Published on: Saturday, October 3, 2020

There's yet more chaos in the long-delayed, problem-plagued 9/11 case in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba: A new U.S. military court judge who took over the case in mid-September has quit after about two weeks on the job (article available here). The military judge  — the fourth permanent judge to have overseen the 9/11 case in roughly the past two years  — recused himself, citing a series of potential conflicts that could make him appear biased. His resignation means the 9/11 trial is unlikely to begin before next year's twentieth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Legal proceedings at Guantánamo have been at a virtual standstill since February, when the coronavirus began limiting access to the island.

Guantánamo's prison still holds 40 men, down from nearly 800 people who have been detained there since it opened in 2002. Some of the 40 remaining prisoners have been held for more than 18 years without being charged, and some have been cleared for release but remain incarcerated. Guantánamo prosecutors have finalized only one conviction in the military court's history.