-
Source: Reuters -
Related
Under intense bipartisan pressure, US Attorney General Eric Holder is considering alternative sites to New York City for prosecuting the accused plotters of the September 11 attacks amid concerns about security and costs, an administration official said.
The Obama administration has been harshly criticised for plans to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four of his alleged co-conspirators a few blocks from where the World Trade Center twin towers stood because of worries about security and the potential impact on businesses in the area.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg earlier this week reversed his support for holding the trials in the heart of Manhattan and he was quickly joined in his opposition by others.
Bloomberg has estimated the cost of security for the trial to be at least $200 million a year and has asked the Obama administration to pick up the tab.
It was not immediately clear what other venues would be considered and while Bloomberg suggested holding the trial on a military base, one US official has said that no terrorism trials had been held outside of a federal courthouse.
Republicans and even some of President Barack Obama's fellow Democrats have ramped up pressure in recent weeks against the planned criminal trials for the alleged September 11 suspects, urging that they be tried in military tribunals instead.
In addition to security concerns, some lawmakers - as well as some relatives of the almost 3,000 people who were killed in the September 11 attacks - have said the defendants could use the criminal courts as soapboxes to propagate their anti-American beliefs and turn the trials into a media circus.
However, Holder testified to Congress last year that the judges who will preside over the trials will be able to prevent Mohammed from turning them into a circus.
Administration officials have also repeatedly pointed to past terrorism trials held in US courts with little difficulty and said going that route has been largely the practice since the September 11 attacks.
World News Video
-
Dangerous rush to Everest summit (1:59)
-
Dozens killed in Syrian massacre (2:09)
-
'King of Romance' competes in Eurovision (1:46)
