The New York Times obtained a trove of more than 700 classified documents holding new information about the prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay. The documents show that most of the 172 prisoners who remain locked up at Guantanamo are “high risk” and pose a threat to our national security if released without proper rehabilitation. But more alarmingly, the documents reveal that nearly 200 of the 600 detainees already released were also rated high risk. Also, surprisingly, one of the prisoners who was released is now fighting with the rebels in Libya. Scott Shane, reporter for The New York Times helps analyze the documents.

Yesterday the first Guantánamo detainee to be tried in a federal civilian court was acquitted of all but one of the charges against him. In total Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani faced nearly 300 charges of conspiracy and murder in the 1998 terrorist bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The first civilian trial for a former Guantánamo Bay detainee begins today. Tanzanian-born Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani is accused of bombing embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998, killing hundreds.

WNYC Reporter Ailsa Chang is covering the trial.

The case of Canadian citizen Omar Khadr at Guantanamo Bay detention center focuses our attention on the tension between the passage of time and the apparent difficulty in a political democracy to reconcile issues of security and justice. We, in America, can debate endlessly the potential danger of detainees being allowed to return home or being a threat to the U.S. in future terrorist attacks. We can choose continually to defer to the idea of caution by keeping suspects in prison while we work out the rules for their adjudication. What we cannot do, however, is be certain that our intentions are, by definition, benign or that the only outcome of these cases is some verdict: guilty or not-guilty.

Former Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib is starring in a new play about his three years in U.S. custody. The BBC’s Phil Mercer spoke to the cast at rehearsals and tells us about the play.

The President had initially pledged to close Guantánamo Bay within a year of taking office, but the challenge of how to move the detainees and what to do with them once they've moved is becoming an increasingly complicated problem. We talk with Vijay Padmanabhan, a visiting professor at Cardozo School of Law, about how best to make progress on closing the detention center. Dafna Linzer, a senior reporter for ProPublica, is following the President's efforts to close Guantánamo and she joins us with the latest news.

We look ahead to the coming week with Chris Hayes, Washington editor for The Nation, and Jill McGivering, BBC's Asia editor.  On the agenda: this morning's Senate deal on health care reform; where U.S. and Pakistani relations are headed; when Guantánamo Bay might close; the end results of climate meetings in Copenhagen; and the president's coming vacation in his home state, Hawai'i.

Terrorism suspects held in Guantánamo Bay may soon be on their way to a prison in rural northwestern Illinois, according to an Obama adminstration plan announced Tuesday. Illinois Governor Patrick Quinn has spoken in favor of the plan, which he says will bring as many as 3,000 jobs to Thomson, Illinois, and the surrounding area. We speak with Thomson resident Vicky Trager, who is a member of the village board of trustees. We also speak with Sue Stephens, news director at WNIJ, Northern Illinois Public Radio.

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• Washington Takeout: Todd Zwillich on the announcement from the White House that they'll move some of the detainees from Guantánamo Bay to a maximum-security prison in the "sleepy" town of Thomson, Illinois.
• Sports Takeout: Ibrahim Abdul-Matin on Hideki Matsui's move to the Angels and other MLB trades.
• Listeners' Takeout: We hear from our listeners on their experience with freelance jobs.

The federal government needs a place to move the detainees from Guantánamo Bay if they hope to close the detention camp, as President Obama has promised. Moving terrorism suspects onto U.S. soil is a controversial move opposed by many – especially Republicans. But there are also those who support the idea and believe it could be beneficial in a time of high unemployment. One of the places the government is considering is Thomson Correctional Center, in the small town of Thomson, Ill. We speak to Tony Arnold from Chicago Public Radio, along with Illinois state Rep. Mike Boland, a Democrat whose district covers Thomson.

The man who calls himself the 'mastermind' of the 9/11 terror attacks is heading to trial in U.S. federal court. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four of his alleged co-conspirators will be moved from Guantánamo Bay to face trial in lower Manhattan – just blocks away from the World Trade Center site. We speak to Slate senior editor Dahlia Lithwick about some of the challenges involved in such a trial. We also hear from attorney Jonathan Hafetz, co-editor of "The Guantanamo Lawyers: Inside a Prison Outside the Law." Hafetz represents Mohamedou Slahi, a Guantánamo detainee who may also be headed to the same civilan court.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, and four other men accused in the plot will be prosecuted in federal court in New York City, a federal law enforcement official said earlier today.

