AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.Eight days of legal arguments at Guantánamo have brought the long-running terrorism case to a moment of truth in the long wait for justice.Listen · 8:28 min A detainee at the military prison at Guantánamo Bay in 2019. The case of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is in its 15th year of pretrial proceedings, with no date set for the trial to begin.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesBy Carol RosenbergReporting from the U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and WashingtonMay 26, 2026, 10:01 a.m. ETProsecutors portrayed the prisoners as unrepentant jihadists who bragged about their roles in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to federal agents during their first months in military detention at Guantánamo Bay.Defense lawyers cast the men as so broken by violence and solitary confinement in their years in C.I.A. prisons overseas that they were groomed to involuntarily confess to U.S. agents.Over eight days this month, the two sides offered these stark, clashing views to a military judge who is now confronted with the overarching question in the long-running capital case: Did Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who is accused of hatching and organizing the Sept. 11 attacks, and two co-defendants voluntarily incriminate themselves to F.B.I. agents years ago, and can their statements be used against them?The case is in its 15th year of these pretrial proceedings, and no date has been set for the trial to begin. But the judge’s decision could be a turning point almost 25 years after the attacks killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon.The judge, Lt. Col. Michael Schrama, said he would rule this summer.ImageLt. Col. Michael Schrama, the judge overseeing the Sept. 11 case.Credit...United States Air ForceStephan Gerhardt, whose brother Ralph was killed in the attack on the World Trade Center, said the judge’s decision would provide “a major step forward as it answers probably the biggest legal question that needs resolution before a trial date being set.”Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT