A New Secret Court Is Coming to Guantanamo
The creation of the court is seen as a further retreat from transparency by some, but is described as a cost-saving measure by others.
Landwebs
The Pentagon is building a second courtroom for war crimes trials at Guantánamo Bay that will exclude the public from the chamber and will permit two military judges to hold proceedings simultaneously starting in 2023, reports the New York Times. While the cases for detainees such as Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and the four other men who are accused of plotting the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, would have hearings in the existing chamber, which has a viewing gallery for the public, smaller cases would be held in the new $4 million chamber.
Members of the public seeking to watch those proceedings at Guantánamo would be shown a delayed video broadcast in a separate building. The creation of the court is seen as a further retreat from transparency by some, but is described as a cost-saving measure by others. Only people with a secret clearance will be allowed inside the new chamber and, as a workaround, the court staff is designing a “virtual gallery with multiple camera angles simultaneously displayed,” said Ron Flesvig, a spokesman for the Office of Military Commissions. The public would be escorted there to watch the proceedings, streamed on a 40-second delay. The new courtroom reflects a trend toward what appears at times to be a peculiar pick-and-choose transparency, as judges and officials continue to decide what proceedings and cases are classified and unclassified on a seemingly ad-hoc basis.
