Plotters of the 9/11 attacks and USS Cole bombing suspects, currently in Guantanamo Bay prison, could be transfered to an Illinois jail under the Obama Administration's plan to close the detention centre in Cuba.
At a public hearing on the administration's plan to move Guantanamo detainees to the Thomson Correctional Centre near Chicago, Defence Department's principal director for detainee policy Alan Liotta said the proposed federal prison would host military trials for five alleged plotters in the 2000 bombing of the US Navy destroyer USS Cole.
The prison could end up housing some of the September 11 plotters, perhaps also mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, if they are found guilty in a federal trial in New York City, the Chicago Tribune on Wednesday quoted officials as saying.
Meanwhile, hundreds of locals gathered at the hearing raising concerns that shifting the terror suspects to Illinois could make their state a target for terrorists, but officials sought to assure them the safety issues will be taken care of.
The federal facility at Thomson is not likely to be operational before 2011.
{{/usCountry}}The federal facility at Thomson is not likely to be operational before 2011.
{{/usCountry}}It would take at least six months to open the prison if the federal government succeeds in buying it from the state, director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons Harley Lappin said during the Illinois legislative hearing at Sterling.