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WORLD> America
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US eyes military-civilian terror prison: sources
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-03 15:03 It is unclear whether victims, particularly survivors of September 11 victims, would be allowed into the courtroom to watch the trials. Victims and family members have no assumed right under current law to attend military commissions, although the Pentagon does allow them to attend hearings at Guantanamo under a random selection process. That right is automatic in civilian federal courthouses. "They'll have to sort it out," said Douglas Beloof, a professor at Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon, and an expert on crime victims' rights. He said the new system "could create tension with victims who would protest."
The officials said that another uncertainty remains how many Guantanamo detainees would end up housed in the hybrid prison.
Two senior US officials said one option for the proposed hybrid prison would be to use the soon-to-be-shuttered Standish maximum-security state prison in northeast Michigan. The facility already has individual cells and ample security for detainees. Getting the Standish prison ready for the detainees would be costly. One official estimated it would cost over $100 million for security and other building upgrades. Several Michigan lawmakers, including Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin and Rep. Bart Stupak, both Democrats, have said they would be open to moving detainees to Michigan as long as there is broad local support. But the political support is not unanimous. Michigan Rep. Pete Hoekstra, top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee who is seeking his party's nomination for governor next year, is against the idea. Administration officials said the US Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth is under consideration because it is already a hardened high-security facility that could be further protected by the surrounding military base. It's not clear what would happen to the military's inmates already being held there. Nearly half are members of the US armed forces, and by law, cannot be housed with foreign prisoners. Kansas' Republican-dominated congressional delegation is dead set against moving Guantanamo detainees to Leavenworth. Residents told Sen. Pat Roberts at a town hall meeting in May that 95 percent of the local community opposes it. Administration officials say they are determined to keep to Obama's promise of closing Guantanamo in January as a worldwide example of America's commitment to humane and just treatment of the detainees. Glenn Sulmasy, an international law professor at the US Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, said the prison-court complex will "be difficult, but it's logical." "This is all based on closing Gitmo by 2010, which seems to be a priority, and if we are going to do it, we have to step up to the plate and find solutions to the conundrum we're facing," said Sulmasy, who agrees with the administration's efforts. "And this seems to be the most pragmatic way ahead."
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