Get the hell out of here: 9/11 trial positively cannot be in New York, Mr. Holder
EditorialDaily News
April 15, 2010
More than two months have passed since the White House ordered Attorney General Eric Holder to search for a place other than Manhattan for bringing Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, mastermind of 9/11, to trial.
And roughly the same amount of time has elapsed since Washington put out what seemed the definitive word on the subject:
"White House abandons plan to hold Khalid trial in Manhattan," reported the Daily News.
"New York is out," an administration official told The Washington Post.
And yet there was Holder yesterday, called to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee and asserting that "New York is not off the table" as a venue for putting Mohammed not just on trial, but on trial in civilian criminal court.
Holder is either a captain who is resolutely determined to go down with his ideological ship or one who doesn't have a clue about how to chart a steady course.
Why, it was only in February that Holder signaled he was open to trying Mohammed before a military tribunal - after, according to The Washington Post, President
Obama planned "to insert himself into the debate about where to try" the mass murderer and his fellows.
If the President has done so, it is not readily apparent. The decider needs to decide.
As Sen. Chuck Schumer said yesterday: "We know the administration is not going to hold the trial in New York. They should just say it already."
Long Island Rep. Pete King, the ranking Republican member of the House Homeland Security Committee, got to the heart of the matter by calling on Obama to shoulder Holder aside and end all this vacillating and confusion.
At virtually the same time Holder was testifying, Federal Protective Service Director Gary Schenkel was telling King's committee that his agency would be swamped trying to provide courthouse security for proceedings that could last a couple of years.
There is no question that the price would be high. Mayor Bloomberg has estimated the NYPD would have to lay out $200 million annually.
Stop the madness, Mr. President. Start the military tribunals.