Joining us to discuss the implications of this announcement on the president's promise to close Guantánamo Bay is Jonathan Mahler, contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and author of the book "The Challenge: How a Maverick Navy Officer and a Young Law Professor Risked Their Careers to Defend the Constitution — and Won."

We've been following news coming in from post-election Afghanistan all morning. From Kabul we talk to Chris Morris, BBC's South Asia reporter, about the casualty count among coalition troops, assertions of voting fraud, and the release of the youngest prisoner from Guantánamo Bay: Mohammad Jawad, who was arrested in Afghanistan in 2002.

President Obama's pledge to shut down the infamous federal detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, by January 2010 means the administration needs to quickly find a place for the 229 detainees still housed there. After federal officials took a tour of the facility on Thursday, speculation mounted that the new Guantánamo might be a maximum security prison in Standish, Michigan (population 1,581). We speak to Detroit Free Press reporter Kathleen Gray, who was at the prison during the tour, and to the mayor of Standish, Kevin King, about what this might mean for the town.

A Federal judge has ordered the release of what is believed to be Guantanamo Bay’s youngest detainee. Mohammed Jawad has been detained there since 2002 when he was arrested in Kabul, Afghanistan, for throwing the hand grenade that injured two American troops and their Afghan interpreter. His lawyers claim that he was probably 14 or 15 years old at the time. The judge ruled that Jawad has been held based on a confession he gave after being threatened with death. Joining The Takeaway is Johnathan Hafetz, one of Mohammed Jawad’s lawyers. He's with the National Security Project at the ACLU.

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The tiny South Pacific island state of Palau has agreed to temporarily resettle 17 Chinese Muslims being held in Guantanamo Bay prison. The men are ethnic Uighurs from China's north-western Xinjiang province; they were cleared for release four years ago by U.S. authorities but have had nowhere to go. They can't be returned to China for fear they'd be mistreated and their resettlement in the U.S. faced fierce political opposition. Palau's current President, Johnson Toribong, said his country was “honored and proud” to take the detainees. We speak to Palau’s former president Tommy Remengesau, who stepped down in January, about the island's decision.

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The first detainee from Guantanamo Bay prison to face civilian trial in the U.S. pleaded "not guilty" in a New York court on Tuesday. Ahmed Ghailani is charged with helping to coordinate the bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The transfer and trial of this detainee is viewed as an important step in the Obama administration’s plan to close Guantanamo Bay. The Takeaway talks to Jonathan Mahler author of The Challenge: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and the Fight over Presidential Power about what this first trial means for the nation and the detainees.

For more on the trial of Ahmed Ghailani, watch this clip from The Rachel Maddow show.

President Obama spoke this morning in a joint appearance with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He talked about some of the same themes as in his major speech yesterday in Cairo. Obama said he's determined to get peace talks started again. Another major issue on the table: the closing of Guantanamo Bay. The Takeaway talks to Jeff Zeleny, White House Correspondent for The New York Times who is in Dresden.

Watch a clip of President Obama's speech in the video below.

The fate of 248 detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center in Cuba has been in the spotlight. We’ve heard much less about the 600 detainees currently being held at Bagram Air Force base in Afghanistan. New reporting from our partners at The New York Times shows that the detainees at Bagram present the U.S. with yet another massive challenge. A federal judge ruled on April 2 that some foreign prisoners have the right to use U.S. courts to challenge their detention. For more, The Takeaway talks to Richard Oppel Jr. the New York Times reporter who has been following this story.

For more, read Richard Oppel Jr.'s article, U.S. Captain Hears Pleas for Afghan Detainee, in today's New York Times.

This morning President Obama will deliver what the White House is calling a major national security speech. At least part of his speech will detail his plan to close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center. But with Congressman, Senators and even FBI Director Robert Mueller lining up against the closure of Guantanamo, what can Obama possibly say? The Takeaway talks to Jonathan Mahler. He’s a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and author of the book The Challenge: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and the Fight over Presidential Power.