PENTAGON TO BUILD MINI-CITY FOR GITMO TERROR TRIALS

[Jcrowley]

GUANTANAMO BAY
Pentagon wants to build mini-city for terror trials
The Pentagon wants to build a compound costing up to $125 million for upcoming war crimes trials at Guantánamo. The proposal has yet to be presented to Congress, which must OK funding.
BY CAROL ROSENBERG

The Pentagon plans to build a military commissions compound at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, costing up to $125 million, a major undertaking meant to accommodate up to 1,200 people for the first U.S. war crimes trials since World War II, The Miami Herald learned Thursday.

If funded by Congress, the compound would be the largest single construction expenditure at Guantánamo since the Bush administration set up the offshore detention center in January 2002.

''The solicitation is unrestricted -- so any number of entities might want to bid on this,'' Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Thursday. ``We want to start construction as soon as possible, so we can begin multiple trials as early as July of 2007.''

<snip>

OVERLOOKING BAY

The Navy would administer the building contract for what the pre-solicitation notice calls a ''Legal Compound at U.S. Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.'' It lists the site as McCalla Field, an area overlooking the bay itself -- a considerable distance from the bluff overlooking the Caribbean where the 430 or so ''enemy combatants'' are housed and interrogated in a facility called Camp Delta.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16033072.htm

[Eric J in MN]

1. We have courts in this country which should be used to try...

...terror suspects.

[joemurphy]

2. Um...one question. Why? n/t

[damntexdem]

3. That's the bad news. The good news is:

they'll get Halliburton to build it, so the buildings won't last long enough to hold the trials. ;-)

[stillcool]

4. oh man...this shit has got to stop...

just close the frigging place down already. Building a 'legal' compound won't making anything going on there any more legal....except maybe to CNN etc.

[Jcrowley]

5. Here's a report

Among their findings:

• The government did not produce any witnesses in any hearing.

• The military denied all detainee requests to inspect the classified evidence against them.

• The military refused all requests for defense witnesses who were not detained at Guantanamo.

• In 74 percent of the cases, the government denied requests to call witnesses who were detained at the prison.

• In 91 percent of the hearings, the detainees did not present any evidence.

• In three cases, the panel found that the detainee was "no longer an enemy combatant," but the military convened new tribunals that later found them to be enemy combatants.

"No American would ever consider this to be hearing," Denbeaux said. "This is a show trial."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061117/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/guantanamo_combatant_hearings

[pinto]

6. Damn it, if someone's committed a crime against an American citizen(s) or the state,

bring them to an open trial, in America. We all know that this ruse is to avoid due process under the guise of national security and Bush's claim to some special privilege in determining trial venues and legal status, but, Agghhh, it gets old and frustrating.

[Bitwit1234]

7. New Congress

Our new congress if they want to stay our congress better not vote for something like that.