prosecution and families have waited for 23 years to have our day in court to put on the record what these animals did to our loved ones,” Smith told The Post.

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“They took that opportunity away from us,” he said of the US government, adding of the alleged terrorists, “They committed the worst crime in the history of our country. They should receive the highest penalty.”

Mohammad, who allegedly plotted the al-Qaeda attack, along with accused co-conspirators Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, allegedly provided training, financial support and other assistance to the 19 terrorists who hijacked passenger jets and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Shanksville, Pa. on Sept. 11, 2001.

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The three inmates, who have been held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, since 2003, could plead guilty as early as next week, with their sentencing set to happen sometime next summer, according to a letter sent to victims’ families Wednesday by Rear Adm. Aaron C. Rugh, chief prosecutor for the Office of Military Commissions.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed the day of the attacks, including more than 400 first responders — such as FDNY firefighters and paramedics, NYPD cops and Port Authority police officers.

For the outraged loved ones left behind, the deal was a slap in the face.

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“I’m angry and disappointed that enemy combatants who killed thousands of Americans in our homeland are now able to exploit the US judicial system to their benefit, receiving support from American taxpayers for shelter, food and healthcare for the rest of their lives,” said retired police officer Kathy Vigiano, who lost her husband, NYPD Det. Joseph Vigiano, in the attacks.

The FDNY lost 343 heroes in the terror attack — the greatest number of any first response agency — and a death toll that has more than doubled in the last two decades as survivors succumb to 9/11-related illnesses.

Speaking on behalf of the FDNY, Uniformed Firefighters Association President Andrew Ansbro said its thousands of firefighters feel “betrayed and disgusted.”

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The tragedy occurred on Ansbro’s first day on the job. While he was lucky to make it out of the horror, he and his Engine 58 colleagues mourned the loss of their Lt. Bobby Nagle, who was killed when the South Tower collapsed onto the Marriott Hotel.

“Being a survivor, I could say on behalf of New York City firefighters — especially the survivors of the terrorist attack who are living with the long-term health effects of walking down Ground Zero — we feel betrayed and disgusted that these terrorists were offered a plea deal which will allow them to live into old age with contact with their families,” an anguished Ansbro told The Post.

“Three hundred and forty-three New York City firefighters died on that day, and hundreds have died since then — we’re still losing three firefighters a month to the effects of 9/11 Ground Zero. We are betrayed. We feel betrayed and disgusted that they will not face the ultimate justice of the death penalty.”

For James Brosi, president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, the news serves as a double whammy.

He and his fellow firefighter brother only just lost their father, Lt. Joseph Brosi, in February 2023 to an eight-year battle with various forms of cancer, all of which were tied back to Sept. 11.

“All three of us were down there on 9/11. My brother, actually, was outside when the South Tower came down,” Brosi said. “And then my father and myself had worked down at the site for several weeks following, as well as on multiple details after that, looking for survivors and trying to find closure for those affected, those who were killed in attacks.”

Like Ansbro, Brosi said “betrayal” was the best way to describe the emotions filtering through the FDNY about the plea deal.

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“We’ve been asked to be patient because the American government wanted to get this right, because we were told that we were the more civilized group of people that we wanted to make sure that if justice was served, that it will be served properly,” Brosi said, adding that the three terrorists were “so abundantly guilty of what they had done.”

“And after 23 years, what justice has been served?” he asked. “It is very difficult to believe that justice has been served.”

Daniel D’allara, whose twin brother John D’allara was one of the 23 NYPD cops killed, told The Post he was “very disappointed.”

“We were promised a trial, we waited patiently a long time. I wanted the death penalty, the government has failed us,” he said.

Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry said the ruling was opening old wounds for the victims’ families 22 years after the Twin Towers were brought down.

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“It was heartbreaking and infuriating to get a call from the families of 9/11 heroes who just learned about this plea agreement. Their loved ones’ sacrifice is being disrespected, and they are being victimized all over again,” Hendry said.

“These individuals masterminded an attack on our nation that not only claimed 2,977 lives that day, but has claimed thousands more in the years since. Their crime merits the ultimate punishment. There should be no plea deal and absolutely no leniency.”

Terry Strada, whose husband Tom Strada, a 41-year-old bond broker at Cantor Fitzgerald, was in the North Tower and was killed when the planes hit, said she was “disappointed” the case won’t go to trial. But she offered an optimistic outlook on the ruling.

“I do know that there are family members that wanted a plea deal because they wanted it to end, they want it to be over,” Strada told The Post.

Strada, the national chair of 9/11 Families United, was in Manhattan court for a hearing on whether a decades-old lawsuit aiming to unearth evidence about the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s role in the attacks would go to trial when the news broke.

“There are a lot of family members out there who want that, and I hope that in some ways this gives them some peace and closure. I want that for everyone,” she told The Post. “But for me personally, I wanted to see the trial. I wanted to see him found guilty, and I wanted him to be punished with whatever the military tribunal laws are, and if that meant the death penalty, that’s what I wanted.”