On Friday, a federal appeals court threw out the plea deals for three alleged Sept. 11 conspirators — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, & Mustafa al-Hawsawi — ruling that the military judge lacked authority to accept the bargains. The ruling further derails U.S. efforts to resolve the long-stalled Guantanamo trial through life sentences in exchange for guilty pleas, which would have spared the defendants the death penalty. . The court’s 2-1 opinion cited the importance of “political accountability” in deciding whether the men should face execution. The decision could rewind the process beck to the pretrial hearings that began all the way back in 2011...with no clear end in sight. . Prosecutors had initially pursued plea bargains, citing the difficulty of securing death sentences due to the defendants’ treatment at CIA black sites. Though a military judge found that the accused had begun fulfilling their side of the agreement—by waiving objections and making factual stipulations...