GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- Bowing to President Barack Obama's wishes, the Pentagon has dropped war-crimes charges against a Tanzanian captive here who will instead face a civilian terrorism trial in New York City.

On Sunday, Ahmed Ghailani, about 35, had yet to be transferred off this remote base. But war court spokesmen said Susan Crawford, the civilian appointee who oversees military commissions, had dropped commissions charges accusing Ghailani of helping plot the 1998 twin suicide bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam.

Ghailani is the first Guantánamo captive the Obama administration has chosen to put on trial in civilian court rather than before juries of U.S. military officers this remote base in southeast Cuba.

He arrived here in September 2006 from years of CIA custody and has been held in a special segregated lockup called Camp 7.

Pentagon spokesmen declined to say when and how he would be airlifted to New York. Last month, members of Congress sought to stop the White House from moving Guantánamo detainees to U.S. soil by stripping prison-camps closing funds from a Defense Department supplemental budget request.

Pentagon officials disclosed the dismissal on the eve of an administrative hearing for Canadian detainee Omar Khadr, who is facing charges here that allege he threw a grenade that mortally wounded a U.S. soldier in a July 2002 firefight in Afghanistan. Khadr was 15, and captured on the spot, shot twice in the back.

Khadr is being brought into court Monday for the first session of military commissions since President Barack Obama took office. They will function under Bush-era rules because the new White House is still circulating proposed changes to the much-criticized war court around Capitol Hill. Meantime, the Obama administration had asked the commissions' military judges to suspend their proceedings while the new administration reviews its terror prosecutions.

At issue in the Khadr hearing Monday is which lawyers should defend the boy who grew into manhood behind the razor wire here. Pentagon defense lawyers have been arguing among themselves for months about Khadr's best strategy, and the case judge, Army Col. Patrick Parrish has said as the client the young Canadian gets to decide.

Meantime, commissions spokesman Joe DellaVedova has said that Pentagon prosecutors have 18 cases still pending at the war court besides the Khadr case.

Military judges have agreed to suspend two cases until September, in compliance with the president's request. The judges are deciding on requests for delay in eight more cases, including the death penalty prosecution of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other men accused of mass murder.

Crawford hasn't decided whether to permit prosecutors to go forward with eight other cases, including the death penalty prosecution of Abd el Rahim al Nashiri, a Yemeni. Nashiri had been charged in the October 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole but Crawford withdrew the charges after President Obama sought a suspension. DellaVedova said Sunday the prosecution was still viable despite the withdrawal.

Navy Capt. John Murphy also made his debut as the Pentagon's new chief war crimes prosecutor, telling 10 reporters at Guantánamo for the Khadr proceedings that the government was ready to open the murder trial as soon as the Obama administration clears the way.

''Our witnesses are ready. We are ready to try it,'' said Murphy, who was mobilized into uniform from a job as a Justice Department job.

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