Tribunals at Thomson? Prison could host trials of Gitmo detainees, others
WASHINGTON – In addition to housing foreign detainees, an Illinois state prison could become a site for military trials of those charged with acts of terrorism, an unnamed administration official acknowledged Monday.
As the Obama administration works to identify a detention facility for prisoners transferred from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, federal officials also are considering sites to hold military commission trials for at least some of the suspects.
The moves are part of administration plans to close Guantanamo and begin prosecutions. The Thomson Correctional Center in northwestern Illinois was named last week as a leading option for housing detainees outside of Guantanamo.
Critics of the plan to house detainees at Thomson complain it could mean that prisoners would be shuttled to Rockford and Chicago to face trials in federal district court, causing potential security threats.
A number of the detainees are likely to face trial not in federal court, though, but before military tribunals. One possibility under consideration is convening the military commissions in the same location that detainees are being held, such as Thomson.
Detainees being tried in federal district court would be transferred to the jurisdictions where they are to be tried, not to a detention facility such as Thomson.
The official said Monday that the administration is not yet at the stage of deciding whether or how to locate tribunals at Thomson, but it is possible that tribunals could be held “at or near” detention centers where prisoners are being held.
The idea is part of a delicate series of discussions over Guantanamo. Many of the detainees have been approved for transfer to other countries, and a handful will be moved directly to New York to stand trial.
But some of the more than 200 detainees could move to a Defense Department-run center somewhere in the U.S., possibly the nearly empty Thomson prison, near the Illinois-Iowa border.
Such centers are likely to attract international attention as legal observers and news organizations arrive to view the trials and the Obama administration’s approach to detention questions.
U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, a Republican from Chicago’s north suburbs, expressed concerns that trials of detainees housed at a location such as Thomson would necessitate federal court trials in northern Illinois district courts in Rockford or Chicago, exposing the area to security risks.
But Obama administration officials said the location of the detention center would not dictate the site of federal court trials.
“Establishing the facility at Thomson would have no impact on where the Justice Department decides to prosecute detainees who will go on trial in federal courts,” the administration official said.
The government has wide latitude in choosing where to prosecute such cases, and in the past has preferred New York and Virginia, also likely spots for future trials.
But as for military commissions, the Defense Department has discretion for choosing sites. So far, all of the military commission proceedings have been held at the Guantanamo Naval Base, at a facility not far from the prison.
While there is no requirement to hold the military commission trials in the same location as the detention center, it would make it easier for military officials.
The government would have to build a secure courtroom that allows outside groups to observe and enables prosecutors to present classified evidence.
Charles Stimson, a former Pentagon official in the Bush administration, said the Thomson facility might work best if it is used only for foreign detainees, and not for regular prisoners.
“The current thinking is it will be one-stop shopping,” said Stimson, now a legal scholar at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.
