In his biggest policy flip-flop since taking office, President Obama yesterday gave up on his campaign pledge to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed in a federal courthouse just blocks from Ground Zero, while his top legal eagle blamed the move on Congress.
Attorney General Eric Holder said he made the decision reluctantly — and begrudgingly — following a firestorm of criticism from the city and across the nation.
The ruling came on the same day that Obama announced the formation of his re-election committee and a day before a House judiciary panel planned a hearing on foot-dragging in prosecuting the 9/11 cases, including emotional testimony from relatives of the victims.
Holder made it clear that he preferred a federal trial — but complained that a law approved by Congress last year that restricted detaining the 9/11 terrorists on US soil made that all but impossible.
“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 at a news conference.
Holder formally unsealed and dismissed the federal indictment and referred the case to the Department of Defense for a military commission trial, which will be held at Guantanamo Bay. Many frustrated 9/11 family members said they were relieved the admitted terrorists will finally be brought to trial.
“Thank God they’re being put on trial. It’s about time. I’m so fed up. I just want them tried,” said James Riches, a retired FDNY chief, whose firefighter son, Jimmy, died on 9/11.
“It’s a disgrace that we had to wait two years to come to this decision. Enough is enough. They killed 3,000 people.”
Al Santora, whose 23-year-old firefighter son, Christopher, was killed at Ground Zero, praised the White House for the reversal.
“Sometimes a leader has to admit he made a mistake. It appears Obama has. I’m delighted that the trial won’t be here in New York or anywhere on US soil. Gitmo is where the trials should be held,” Santora said.
Aside from KSM, the defendants include Waleed bin Attash, Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi. The foursome carried out KSM’s orders in providing logistics, financing, training and other support to the hijackers involved in the 9/11 attacks.
The reversal drew praise from City Hall and downtown residents and merchants. City Hall said it would have had to spend $200 million to secure the area around the courthouse and restrict activities downtown during the trial.
“Being spared the expense is good for us,” Mayor Bloomberg said.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly called the change of venue “a sound decision all around.”
Opponents of civilian trials said it would be easier to prosecute the terrorists in a military tribunal, citing less stringent standards of evidence. But civil libertarians said it would cause more problems.
The first Guantanamo detainee tried in Manhattan federal court last year provided fodder for opponents of civilian trials for accused terrorists. Ahmed Ghailani, charged for his role in the 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, was convicted of only one count. The other 279 more serious charges were tossed out.
Sources close to the KSM case said Holder and the White House had no choice but to abandon a federal trial. Their opponents forced their hand. There were few — if any — pockets of support for the AG’s decision to bring the trial to New York, and he couldn’t drum up any allies even as he tested different ideas, according to those familiar with the attorney general’s decision-making process.
“There was no air support,” one source said.
Holder encountered vocal opposition from City Hall and Police Commissioner Kelly and a bipartisan coalition on Capitol Hill — including Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) — that showed no signs of easing up.
Over the months, Holder made it clear he believed the right decision was to hold the trial in New York — if not in Manhattan, then upstate at a federal jail in Otisville in a secluded section of Orange County. One of the few officials working to help Holder clear the way for the trial to come to New York was Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Queens/Brooklyn), who at points tried to convince Kelly to stay open-minded. Weiner’s efforts failed.
“In the end, the constitutional law books were almost irrelevant,” one official said. “When Congress passed that restriction, the debate was sort of moot. Until December. we had some uncertainty.”
Additional reporting by David Seifman, Bruce Golding and Helen Savina