Camp Justice in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is ready, willing and able to handle more terror trials.
Three al Qaeda terrorists, including Osama bin Laden’s chauffeur, have already been convicted in Gitmo military tribunals and the base has a brand-new courtroom perfect for the upcoming trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and company.
Although Camp Justice was built on the “cheap” in 2007, at about $12 million, and meant to be temporary, it meets all the security-concerns for such a high-profile trial.
Besides being on a military-controlled facility ringed by razor wire and armed patrols, there are metal and chemical detectors at all entrances to the courtroom.
Security is tight. Reporters are permitted just one pen and only legal-pad notebooks — no wire spiral pads allowed.
Women wearing wire-laced bras will need an additional search from a female guard.
The windowless courtroom, painted white, is slapped together with corrugated metal pieces.
Its most innovative feature is a soundproof, glassed-in spectator galley. The speakers relaying courtroom testimony to the galley operate on a 20-second delay; monitors can cut off the sound if classified intelligence is discussed.
Inside the courtroom, there is a wiring system inspired by the United Nations that will let interpreters speak five different languages.
Ten cameras are in place to record all proceedings while keeping an eye on security.
Outside the courtroom, a hangar was converted into a media room with a feed, also on a 20-second delay, to the proceedings inside.
More than 100 heavy-duty tents and trailers were placed outside, as well, for living and office spaces for attorneys, media and other observers.
The whole village can accommodate up to 550 people.
There are also moveable detention cells to easily transport the defendants to and from the proceedings.
Mohammed and three flunkies were arraigned in the specially built courtroom during a raucous 10-hour hearing where they proclaimed their goal to become martyrs in June 2008.