Military trial for accused 9/11 mastermind

Bowing to political and legal reality, Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday that accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be tried before a military commission, reversing earlier plans to hold a civilian trial in lower Manhattan.

Insisting his idea for a civilian trial remains the right decision, Holder said congressional moves forced him to turn the case over to the military.

In December Congress passed a bill, signed by President Barack Obama in January, that barred the use of federal funds to move Guantánamo prisoners to the United States for trial.

Holder was forceful in his view that federal civilian prosecutors could have tried the case in any district court and that Congress took action without knowing the full nature of the evidence against Mohammed and his four co-defendants, who remain housed at Guantánamo.

"The reality is I know this case the way members of Congress do not," Holder told reporters. "Do I know better than them? Yes."

But it could take years, Holder indicated, to dismantle the restrictions Congress had put in the way of civilian trials. "We simply cannot allow a trial to be delayed any longer for the victims of the 9/11 attacks or for their family members who have waited for nearly a decade for justice," Holder said.

Holder did not disclose where the military commissions for Mohammed and the other defendants would be held. He said it is unclear whether the five men could receive the death penalty if they plead guilty in military court.

Many New York officials and members of the public supported Holder's decision but others remained opposed.

"As I have been saying since day one, these terror trials belong in a military commission at Guantánamo [Bay]," said Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford). "I am absolutely shocked that it took Attorney General Holder 507 days to come to this realization."

King criticized the attorney general for sounding "arrogant, basically saying he knows better than everybody else."

Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) called the move an "appropriate decision given the circumstances."

Mayor Michael Bloomberg Monday said it was "probably more appropriate to do it in a secure area with a military tribunal."

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, whose department would have borne the brunt of security arrangements with a Manhattan trial, said Holder made a "common sense decision."

In a statement, Sen. Charles Schumer called the decision "the final nail in the coffin of that wrongheaded idea." But Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand maintained Monday that "trying terrorists in federal courts is the best approach for our security and is consistent with our rule of law."

And the American Civil Liberties Union criticized putting the defendants before a military commission. Cases prosecuted in military commissions now "are sure to be subject to continuous legal challenges and delays, and their outcomes will not be seen as legitimate. That is not justice," said ACLU executive director Anthony D. Romero.

The decision Monday to throw the case over to a military commission means that the administration would have to delay for an undetermined time its plan to close the Guantánamo Bay detention center. In a related development Monday a federal judge in Manhattan dismissed the once-secret federal indictment against Mohammed and the other defendants and unsealed the court papers.

From the early days of the Obama administration, Congressional Republicans were opposed to the plan to close Guantánamo, while civil libertarians supported the idea.

Holder's reversal of his November 2009 decision to try the terror defendants in federal court in Manhattan came after strident criticism by city officials and residents about the burden of a trial in the city. Business groups applauded the trial's removal from Manhattan.

"Holding the terror trials in Lower Manhattan would have undermined the progress and rebuilding of this neighborhood, and it would have eroded the economic development efforts and successes over the last 10 years," the Real Estate Board of New York said in a statement.

With Tom Brune and

The Associated Press

Obama's stand on terror trials

Candidate Barack Obama vs. President Barack Obama on where to try terrorism suspects

June 24, 2007

Candidate Obama in San Antonio, Texas, says, "we're going to close Guantánamo. And we're going to restore habeas corpus."

Jan. 22, 2009

President Obama, newly elected, signs executive order requiring Guantánamo be closed within a year.

May 21, 2009

Obama announces terrorism suspects would be tried in federal courts "whenever feasible."

Nov. 13, 2009

Administration says it will try alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-defendants in a federal court in Manhattan.

Jan. 29, 2010

Obama aides, citing opposition, say they have abandoned plans to hold the 9/11 terrorism trial in Manhattan.

Jan. 7, 2011

Obama reluctantly signs a bill that includes a provision that bars the transfer of Guantánamo detainees to U.S. soil.

April 4, 2011

Holder says the administration has decided to try the Mohammed case before a military commission, not a civilian court.