PT Member Aidan Salamone's Letter to the Editor in NYT: A 9/11 Victim’s Son: Close Guantánamo

A 9/11 Victim’s Son: Close Guantánamo

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Re “Biden Can Close the Legal Black Hole at Guantánamo” (editorial, April 30):

I was 4 years old when my father, John Patrick Salamone, was killed on 9/11. I doubt my grieving mother could have possibly imagined that, 22 years later, her teddy-bear-clutching little one would still need to call for 9/11 justice. But, as the editorial board noted, the time has come for the Guantánamo military commission proceedings to end.

They are a profound failure and a cruel irony. I don’t know any victim family members pleased with the camp’s military commissions. Concerns about classified information have mired them in procedural hell and frustrated anyone who actually sought truth and retribution.

If anything, the tribunals have shed more light on the terrible extent of the detainees’ abuse. Plea agreements are the only realistic path to judicial finality.

It has been a year of waiting for a decision on “policy principles” from the Biden administration. But as the editorial notes, an approaching election might be closing a window of opportunity. The commissions must come to an end, and President Biden can make that happen now.

Aidan Salamone Brooklyn The writer is a law student.