Heading to Guantanamo for 9/11 Hearings

I’m at Andrews Air Force Base waiting for a military flight to take me to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to monitor hearings in the war crimes case against five alleged masterminds of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. I am representing the Military Commission Observation Project I founded at Indiana University School of Law.

The Pentagon announced that they want Guantanamo Bay proceedings to be “transparent”, and the Pentagon selected our Indiana program to help further the transparency. Our program has been sending Indiana law students, faculty, staff, and graduates to Guantanamo whenever they have war crimes hearings. Our mission is to attend, observe, be observed, analyze, critique, and report on the Guantanamo military commissions.

Hearings this week

On Monday 10 September 2018, a week of hearings will begin against Khalid Shaik Mohammad, who is charged with designing and overseeing the “plane’s operations” that destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon. He is joined by four other defendants who are charged with varying levels of responsibility for the 9/11 attacks–financing, recruiting and training hijackers, and facilitating communications among members of the conspiracy.

The long-serving military judge in this case resigned, and the new military judge will meet the defendants and lawyers for the first time on Monday.

Conclusion

I plan to provide updates during the week.