As the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks approaches, two women who lost their fathers are confronting a question that has remained unanswered for a quarter of a century: will Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man accused of masterminding the attacks, ever face justice?
Elizabeth Miller was six when her father, New York firefighter Douglas Miller, died inside the burning World Trade Centre. Jessica Trant was 19 when her father, Cantor Fitzgerald bond salesman Daniel Trant, died on the 104th floor of the North Tower after calling his wife to say goodbye.
The women, who became friends through their shared search for answers, have differing views on what should happen to Mohammed. But both believe the long-delayed proceedings have left families without the resolution they deserve.
Their efforts are the focus of Daughters of 9/11, a two-hour CBS documentary airing in the United States on Friday, September 11, the 25th anniversary of the attacks. The programme follows Miller and Trant as they seek information and closure, alongside former FBI special agent Frank Pellegrino, who spent years hunting Mohammed.
“We had to share losing our loved one with the world, our grief with the world,” Trant told CBS Mornings. “People forget that when the buildings go down, they’re not watching buildings; they are watching our loved ones being murdered.”
She said her grief eventually became a sense of responsibility, leading her to visit Guantanamo Bay and make the case against Mohammed part of her life’s work.
Miller said the week of the anniversary had brought an “overwhelming sense of love”, but that she was also ready to withdraw from the public attention surrounding the commemorations.
The stalled Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial
Pellegrino interviewed Mohammed face-to-face at Guantanamo after his capture and described him as arrogant and apparently without remorse. During a four-day interrogation, Mohammed claimed he had been responsible for the 9/11 operation “from A to Z”, saying: “I did it.”
Whether those words can be used in court has become one of the central legal disputes in the case. A military court ruled in August that the interrogation would not be admissible at the planned trial, finding that Mohammed’s later statements could not be separated from torture he had previously endured in US custody.
The military commission proceedings, involving charges including conspiracy, terrorism, hijacking and the murder of 2,976 people, are currently scheduled to begin at Guantanamo in 2028. The case has faced years of procedural disputes and delays.
Pellegrino told the programme that he still felt guilty about failing to capture Mohammed before the attacks, saying his team had come close several times in the years beforehand.
Trant rejected that blame, describing Pellegrino as one of the few people who had persistently warned about Mohammed before September 11 and who continued to support the victims’ families afterwards.
“I think he shouldn’t feel an ounce of guilt,” she said. “I think that he has dedicated, even after 9/11, to us families.”
Daughters of 9/11 will be broadcast on CBS from 9pm to 11pm Eastern Time on Friday and will also be available to stream on Paramount+.
