December Guantanamo Hearings Cancelled

The pretrial hearings, scheduled for Dec. 3-7, 2018 at Guantanamo Bay, in the Sept. 11 military commission have been cancelled, leaving the next session for late January. That means the busy Nov. 12-16 session was the last to take place in 2018; a trial date still has not been set in the case. The five men accused of planning and financing the 9/11 attacks were arraigned in this commission back in May 2012.

My story on the November hearings focused on disputes over evidence of abuse of the defendants by the CIA, and what level of detail was needed to give the defense teams a fair shot at making their case. Another key round of arguments, covered by Carol Rosenberg, was whether a prior convening authority was improperly fired for entering into plea negotiations with the defendants, all of whom face the death penalty.