U.S. to prosecute Guantanamo detainee in NY: source

By Tabassum Zakaria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An al Qaeda suspect accused in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa will become the first Guantanamo Bay prisoner to go to trial in a civilian court in the United States, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.

The U.S. government was expected to announce on Thursday that Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, accused of supplying equipment and support for the bombings, would be brought to trial in federal court in New York, the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The decision comes as the administration tries to determine what to do with the 240 foreign terrorism suspects held at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, established after the September 11, 2001 attacks, in order to meet President Barack Obama's deadline to close the facility by the end of January.

Members of Congress are raising opposition to transferring any of the Guantanamo Bay prisoners to the United States, saying it would put American security at risk even if they were jailed.

Obama, who campaigned for president on a pledge to close the Guantanamo prison, plans to address concerns in a speech on Thursday.

Ghailani was indicted in New York on charges related to the nearly simultaneous bombings in August 1998 of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and will be prosecuted on charges that he played a role in the deaths of more than 200 people.

Eleven people were killed and at least 85 were wounded in the Tanzania bombing and 213 people were killed in Kenya.

A Tanzanian, Ghailani was seized in Pakistan in 2004 and was one of the 14 "high-value detainees" transferred to Guantanamo from secret CIA prisons in September 2006.