The Supreme Court has signaled that Justice Brett Kavanaugh won't be part of the discussion on whether to take up this Guantanamo case. At issue: Whether the D.C. Circuit got it wrong when it sided with former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in cancelling the 9/11 case plea deals.

Here we go again. Today is the start of the 2026 hurricane season. Time to keep an eye on #nhc-atlantic.extwitter.link and www.nhc.noaa.gov

Following the money: I was trying to figure out an aspect of funding for the Guantanamo war court and came across this overly optimistic portion of the Pentagon comptroller's request for FY 2027.

The cancellation order has been published. The 9/11 case has four more sets of pretrial hearings across eight weeks this 25th anniversary year. If the USS Cole case trial starts on Oct. 19, as ordered, there may have to be night court at Guantánamo Bay

Colonel Fitzgerald served as a military psych tech before he went to law school. He said that members of the medical panel cannot be from the staff of Guantanamo prison, and he set a Sept. 1 deadline for the panel to report back.

Latest from the war court: The lawyers and judge have wrapped up the open, public portion of this epic argument over whether the so-called clean team statements taken from three 9/11 case defendants were contaminated by CIA torture. Classified arguments start tomorrow at 0900.

An example of the incoherence in war court transparency: We all heard this testimony live, although on a 40-second delay when the agent was in the courtroom. Today we couldn’t see the transcript.

Update: We had an abrupt recess because somebody in court hit the censorship switch while Walter Ruiz, Mr. Hawsawi’s capital defense lawyer, was discussing the prisoner’s rectal abuse in CIA custody.

Briefly, one more thing: The judge did not sound inclined to set a trial date until after he rules on the crucial voluntariness question. (Prosecutors asked for 1/11/2027 but suggested a a year from now was more practical.)

Here's one interesting issue in these prosecution presentations: They have copies of letters home from a defendant sent from Guantanamo via the Red Cross, and want to show portions in court. Defense lawyers argue they are privileged. The judge may sort that out today. photo: ICRC handout.

This week, prosecutors are arguing against suppression of three other defendants' interrogations. One of them is Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the accused plot mastermind. They've been playing portions of covert recordings of prisoners chatting at a Gitmo prison, circa 2007-8, to show "voluntariness."

Defender Miller countered that the notice said those six months could fall within a two-year window, sounds like starting on June 1, 2026.

Court is in a lunch recess, and the feed has been fine all morning. The defense lawyer for the man accused of plotting the USS Cole bombing off Yemen in 2000 cited many reasons for the delay. Here are a few and the government’s response:

Related: ‪https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/29/world/americas/cuba-russian-oil-tanlker.html

It's pack-out day at Guantanamo Bay for around 100 lawyers, staff and others who came down for a week of pretrial hearings in the Sept. 11 case -- which carried on without a key capital defender. The war court is dark until USS Cole hearings starting April 13.

In other news, prosecutor Clay Trivett told the judge that he expects a Defense Department official to authorize a new policy next week that should see the Pentagon bringing back down nongovernmental observers from legal groups and schools to watch future hearings. Housing had been an issue.

It's a wrap. A military judge held his first full week of pretrial hearings in the four-man 9/11 case -- and the capital defense lawyer for one defendant, Mustafa al Hawsawi, never made it to court across all five days. The lawyer, Walter Ruiz, has pneumonia at Guantanamo Bay.

Good morning from Camp Justice at Guantanamo Bay where staff have restored the war court crest at the ceremonial entry sign. Hurricane Melissa blew it away five months ago. Pretrial hearings in the 9/11 case on torture's taint of the proposed trial evidence resume at 0900. Before and after.

So today's witness swore an oath to tell the truth in Army battle dress as "Lt. Col. Star-Lord." (Yesterday's prison lawyer, an Air Force officer, testified as "Capt. Zero" about two detainees' absence.) --Somebody over at the prison, it seems, is a Guardians of the Galaxy fan.

Before we start with more testimony from retired FBI agent Stephen Gaudin, we hear from an Army lawyer who testifies that some of the defendants voluntarily stayed behind at the prison rather than come to court.

With hurricane season starting June 1, the folks at #Accuweather have published this handy slate of hurricane names, if they form this storm season. June 1 is also the same day as jury selection is supposed to start at Guantanamo Bay in the USS Cole bombing case.

Good morning from Camp Justice at Guantanamo Bay ahead of the first pretrial hearing in the 9/11 case of 2026. It was a long trip yesterday, with several false starts and a late arrival to the base.

So @iflymia: I’m headed to DC this morning to catch a weekend charter to Guantánamo Bay and the departures board here at MIA shows a dozen flights to the rest of Cuba before noon.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act.

It's Sunshine Week* in drizzly dark Washington D.C. So I'm resurrecting an old favorite from the editorial pages of The Miami Herald. (*A celebration of freedom of information, it coincides with the birthday of James Madison, who presented the first version of the Bill of Rights to Congress.)

Jury selection is scheduled to start on June 1, with the prosecutor to present his case no later than two weeks after the military panel is put in place.

Just unsealed by the Pentagon, 150+ days later: An Oct. 8 notice to the judge in the USS Cole bombing case that prosecutors had briefed victims of a lesser known, tanker oil attack on a proposed plea settlement. --Deputy Defense Secretary Feinberg rejected that offer on Feb. 5.

The defendant and public were excluded. So the sides apparently agreed there was no need for the courtroom at Camp Justice, shown here. I'm told the parties were haggling over classified exhibits for the coming, first ever death penalty trial by military commission at Guantanamo Bay.

A few extras from yesterday’s arguments in the government effort to restore use of Ammar al Baluchi’s 2007 interrogations: —The Pentagon review panel is a pop-up. So the judges borrowed a court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit near the White House.