The Obama administration is reportedly working on a deal with senators that would shut down the prison at Guantanamo Bay and make Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other accused 9/11 planners stand trial in a military court—not a civilian court. Although President Obama had initially supported Attorney General Eric Holder's plan to try the suspects in a Lower Manhattan federal courthouse, the administration began distancing itself from the proposed New York trial after Republicans and local electeds including Mayor Bloomberg spoke out against it.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the plan would put terror suspects in front of military commissions that would "offer defendants more rights than they had under the Bush administration, but fewer than they would be afforded in civilian court." Under the proposal, which is still being drafted, low-level Al-Qaeda suspects and financiers might still be tried in civilian courts, but many others suspects would face military trials. In order to shut down the prison at Guantanamo Bay, the federal government would purchase a prison in Thomson, Illinoise, and construct a federal maximum security facility and a military courthouse on site. Some 48 Guantanamo prisoners who can't be convicted in court—but are "deemed too dangerous for release"—would continue to be detained indefinitely without trial.
