Feds Still on Fence, But Council Resolution Is Clear: Move 9/11 Trials
With the federal government still refusing to rule out a Lower Manhattan courthouse for the Sept. 11 terror trials, a City Council resolution may give a big boost to Downtown opponents of the plan.
At a hearing in the Council chambers Friday, a crowd of local residents, community leaders and elected officials took turns praising the resolution, which calls on Attorney General Eric Holder to rescind his decision to prosecute Khalid Sheik Muhammad and four others terror suspects in the Moynihan Federal Courthouse at 500 Pearl Street, on the western edge of Chinatown.
“Lower Manhattan has suffered so much, but it has remained a resilient, vibrant and diverse community,” said Councilwoman Margaret Chin, who co-chaired the hearing with Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr. “If we have those terror trials here, it’s going to be disastrous for Lower Manhattan and for New York in general.”
The Council will vote on the resolution March 3. If it passes, the resolution would put the Council in line with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Sen. Charles Schumer and many other elected officials who recently have come out in opposition to holding the trials in the city. Last month, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly laid out key elements of his department’s extensive, $200-million-a-year plan to safeguard Lower Manhattan against the threat of a terrorist attack during the trials. It includes thousands of metal barriers limiting pedestrian and vehicle access to streets and sidewalks, snipers positioned on rooftops and helicopters hovering constantly overhead, all in a residential neighborhood.
Rep. Peter King, a Long Island Republican, and state Sen. Daniel Squadron both said during the hearing the government had made a grave mistake in planning to hold the trials in Lower Manhattan, though they disagreed sharply on the merits of trying the suspected terrorists in a civilian court versus a military tribunal. Elizabeth Berger, president of the Downtown Alliance and herself a Lower Manhattan resident, said that for the sake of residents, businesses and even tourists, the Downtown venue makes no sense.
“The district is simply too dense, with too much going on and too much progress after 9/11 to introduce more police checkpoints, rooftop snipers and barriers,” Berger said.
For weeks, residents living closest to the proposed site of the trials have been holding protests and press conferences blasting the government’s indecision. During the hearing, some of the same residents took aim at critics who they said have marginalized their efforts as NIMBY-ism or weakness in the face of the country’s enemies.
“To say that somehow we are unpatriotic, or that we’re showing signs of weakness or that we just can’t handle it is absolutely the most ignorant and insulting thing you could say about my neighborhood, and we will not stand for that,” said Jan Lee, a leader of the Civic Center Residents Coalition and resident of Chatham Green, an apartment complex across the street from the prison where the accused terrorists would be held during the trials.
“We were told a number of times to just make the best of it, that it was the President’s edict,” said Jeanie Chin, a leader of the protest and one of hundreds of residents living at Chatham Towers, the apartment complex next door to the courthouse. Chin said she was proud of her group for helping to persuade key elected officials to withdraw their support for the Downtown trials.
“Democracy does work,” Chin said, “but it means you don’t get to sleep for about five months.”
The hearing came as federal officials including Holder and President Barack Obama continue to equivocate on the trials’ location. During a televised interview Feb. 7, President Obama said he had "not ruled it out, but I think it's important for us to take into account the practical, logistical issues involved” in holding the trials Downtown.
"I mean, if you've got a city that is saying no, and a police department that's saying no, and a mayor that's saying no, that makes it difficult," Obama said during the interview with CBS' Katie Couric.
The administration is under increased pressure to move the trials, and not just out of New York City. Most recently, King introduced a bill that would block funding the trials in a civilian court.
Noting that opposition, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the city was nevertheless still being considered as a possible venue. “Obviously the President and members of White House staff have an equity in this, given what's [happening] on Capitol Hill, legislatively," Gibbs said, adding that “some of the people that you hear now that are opposed to the trial in New York were, in November, supportive of the trial.”
“We are going to take into account security and logistical concerns that those individuals now have,” he said. “The cost of the trial obviously is one thing."
By Matt Dunning