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Sept. 11 Judge Delays Retirement, Positioning him to Decide Case-Turning Issues

Col. Matthew N. McCall. The New York Times
Col. Matthew N. McCall. The New York Times
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Sept. 11 Judge Delays Retirement, Positioning him to Decide Case-Turning Issues

Col. Matthew N. McCall. The New York Times
Col. Matthew N. McCall. The New York Times

By Carol Rosenberg

The judge in the Sept. 11 case has announced that he will stay on the bench through 2024, providing continuity as pretrial litigation wraps up crucial issues. Col. Matthew N. McCall, the fourth military officer to preside in the long-running case, had initially planned to retire from the Air Force next month.

Why It Matters: Continuity at a key time.

Colonel McCall has been on the case since August 2021. He has displayed a deep understanding of both the obstacles to a trial and the record his three predecessors built after arraignment in 2012.

He was initially expected to retire in April, a timetable that would have left it to a fifth judge to make key decisions — after absorbing hundreds of pages of filings and exhibits and more than 42,000 pages of public and classified transcripts. Now, Colonel McCall can proceed with witness testimony in open and closed sessions and legal arguments for at least 19 more weeks in 2024.

What Happens Next: Hearings and, probably, rulings.

The timetable positions Colonel McCall to wrap up witness testimony and decide whether prosecutors can use confessions made in 2007 by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who is accused of masterminding the Sept. 11 plot, and three co-defendants, at the eventual trial. The men spent years in detention in CIA prisons, where they were tortured. Then so-called clean teams at Guantánamo Bay questioned them without threats or violence in their fourth year in US custody.

Two other key issues are reaching decision points. One is whether restrictions imposed on defense lawyers prevent the defendants from getting a fair trial. In 2018, the first judge threw out the 2007 confessions for that reason. His successors have been revisiting that question ever since.

The other issue is whether what was done to the Sept. 11 defendants in their first years in US custody constitutes “outrageous government conduct.” Lawyers for one defendant, Mustafa al-Hawsawi, have presented their argument to the judge, who has yet to rule. The delay could give the other three defense teams time to do the same.

What We Don’t Know: The fate of pretrial litigation.

Colonel McCall could order a range of remedies if he rules against the government on those three crossroads questions. He could exclude the 2007 clean-team statements, which an Army judge did last year in Guantánamo’s other capital case, forcing a higher court appeal. He could reduce the maximum possible sentence for a conviction to life in prison, instead of death; or he could dismiss the case.

The New York Times

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France Holds Day of Mourning for Mayotte Islands Devastated by Cyclone

French President Emmanuel Macron (C-R) and his wife Brigitte Macron (C-L) stand for a minute of silence at the Elysee Palace during a day of national mourning for the lives lost after a cyclone hit the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, in Paris, France, 23 December 2024. (EPA)
French President Emmanuel Macron (C-R) and his wife Brigitte Macron (C-L) stand for a minute of silence at the Elysee Palace during a day of national mourning for the lives lost after a cyclone hit the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, in Paris, France, 23 December 2024. (EPA)
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France Holds Day of Mourning for Mayotte Islands Devastated by Cyclone

French President Emmanuel Macron (C-R) and his wife Brigitte Macron (C-L) stand for a minute of silence at the Elysee Palace during a day of national mourning for the lives lost after a cyclone hit the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, in Paris, France, 23 December 2024. (EPA)
French President Emmanuel Macron (C-R) and his wife Brigitte Macron (C-L) stand for a minute of silence at the Elysee Palace during a day of national mourning for the lives lost after a cyclone hit the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, in Paris, France, 23 December 2024. (EPA)

France held a national day of mourning for Mayotte, its Indian Ocean territory devastated by a violent cyclone on Dec. 14, beginning in the morning on Monday with a minute of silence for the scores of residents left dead by the storm.

Cyclone Chido was the worst storm to hit Mayotte's two main islands in 90 years, and authorities have said that perhaps thousands of people may have been killed in its wake, though the government's death toll stands at 35.

To commemorate Mayotte's losses, French flags were lowered to half-mast. Separately, flags were flown at half-mast in Brussels and Strasbourg because of Mayotte, as well as following attacks last week on a German Christmas market and in a Croatian school.

"It is a communion in mourning," Prime Minister Francois Bayrou told reporters. He said the day showed solidarity for those in Mayotte, and that France was "present to reconstruct Mayotte and make sure the people of Mayotte feel surrounded by the entire country."

Following the storm, officials say corpses may have been buried quickly per religious custom, before they could be counted, and that many of the people killed may have been undocumented immigrants.

Mozambique has said 94 people died in the disaster, while 13 were killed in neighboring Malawi.

ANGER

The slow pace of aid and delays in the arrival of clean water have angered residents of Mayotte, France's poorest overseas territory located between Madagascar and Mozambique about 8,000 km (4971 miles) from the mainland, with some heckling President Emmanuel Macron during his visit last week.

For Mohamed Abdou, a doctor in Pamandzi, the day of French mourning was a political stunt and did not do enough to account for historic neglect leading up to this point.

"Whether in terms of hospitals, the lack of water infrastructure, electricity, and so on ... at this point, we need to say 'mea culpa' and acknowledge mistakes were made," he told Reuters, speaking from his town in the south of Mayotte's smaller island.

Francois-Noel Buffet, France's acting minister of overseas territories, told France 2 that water - a flashpoint even before the disaster - had made it to the island, saying: "We are not missing water. We have water, notably bottled water. We have a problem with distribution."

Buffet said he expected a special law on the reconstruction of Mayotte to be introduced in early January.

In Paris, Bayrou, France's fourth prime minister this year, is expected to unveil his cabinet Monday evening, though the timing was uncertain. The French presidency said the announcement would not take place before 6:00 p.m. (1700 GMT), to take into account the day of mourning.

Estelle Youssouffa, a lawmaker for Mayotte, criticized the government in an interview with Radio France Internationale for possibly making the announcement on the day of mourning, accusing Bayrou, who had not yet visited the islands, of "humiliating us a second time."