Gitmo resort: you can't leave but the view is nice.

Via Mustang Bobby, Gitmo is planning upgrades:
"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."


Why, do you ask?

"In June, the U.S. Supreme Court shut down the administration's first effort to stage the commissions, declaring the formula unconstitutional.

Now, armed with a new Military Commissions Act approved by Congress, administration officials are rewriting rules for the trials. They could resume in early 2007 with suspected terrorists being charged, according to the chief prosecutor, Air Force Col. Morris Davis.

Earlier efforts to stage the trials focused on alleged al Qaeda conspirators, among them Yemeni captive Salim Ahmed Hamdan, whose defense attorney, a Navy officer, challenged the formula in the civilian courts."

Ah, gotta do it now or never, right?

"Whitman said the Pentagon would likely seek authorization and funding from the current, lame-duck Congress, which is still controlled by the Republicans."


Those terrorist-loving Democrats! Jam through those secret tribunals and clean up Gitmo before Pelosi brings in a fact-finding investigation! Quick!

Update: First Draft found an interesting angle on this. Is Abramoff tangled up in this somehow?

Update: A peek at the justice and rule of law at Gitmo.

Update: Americablog goes through a report to be released where they call the 'trials' shams:
Some of the highlights of the report:

* 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.