GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — Family members of victims of the 9/11 attacks last week attended the military commissions for the al Qaeda plotters and expressed frustration that justice hasn’t been done more than 18 years after the 2001 strikes.
After proceedings concluded on Friday, seven family members gathered in a small room to chat. The discussion was freewheeling as the families lamented the justice delayed not just for them but also for all the families and friends of victims. They reminisced about the loved ones they’d lost and hoped the presiding judge in the high-profile death penalty case would stick by his schedule and kick off the trial in January 2021.
Ken Fairben of Long Island, New York, was at Guantanamo Bay for the fourth time. He choked up as he spoke with pride about his son, Keith, who was a paramedic with New York Presbyterian Hospital.
“He was an average student. Pain in the neck … But Keith found his niche with EMS,” Fairben said. “He was an average student. Got his EMT. Then, he became a paramedic. That’s the story of Keith. Big practical joker. He’d get in early in the morning and grease his boss’s doorknob so Jack couldn’t get in. But that’s what he was. That’s his legacy. He wouldn’t hurt a flea. He’d be the first one to help you. And that’s what hurts.”
Fairben said former interrogator James Mitchell won him over with comments he made during questioning last Monday when a defense attorney thanked the former CIA psychologist for making the trip.
“I actually did it for the victims and families, not for you,” Mitchell said.
“I wanted to hug the man!” Fairben said. “I couldn’t have said it better.”
“I’m here for Keith. That’s who I’m here for. My wife would normally be here, but it’s just a little bit too much for her,” Fairben said. “As long as I’m invited, I will continue to come and be here … But it’s forgotten. The general public has forgotten. It has no effect on them.”
Fairben regularly travels to Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn to watch the 9/11 proceedings on a closed circuit television feed. That location and other viewing areas — at Fort Meade in Maryland, Joint Base McGuire Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey, Fort Devens in Massachusetts, and the Pentagon — are the only ways to see the proceedings outside of Guantanamo Bay.
“We’re ready to stay the course,” Fairben said. “And we want to see, at some point, a trial … We’d like to live long enough to see a trial. We have lost family members because of age.”
Bob and Elaine Hughes, also of Long Island, lost their son, Kris, at the World Trade Center. It was their third time watching the hearings at the naval base, though since 2012, the two also have viewed proceedings from Fort Hamilton, often accompanied by their friend, Fairben.
Elaine Hughes said she understood that not everyone could take time off work to watch years of hearings. “We do it for them,” she said.
“We lost our son Kris — he was 30. Single. Handsome. Athletic. Smart,” Elaine said with pride. “Falconer. Fly fisherman. Captain of the football team. Captain of the hockey team. Best friends with his brother … Our son went to Ohio State, and he couldn’t get enough college football.”
Bob Hughes defended the CIA’s harsh post-9/11 interrogation program. “At that time, they had to do something,” he said. “I don’t think we could’ve just arrested them and, while they were sitting in jail, there was another attack.”
“These guys plotted and planned for years,” he said of the five co-defendants in the case. “So my feeling is, is that if you have the nerve and take it upon yourself to concoct this plot to kill all these people, my feeling would be that you should have the nerve to admit it and stand up and take the consequences.”
“I think they should force them to trial,” Bob said.
Robin Verse of Florida and Mary Kay Buquoi of Georgia attended the hearings at Guantanamo because their uncle, Kermit Anderson, was killed at the World Trade Center. It was their first time on the island, although their mother was here for the third time.
“I think the most impactful thing for me was the other victim families,” Verse said. “This is the first time I’ve been in a room with people who have been through the same thing that I have.”
“This has gone on for so long that it’s moved into another generation,” Buquoi said.
Marc Flagg had been to Guantanamo Bay many times before, but it was the first time for his wife, Michele.
“On Sept. 11, my mother and father were ordered aboard Flight 77, which was commandeered by terrorists and crashed into the Pentagon,” Marc said. “My father was a two-star rear admiral — the highest-ranking military officer that day and also a retired American Airlines captain. So, I’m here for them.”
Marc stressed that “it’s not just close to 3,000 loved ones, it’s the families who are left behind — and that’s quadruple of what the 3,000 is.”
He also defended the enhanced interrogation program, pointing out that, as an Air Force pilot, he had gone through the military’s Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape program.
“EIT’s are not torture,” Marc said, adding, “I think it’s fantastic what both Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Jessen have done for our country, and America really does not understand what they have done to protect our country, and we as a country owe them a debt of country.”
“I think the EIT’s got information which helped law enforcement and the military stop attacks, absolutely,” Michele said. “They were not going to stop with just those airplanes.”
The two agreed that the trial should be delayed no longer.
“It’s been 19 years, and there’s frustration,” Marc said. “We all want to see this go to trial. And the sooner, the better for everybody.”
“We are so adamant that we get to trial and resolve it,” Michele said. “And then, maybe we can get on with our lives — though I doubt it.”
