Via law prof Michael Froomkin at Discourse. Net, the Bush Administration is rushing plans for new prison construction at Guantanamo.

The Miami Herald reports:

The Pentagon is invoking emergency authority to fast-track funding of a comprehensive war-crimes court compound at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, according to a letter to Congress obtained by The Miami Herald.

Department of Defense spokesmen would not say when -- if ever -- the Pentagon had last invoked similar authority.

The text of the Pentagon's November 17 letter attempting to justify the plan is here (pdf.) The proposal itself is here (pdf.)

Froomkin says:

Hard to escape the feeling that the rush here is that once the Democrats are in Congress they won't allow this sort of travesty, and Rumsfeld wants to, as Menachem Begin used to put it, "make facts" on the ground.

I'd add that they are probably going to try to house as many detainees there as possible before January when the Dems take reign. It will be a lot harder to get the detainees out of Gitmo once situated there than it will be to prevent new arrivals.