Guantanamo panel submits detainee plan
At least 80 would be brought to the U.S., with 47 of them to be held indefinitely without trial.
WASHINGTON - At least 80 Guantanamo Bay detainees would be brought to the United States to face trial, military commissions, or continued imprisonment without charge, under the recommendations of a presidential task force, two government officials said yesterday.
The officials said the task force had recommended 35 of the detainees for prosecution, either in civilian or military court settings. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. already has decided that five of those will be tried in New York federal court for their alleged roles in the 2001 terror attacks.
An additional six have been chosen to face military commissions.
A venue for those commissions has not been decided, but the most likely place is a planned prison facility in Illinois to house terrorism-era detainees. The Obama administration still needs money from Congress to renovate that facility.
As part of President Obama's plan to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the task force has recommended that 47 other detainees be held indefinitely without charge.
An additional 17 detainees, who are Yemeni nationals, don't face prosecution but are likely to be held for some time to come, until U.S. counterterrorism officials can find a secure place in their home country or other foreign countries to send them, the officials said.
The officials said about 110 detainees had been approved for transfer to foreign countries.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the findings of the task force. The new figures were first reported in yesterday's editions of the Washington Post.
The task force conducted a case-by-case review of the detainees.
Obama announced in May that some prisoners who can't be tried for legal reasons and are considered too dangerous to let go may be held indefinitely.
The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, which has organized lawyers to represent Guantanamo detainees, criticized the administration for planning to hold prisoners without trial.
"It is an assault on the rule of law, our principles, and our system of justice," the group said yesterday.
The task force recommendations may be adjusted by the National Security Council if, for example, a court orders a detainee released or security conditions change in a country where the administration wants to send a detainee, one official said.
There are 196 detainees at Guantanamo. In the last year, the administration has transferred more than 40 inmates but has fallen far short of its goal of closing Guantanamo by its one-year deadline, which came yesterday.
