Gitmo Gears up for Terror Trials

A high-security mobile courtroom complex is under construction at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base as officials prepare to  try 9/11 suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other high profile al-Qaeda figures. Military tribunals will try as many as 80 detainees at the complex, three at a time, Reuters reports. Critics complain that the trials will follow neither US nor international law and will accept coerced evidence.

The $10 million project is slated for completion by early spring. "It's not there to stay. It's there to do its mission and  go away," said an official. To date, Australian David Hicks is the only person to be convicted in the Gitmo tribunals, but he avoided trial by accepting a nine-month sentence in a plea deal. (More detainee stories.)