White House close to deciding location for 9/11 case

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday the Obama administration is "close to a decision" on the location for trying confessed mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four alleged accomplices in the 9/11 attacks.

But Holder, speaking to reporters at the Justice Department, didn't answer a question about when he would announce the decision, which has been pending since January.

"We are working to make a determination about the placement of that trial," he said.

The White House, which has taken on a role in the decision making, declined to comment.

Holder's announcement a year ago that federal prosecutors would try Mohammed and the others in a federal courthouse just blocks from Ground Zero spawned a controversy that put the trial on hold.

Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), among the first to criticize Holder's announcement last year, issued a statement on Wednesday reiterating his opposition.

"I urge Attorney General Holder not to hold any 9/11 trials in New York or anywhere in the United States," he said. "These 9/11 terrorists should be tried before a military commission at Guantánamo."

Added Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), "The trial should not and will not be in New York."

But Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU's national security project, said a civilian trial would follow the rule of law in a system Americans can trust. "Military commissions," she said, "are plagued with constitutional and procedural problems."

In July, Holder said he preferred a New York civilian trial but reconsidered because Congress restricted funding and Mayor Michael Bloomberg switched sides to oppose it.

His announcement could come after a verdict in the embassy bombing trial under way in a Manhattan federal courtroom of accused al-Qaida member Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani.

As the first civilian trial of a Guantánamo detainee, it is seen as a test of trying suspected terrorists in a federal court.