Pressure increases to move Mohammed trial out of N.Y.

WASHINGTON — Pressure increased Friday on the Obama administration to move the 9/11 terror trials out of lower Manhattan after word leaked that the Justice Department is exploring other sites.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg stepped up his campaign against a trial in his city of accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and fellow plotters, and an influential Senate Democrat called it an “avoidable danger” and urged relocation.

Although Obama administration officials acknowledged
they are discussing other locations to hold civilian trials for the
indicted al-Qaida defendants, by late Friday they had issued no
announcement on what they would do.

President Barack Obama did not mention the controversy in his public appearances Friday, including his talk to House Republicans in Baltimore.

White House and Justice Department officials stood
by the decision to try Mohammed in a civilian court, despite Republican
demands that Mohammed be tried in military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay.

“There is only one solution, and only one sensible
policy: for the president to reverse course and have (this) tried by
military commission,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.

Bloomberg focused on the location, not type, of trials Friday in his weekly radio show.

He said he wants them to be held elsewhere and that he told administration officials Thursday that if held in New York they would be “phenomenally expensive” and “disruptive” to residents and businesses.

Without Bloomberg’s support, administration officials find themselves hard pressed to stick to their plan.

Asked if the trial would go ahead as planned, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said “that seems unlikely given the political reality.”

The White House may not have the votes to defeat a bill introduced late Wednesday to cut off funds for the trial by Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.

Democratic support in New York appeared to be unraveling. Sen. Charles Schumer, the third-ranking Senate Democrat, and Rep. Nydia Velazquez have backed away from the administration plan.

Schumer on Thursday said he spoke with top White
House officials to encourage them “to find suitable alternatives.”
Neither he nor aides responded to queries Friday.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said she shares the concerns of Bloomberg and local businesses. “I am open to alternative locations,” she said.

Adding to the pressure Friday was Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a member of the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary committees, who sent a letter to Obama urging relocation.

“Without getting into classified details, I believe we should view the attempted Christmas Day plot as a continuation, not an end, of plots to strike the United States by al-Qaida and its affiliates,” Feinstein wrote, referring to the bombing attempt on a Detroit-bound airliner.

“I believe holding the trial of the most significant terrorist in custody would add to the threat,” she wrote.

Raising those concerns tightened the bind for
administration officials. Earlier Friday they had argued that national
security was not at stake and that it was the cost of the security that
led them to reconsider.

Bloomberg put the cost at more than $200 million a year that could over time top $1 billion, an amount that could be seen as an extravagance at a time Obama is freezing funds for domestic programs.

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