President-elect Barack Obama and his advisers are working on a plan that may see detainees at the military facility in Guantanamo Bay transferred to the United States. (Brennan Linsley/Associated Press)

President-elect Barack Obama appears to be crafting a proposal that could see imprisoned terrorism suspects moved from Guantanamo Bay to the United States to face trial, according to advisers close to the discussions.

The plan, if implemented, would make good on Obama's promise to close the naval prison in Cuba. But it could also prompt the United States to establish a new, controversial system of justice.

Under the plan, some of the detainees at Guantanamo would likely be returned to the countries where they were first captured while others would be moved to the United States to be prosecuted in criminal courts, according to three advisers involved in the talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

A third group of detainees — whose cases are highly classified — might go to a new court that would be designed to handle sensitive national security cases.

'Sad chapter' in history

Obama, who has voiced opposition to the 2006 Military Commissions Act, has described Guantanamo as a "sad chapter in American history."

His proposed plan deviates from the plans of President George W. Bush's administration, which established military tribunals to prosecute the detainees and has strongly opposed bringing prisoners to the United States.

During his campaign, Obama said U.S. civilian and military court-martial systems provide a framework system to handle the detainees, which include Canadian-born Omar Khadr, 22, who has been held at the facility since his arrest in Afghanistan in 2002.

Khadr is due to stand trial on Jan. 26. He is accused of killing a U.S. army medic, who died when a hand grenade was thrown at him during a four-hour firefight.

Closing Guantanamo is a top priority of Obama, said Laurence Tribe, a Harvard law professor who serves as a legal adviser to Obama. And though bringing the detainees to the United States would be controversial it could be accomplished, Tribe said.

"I think the answer is going to be, they can be as securely guarded on U.S. soil as anywhere else," Tribe said. "We can't put people in a dungeon forever without processing whether they deserve to be there."

Opposition from both parties

But many Republicans are still opposed to bringing terrorism suspects to American soil and there are Democrats who are opposed to the concept of creating a new court system, which would deny detainees full constitutional rights.

"There would be concern about establishing a completely new system," said California Democrat Adam Schiff. "Establishing a regimen of detention that includes American citizens and foreign nationals that takes place on U.S. soil and departs from the criminal justice system — trying to establish that would be very difficult."

Meanwhile, Jonathan Hafetz, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, said on Monday that establishing an alternate court system "would be a profound mistake."

"We do not need a new court system. The last eight years are a testament to the problems of trying to create new systems," Hafetz said.

The current military commission system is deeply criticized because of its evidence rules and intense secrecy.

Structure not yet known

The exact structure of Obama's proposed plan has not yet been decided and a committee will likely be established to determine how any new court would operate, the advisers said.

However, prosecuting detainees in federal courts may raise challenges, including the possibility of evidence gathered through military interrogation or from intelligence sources being thrown out.

In a federal court system, defendants would also likely have the right to confront witnesses, that could include CIA officers and informants whose cover could be jeopardized.

"It would have to be some sort of hybrid that involves military commissions that actually administer justice rather than just serve as kangaroo courts," Tribe said. "It will have to both be and appear to be fundamentally fair in light of the circumstances."

Waleed Alshahari, who has been following Guantanamo issues for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington, said the plan being discussed by the Obama team is an improvement over the current system.

Alshahari said he expects most detainees to be released rather than stand trial.

There are now about 250 men being held at the prison that opened in January 2002 on suspicion of terrorism or links to al-Qaeda or the Taliban.

With more than 90 Yemeni detainees being held at Guantanamo, it is the country with the largest group that's imprisoned at the base.

"If the U.S. government has any evidence against them, they would try them and put them in jail," Alshahari said. "But it has been obvious they have nothing against them. That is why they have not faced trial."

With files from the Associated Press