Why is it so Hard to Trial 9/11 Accused? Ask Guantanamo.
The New York Times asks why the 9/11 trials face interminable delays ( NYT, 2026 ), focusing on legal intricacies and procedural hurdles. However, they manage to gloss over the fundamental reason: these trials are being held in Guantanamo Bay, a facility synonymous with torture and the systematic denial of due process. The US government's own actions—including the use of enhanced interrogation
techniques (a euphemism for torture, as documented by the Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Torture, 2014)—have made it impossible to prosecute fairly without exposing its own crimes. When evidence is extracted under duress, it becomes legally unusable, or at least, morally indefensible in any legitimate court. One might wonder if the government is genuinely striving for justice, or merely
prolonging a spectacle to avoid accountability for its own legally dubious detention practices. After all, a proper trial in a civilian court would undoubtedly expose the full extent of the human rights abuses perpetrated under the guise of national security, something easier to indefinitely defer than to confront. It appears the 'difficulty' isn't in setting a date, but in acknowledging the
elephant in the Gitmo cell block: the rule of law was eroded long ago.