This new year brings more frustration over the prisoners euphemistically called detainees still housed at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and more pain for 9/11 families, including mine, as we prepare to mark the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
It’s long past time to bring the alleged 9/11 conspirators to trial and either release the others still held there or move them to U.S. prisons and try them in U.S. courts. All that should be high on President Joe Biden’s agenda.
So where are we with Gitmo?
Forty prisoners remain there, among them five men accused of planning and supporting the 9/11 attacks. Those five are being tried before a military commission, but so far the start of the trial has been repeatedly delayed often for acceptable reasons, including pandemic considerations. The rules of the proceedings generally have reflected basic American values about innocence and guilt, but the delays have become enormously frustrating, especially for 9/11 families monitorin