When the court date of a Guantanamo detainee is set, the schedules of the judge, prosecutors, defenders and support staff must be coordinated so that all can travel here for the few days the tribunal will be in session.
Most of the 139 people assigned to the proceedings are based near Washington, hence the group's usual departure from Andrews. But some of them, especially journalists and pro bono civilian defense lawyers, have to travel to Washington from New York, Miami, Seattle, Los Angeles, even London.
"It wreaks havoc with an academic schedule," said Swift, who has to arrange for a substitute to teach his law class when he's away.
The travelers have begun to express concern that if the pace of the proceedings accelerates, as the Pentagon forecasts, so too will the logistical glitches and the volume of time lost in getting to Guantanamo.
Since the tribunals enacted by President Bush in November 2001 were scrapped as unconstitutional by a Supreme Court ruling in June 2006, a new congressionally approved system has been put in place. Charges have been filed against 14 of the 280 detainees still being held as "enemy combatants."
Only five of those cases are in pretrial proceedings, and defendants are boycotting three of them, which has caused further delays as military defense lawyers consult their civilian bar associations for guidance on whether they can ethically represent a client who doesn't want their assistance.
But the tribunal hierarchy plans to crank up the activity this summer with the formal charging and arraignment of six "high-value detainees." Many in the legal entourage will be spending more of their time at the tribunal -- and more time on the complicated commute.
The Guantanamo facility is expanding, with a view toward the days when the tribunal moves from episodic sessions to a calendar approximating that of a full-time courthouse.
The $12-million Expeditionary Legal Complex is nearing completion on the grounds of an old airstrip, where a retrofitted control tower and terminal have served as a courtroom since the first proceedings nearly four years ago.
The tent city and warehouse-like second courtroom were built to accommodate high-value defendants as well as increased numbers of courtroom personnel and media. Quonset huts and portable containers arrayed on a bayside runway will serve as offices and sleeping quarters.
Air Force Capt. Andre Kok, a spokesman for the commissions, confirmed that the tribunal lacked its own budget for airlifting the entourage needed for court sessions. Journalists, human rights monitors and some civilian legal volunteers pay $400 each for the flights, while the Army provides travel for commissions personnel on the charters and the "rotator" that shuttles between Ft. Belvoir, Va., and Guantanamo once a week.
"There's going to come a time when it doesn't make sense to go back and forth" between sessions, said Jamil Dakwar, a staff lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union based in New York. "I guess that's how they will resolve these problems."
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carol.williams@latimes.com
