It’s Saturday morning and I’m heading to Guantánamo Bay again. This time I’m monitoring the US Military Commission case against the 5 alleged masterminds of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. They are facing war crimes charges punishable by death.

The only people involved with this case who live at Guantanamo are the 5 defendants. Everyone else involved gathers at Andrews Air Force Base, the Home of Air Force One, and flies on a military flight to the remote base at the southern tip of Cuba.

With me at Andrews waiting for our flight is the Military Judge who is hearing the case and his staff, a series of prosecutors and defense counsel, court reporters, victims and their families, witnesses, security, media, and others. My role this trip is as an observer / monitor representing the Military Commission Observation Project I founded at Indiana University McKinney School of Law, to which the Pentagon granted permission to send our Faculty, staff, students and graduates to Guantanamo.

Our Indiana group is considered an “non-governmental organization (NGO)”. Today I am joined today by representatives of 9 different NGOs. Our mission is to attend, observe, be observed, analyze, critique, and report on the war crimes hearings.

Pictured above are our NGO observers receiving a briefing by Commission staff, the NGOs in the Andrews waiting area, and us in the bus on the Andrews tarmac as we head towards the plane. I will not post photos of the plane.

I plan to post updates later today and through the week.

George Edwards

Military Commission Observation Project

Indiana University McKinney School of Law