The interminable trials at Guantánamo Bay are about to resume

TWENTY YEARS after 9/11, the case of the alleged conspirators is set to resume in court over two weeks in September at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility. After a pandemic-induced pause, trials of several remaining detainees began last month. Another prisoner was released on July 19th, the first in over four years. With this new momentum, President Joe Biden aims finally to close the prison at Guantánamo, the site of torture and a legal quagmire that has long tainted America’s image during the “war on terror.” Closing Guantánamo would fulfil a campaign promise, the same promise left broken by Barack Obama.

But the infamous prison may yet frustrate Mr Biden, just as it did his former boss. At root is a broken legal process governing the trials of detainees, the so-called “military commissions”, that has kept prisoners in legal limbo. Congress, however, has refused to reform the commissions and blocked attempts to circumvent them. Mr Obama made halting progress, and Mr Biden has yet to devote real attention to the process. Without change, Guantánamo will be a stain on America’s reputation for years to come.