SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - The Pentagon will not try to use emergency powers to build a compound to hold war crimes trials at Guantanamo Bay, according to a member of a Senate panel that oversees funding for military construction projects.The U.S. Defense Department notified Sen. Dianne Feinstein that it canceled a contract solicitation to build the new courthouse complex at the isolated base in southeast Cuba because of concerns about the location and funds for the facility, according to a statement from her office. ``I thank the department for postponing plans to build a permanent courthouse at Guantanamo Bay,'' Feinstein, a California Democrat, said in the statement late Friday. ``It's important this courthouse proceed through regular order, with public hearings, so that there is full knowledge of what is intended.''
The Defense Department recently sent a letter to Congress announcing its intention to fast-track the Guantanamo complex by reallocating $102 million of its authorized funds by invoking its emergency powers to bypass congressional approval, Feinstein said.
A Pentagon spokesman gave no specific details about the cancellation, which was first reported by The Miami Herald on Sunday, but said that due to the scope and complexity of the trials for terror suspects, additional infrastructure and personnel remains a much-needed addition at Guantanamo. ``We will continue working with the Congress to ensure that unlawful enemy combatants at Guantanamo can be brought to justice as expeditiously as possible,'' Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon said in an e-mail Sunday. ``We do not want a lack of facilities to be a reason for delaying the process of bringing these dangerous enemy combatants to justice.''