I'm Brian Ler on WNYC on this September 11th, 2023, and now we turn to another consequence

of 9-11 that has been in the news lately, Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. military prison in

Southeastern Cuba, where people accused of crimes and connection with the 9-11 attacks

are being considered for a plea agreement that would spare them the death penalty but give

them life in prison. Last week, President Joe Biden rejected a list of conditions from

those Guantanamo detainees. The five men were seeking care for torture-related trauma

and to avoid solitary confinement, so far that aspect of a potential plea deal has been

rejected by the President. In March of last year, military prosecutors sought to make that

plea with the five men that would spare them death sentences for a guilty plea in their

alleged roles in aiding the 19 men who actually hijacked passenger planes and crashed them

into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field on September 11th,

2001. It's been 21 years since Guantanamo or Gitmo, as it's also known, was first used

to house primarily Muslim militants and suspected terrorists captured by U.S. forces, not just

who were related to 9-11, but in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other nations in the Middle East. Since

2002, roughly 780 detainees have been held at Guantanamo. Four years later, the Bush administration

came out with memos justifying what they called enhanced interrogation that other people

call torture. Certainly, human rights advocates call it that, Senator John McCain and Lindsey

Graham called it that, placing detainees outside of the U.S. and for those of you who don't

know the history, that's the whole point of Guantanamo Bay. It's outside the 50 states

or U.S. territories. Therefore, it allowed the Bush administration to circumvent many

legal and ethical regulations and practices, like holding prisoners indefinitely and without

charge, classifying them as terrorists, which puts them outside the protection of the Geneva

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