Debate intensifies over terrorism trials in federal courtrooms

The White House is denying that its decision on where prosecute Sept. 11 architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is imminent, according to a report in The New York Times.

The administration told the Times on Friday that a decision would not be made "for weeks" after a story in The Washington Post said President Obama’s advisers were poised to recommend that Mohammed be tried by a military commission — and not in a federal courtroom as Attorney General Eric Holder originally intended.

Whether Mohammed receives a civilian trial or military proceeding has become a political bargaining chip in the dispute over Obama’s plan to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Sen. Linsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on CBS’s "Face the Nation" on Sunday that he would work to drum support for the closure among Republicans if Mohammed and his co-conspirators are tried in military tribunals.

If Mohammed and the remaining 188 Guantanamo Bay detainees are prosecuted in military tribunals it is unclear to what extent the press and the public will be able to monitor the proceedings.