Military Tribunals Will Be Held at (Illinois) Prison

[tekisui]

Source: Quad City Times

The Obama administration said Tuesday it plans to hold military tribunals at the Thomson Correctional Center as it moves forward with plans to send foreign detainees from the controversial prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the nearly vacant facility in the rural cornfields of northwestern Illinois.

The administration’s plan to buy the Thomson prison, formally announced Tuesday, will set in motion an acquisition process and, later, security improvements at the prison.

Eventually, it will mean the hiring of 900 federal prison workers there, along with 1,000 to 1,500 Defense Department employees who will guard the Guantanamo detainees.

(snip)

They have not specified a number of detainees, saying only it would be a “limited.” Some news reports have put the number between 35 and 90.

Administration officials did reveal some new details Tuesday of what will become of some of the detainees sent to Thomson.

A senior administration official confirmed that military commission trials would be held at the facility. Previously, they had only left open the possibility.

“I think the plan would be to hold the military commission trials at Thomson,” the official said.

The controversial tribunals have been rare since Guantanamo Bay opened, and the administration has identified only five cases that could go to a military trial.

They did that last month at the same time they announced five 9/11 plotters would be tried in civilian court in New York City.

Among the five facing military trial is Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the man accused of orchestrating the bombing of the USS Cole in 2001. Seventeen U.S. sailors were killed in the attack.

It is not clear how many others might be tried the same way.

more: http://www.qctimes.com/news/local/article_938c50fe-ea52-11de-88b3-001cc4c03286.html

[MNDemNY]

1. This is good Kudos to the Obama administration on moving to close Gitmo.

I give him high marks for this.

[tekisui]

2. Except for an unknown number of detainees who will

be held indefinitely, without charge.

[MNDemNY]

3. This is a problem,but if we can get them on US soil...........

But shhhhh, not so loud about that.

[surrealAmerican]

5. ... and what happens if these prisoners are found innocent.

We have yet to release people we've detained for years, even when we know the evidence against them is in no way credible.

[ipaint]

4. Welcome to Gitmo North

The Obama administration announced today that it will create a new "supermax" facility in Thomson, Illinois, and will transfer to it many of the detainees currently held at Guantanamo. Critically, none of those moved to Thomson will receive a trial in a real American court, and some will not be charged with any crime at all. The detainees who will be given trials won't go to Thomson; they'll be moved directly to the jurisdiction where they'll be tried. The ones moved to Thomson will either (a) be put before a military commission or (b) held indefinitely without charges of any kind. In other words, they'll have exactly the same rights -- or lack thereof -- as they have now at Guantanamo.

...ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero had this to say today:

The creation of a "Gitmo North" in Illinois is hardly a meaningful step forward. Shutting down Guantánamo will be nothing more than a symbolic gesture if we continue its lawless policies onshore.

Alarmingly, all indications are that the administration plans to continue its predecessor's policy of indefinite detention without charge or trial for some detainees, with only a change of location. Such a policy is completely at odds with our democratic commitment to due process and human rights whether it’s occurring in Cuba or in Illinois. In fact, while the Obama administration inherited the Guantanamo debacle, this current move is its own affirmative adoption of those policies.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/