Guantánamo Bay, Torture, and the Fight for Justice: 25 Years Since 9/11
- Twenty-five years after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the subsequent opening of the Guantánamo Bay detention facility, legal and human rights experts gathered in Washington, D.C.,...
- The discussion featured sociologist and longtime MERIP contributor Lisa Hajjar alongside legal affairs journalist John Ryan.
- The panel discussion was moderated by Alka Pradhan, Human Rights Counsel at the Guantánamo Bay Military Commissions.
Twenty-five years after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the subsequent opening of the Guantánamo Bay detention facility, legal and human rights experts gathered in Washington, D.C., to examine the ongoing indefinite detention of prisoners at the U.S. military compound. The September 13 public event, hosted at Busboys and Poets and featured on a recent recording of the MERIP Podcast, focused heavily on persistent obstacles to accountability established by the U.S. Department of Defense and the future outlook for the remaining detainees.
Two Decades of Reporting From Guantánamo Bay
The discussion featured sociologist and longtime MERIP contributor Lisa Hajjar alongside legal affairs journalist John Ryan. Hajjar authored the 2022 book The War in Court: Inside the Long Fight Against Torture, which documents her observations of trials at Guantánamo Bay. Ryan, a co-founder of Lawdragon Inc. and recipient of three New York Press Club Awards, has worked since 2015 as one of only two reporters reporting regularly on the military tribunals. His book, America’s Trial: Torture and the 9/11 Case on Guantánamo Bay, was published in 2025. During the event, Hajjar and Ryan detailed how the U.S. Department of Defense has systematically erected barriers to transparency and accountability. They emphasized that indefinite detention without trial remains a central injustice of the facility, which was created during the so-called war on terror.
The 9/11 Case and Legal Representation
The panel discussion was moderated by Alka Pradhan, Human Rights Counsel at the Guantánamo Bay Military Commissions. Pradhan specializes in human rights and humanitarian law in counterterrorism contexts, focusing particularly on how the application of torture impacts fair trials. She currently represents one of the defendants in the capital case of United States v. Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, commonly referred to as the 9/11 case. The conversation underscored that despite a quarter-century passing since the inception of the prison camp, legal battles over torture evidence and due process continue with no clear resolution in sight for the individuals still imprisoned at the site.
