Guantanamo Defendants Seek To Maintain CIA Torture Sites

Keep them available as evidence of abuse

The last people you might expect to want to see the CIA's secret torture prisons kept intact are the people who were tortured there. But the defense lawyers for the 9/11 co-conspirators are arguing that the CIA's so-called "black sites" need to remain open, untouched and exactly as they were when top al-Qaida operatives were abused.

The CIA torture program isn't on trial at Guantanamo Bay. The five accused 9/11 conspirators are, and they face the death penalty. But the legal maneuver brings to light an irony of post-9/11 justice: The military tribunals that remain the bane of civil libertarians might be one of the last venues to investigate torture.