Relatives of victims mark September 11 at Guantanamo Bay naval base

Family members of victims of the September 11 attacks gather for a flag-raising ceremony at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with the attacks’ accused mastermind sitting in a prison cell not far away.

“On this naval installation, more than any other place in the world, we remember this every day,” base commander Captain Samuel White says at a chapel service for the attacks’ 20th anniversary after the flag ceremony.

Guantanamo is where Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others have faced prosecution for the 2001 terror attacks in hearings that have gone on for nine years, and which are still in the pretrial phase.

Family members of Sean Canavan, a carpenter who also died in the towers, had traveled to Guantanamo to attend the hearings in the capital case against the five alleged plotters, and then stayed for the anniversary memorial events.

“The one thing that brings peace to my family is knowing that the men responsible for such pain are locked up here in Guantanamo Bay, and will never cause pain again,” his nephew, Liam Canavan, says at the memorial service.