Official: No NYC Trial for 9/11 Terrorists

Meredith Jessup | January 29, 2010 11:49 PM

After widespread public outrage over potential civilian trials in New York City for 9/11 conspirators--objections which most recently included Mayor Michael Bloomberg--the White House is pulling the plug on the NYC trials.

MSNBC has confirmed, along with the NYTimes and Washington Post getting the scoop:

“New York is out,” one administration official told the [Washington] Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the decision had not yet been officially announced. “We’re considering other options.”

The Justice Department is drawing up plans for possible alternate locations to try Mohammed and four alleged accomplices, two administration officials told The Associated Press earlier Friday.

Though the officials wouldn’t discuss locations under consideration, others have suggested Governors Island, a former military base in New York Harbor that now welcomes summertime picnickers and bike riders; the U.S. Military Academy at West Point or Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, N.Y…

Mayor Nicholas Valentine of the small upstate city of Newburgh has offered his community as a possible location. The city has a new state-of-the-art courthouse, he said, and is less than a 90-minute commute from Manhattan. The air base there has been used in the past to fly in terror suspects facing trial in the district.