White House Ends Plan for 9/11 Trial in New York City

2 years ago

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Luisita Lopez Torregrosa

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The White House on Friday ended its plan to try the 9/11 plotters in New York City, giving in to mounting pressure from city officials, business leaders and community organizers to move the terrorism trial out of the city, according to The New York Times.

Obama administration officials had acknowledged earlier in the day that they were looking for other sites for the trial after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York and other officials withdrew their support for a trial to be held in federal court in Lower Manhattan, just a few blocks from Ground Zero, the craters where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood.

Citing the disruption of daily life, commerce and business in the heavily trafficked Lower Manhattan area, the very area most damaged by the attacks on the World Trade Center, city leaders, including the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, corporate executives, financiers and an energized community board, built a campaign to stop the trial from taking place here.

The opposition came to a boil this week. A major blow came from Bloomberg, whose announced opposition on Wednesday set off a chain reaction. Key elected officials like Sen. Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Congressman Pete King of Long Island, and members of Congress joined the opposition to the plan.

The crowning blow came when Sen. Diane Feinstein of California, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a formidable force in Washington, said on Thursday that she believed the trial should be moved out of New York City.

After persistent refusals to move the trial out of Lower Manhattan, the Obama administration on Friday started to consider other possible trial sites.

It is not clear when the administration will make an official announcement.

Filed Under: Terror

Tagged: daily guidance, DailyGuidance

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