Posted on Monday, 08.03.09

Dozens of Gitmo cases referred to US prosecutors

By DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON -- Dozens of Guantanamo Bay detainee cases have been referred to federal prosecutors for possible criminal trials in the nation's capital, Virginia and New York City, officials told The Associated Press on Monday as a second strategy for trying the detainees emerged within the Obama administration.

The Justice Department's strategy of holding trials in East Coast cities could be a sharp departure from a Pentagon plan to hold all Guantanamo-related civilian and military trials in the Midwest.

The politically volatile decisions about where and how to try Guantanamo Bay detainees ultimately will rest with President Barack Obama as he tries to meet his self-imposed January deadline for closing the island prison.

Obama administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations, said Attorney General Eric Holder met privately last week with the chief federal prosecutor in each of the East Coast areas to discuss the preparations for possible indictments and trials in those districts.

Justice Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the Guantanamo Bay detainee task force "has referred a significant number of cases for possible prosecution, and those cases have now been sent to U.S. Attorney offices who are reviewing them with prosecutors from the Office of Military Commissions." His statement didn't identify the districts involved.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said no final decisions have been made on where in the U.S. to transfer Guantanamo detainees.

One official said prosecutors and military lawyers are now reviewing the individual cases. The work is aimed at indicting individuals in civilian courts, but final decisions have not been made on the cases and some of the inmates whose cases were referred could still end up before military commissions instead.

Officials said the districts which have been referred Guantanamo cases are: Washington, D.C.; the Eastern District of Virginia, which has a courthouse in Alexandria, Va.; the Southern District of New York, which is based in lower Manhattan in New York City; and the Eastern District of New York, which is based in the New York borough of Brooklyn.

Each district has experience prosecuting high-profile terrorism cases, and each courthouse has high-security facilities for holding particularly dangerous inmates.

Yet the plan to hold terror trials in those cities may run afoul of a separate initiative being considered to build a courtroom-within-a-prison complex in the U.S. heartland.

Several senior U.S. officials said the administration is eyeing a soon-to-be-shuttered state maximum security prison in Michigan and the military penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., as possible locations for a heavily guarded site to hold the suspected 229 al-Qaida, Taliban, and foreign fighters now jailed at Guantanamo.

The president has said some detainees will be tried in civilian courts, some in military commissions, and some will be held without trial because they are simply too dangerous but the evidence against them cannot be aired in any courtroom.

The proposed Midwest facility would operate as a hybrid prison system jointly operated by the Justice Department, the military and the Department of Homeland Security.

Both the Justice and Pentagon plans face legal and logistical problems.

If a significant number of civilian trials were to be held in the Midwest, the government might have to send in prosecutors and judges experienced in terrorism cases, and lawyers for the detainees could object to the jury pool.

Such a plan would also require an expensive upgrade of the facilities in Kansas or Michigan, and it's unclear if there is enough time for such work under the president's deadline.

But trying them on the East Coast could generate more of the kind of public opposition that led Congress earlier this year to yank funding for bringing such detainees to U.S. soil until the administration produces an acceptable plan for shuttering the Guantanamo facility.

The Obama administration has already transferred one detainee to U.S. courts - Ahmed Ghailani was sent to New York in June to face charges he helped blow up U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998.


SIDEBAR:

Dozens of Gitmo cases referred to US prosecutors

The White House says no final decisions have been made on where in the U.S. suspected terrorists from the Guantanamo Bay prison will be transferred.

Spokesman Robert Gibbs says the administration is still reviewing which detainees should be moved. President Barack Obama has ordered the prison closed by January.

There are apparently two plans emerging on trials for Guantanamo detainees. Several senior U.S. officials say the administration is looking to send detainees to a state maximum security prison in Michigan and the military penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. Other officials tell The Associated Press that the Justice Department is referring cases to federal prosecutors for possible criminal trials in the nation's capital, Virginia and New York City.

•US trying to bring 2nd Gitmo detainee to US trial

The Obama administration on Friday signaled it will try to bring a second Guantanamo Bay detainee to the United States for trial in criminal court.

Federal prosecutors told a court Friday they no longer plan to hold Mohammed Jawad as a wartime prisoner.

Instead, they wrote in a court filing, they plan to begin a criminal investigation. That would most likely mean bringing him to criminal trial in the United States.

•U.S. case unravels against teen held at Guantánamo

The Justice Department conceded Friday that it lacks the evidence to hold a teenage Guantánamo detainee as an enemy combatant after a federal judge last week ruled that his confession was inadmissible.

In a hearing last week, U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle ruled that Mohammed Jawad's confession to Afghan officials was inadmissible because it had been extracted through torture. She also questioned whether the Justice Department had any evidence to proceed with a trial to determine whether he can be held as an enemy combatant.

Huvelle called the case an "outrage" and told Justice Department lawyers that their case against Jawad had been "gutted."

•Groups grow impatient with Obama on fate of detainees

Six months after President Barack Obama ordered the closing of the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, his administration is still slogging through the cases and policies and will need more time to complete interim reports due on Tuesday.

Top Obama administration officials said late Monday they're still on track to close the prison in January.

They said, however, one group weighing how to change interrogation policies will need two more months, and another will need another six months to work on the more difficult question of how to try or hold suspected terrorists - including those who may never stand trial.

•U.S. says it's willing to send Afghan detainee home

The Obama administration on Wednesday said it plans to release a young Guantanamo detainee after military and civilian judges banned almost all evidence against him that they ruled was extracted through torture.

Government attorneys, however, reserved the right to file new charges in federal court against Mohammed Jawad if they find evidence against him before he's freed.

The Justice Department asked U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle to grant them 22 days to release Jawad - seven days to notify Congress of the release plans, as current law requires, and then 15 days until a cooling off period mandated by law expires.

Associated Press Writer Lara Jakes contributed to this report.

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