New York, January 31: The Obama administration has dropped plans to bring the alleged 9/11 attack plotters in a civilian court in New York over mounting opposition from local officials and residents.
“New York is out,” an administration official told, on condition of anonymity.
Another official said though no decision has been yet formalized, the Justice Department is already considering other venues.
“(The administration) was considering other options,” he told. The reversal comes after New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg retreated his backing to the government plan, citing the high cost.
“It would be great if the federal government could find a site that didn’t cost a billion dollars, which using downtown will,” Bloomberg said.
He was backed by other New York officials, including Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, who urged the White House “to find suitable alternatives.”
New York businesses have also expressed concern about disruption and security risks in the area close to Wall Street and Chinatown.
US Attorney General Eric Holder announced last November that five suspects, including the alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be prosecuted in a Manhattan courthouse in New York.
The courthouse is just blocks from where the World Trade Center stood before hijacked airliners slammed into the Twin Towers in 9/11, 2001, killing at least 3,000 people.
Civilian Trials
Despite the reserve, the Obama Administration stressed it is still committed to its promise to try the suspects before civilian courts.
“Currently, our federal jails hold hundreds of convicted terrorists, and the president’s opinion has not changed on that,” White House spokesman Bill Burton said.
The government commitment drew support from civil liberty groups.
“All of our federal courts are equipped and able to handle such cases. That’s where they belong, and that’s where they should stay,” Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said.
But the administration would appear to have few good alternative locations due to an intense local opposition in the other mooted venue, the Eastern District of Virginia.
This prompted some officials to suggest holding a federal proceeding within a military base.
For this suggestion, there is an Air National Guard base near the city of Newburgh, that could be used for the trial.
But using it would require building a courthouse and pretrial detention center.
ACLU, a harsh critic of military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, said it would not object to a military cocoon for a temporary federal courthouse.
“As long as these trials occur in federal criminal courts with proper due-process protections, the actual venue doesn’t matter very much,” Romero said.
-Agencies