A double shocker came out of the mouth Mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday. He says he doesn’t want the trial of the 9/11 mastermind to be held in lower Manhattan. And if President Barack Obama doesn’t change his mind, the mayor says it will cost an eye-popping $1 billion for security.
Hey, a guy can change his mind. Bloomberg did about holding the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed terror trial here.
“It would be great if the federal government could find a site that didn’t cost a billion dollars, which using downtown will and it will also impact traffic and commerce and people’s lives downtown,” Bloomberg said.
It took a while, but now Bloomberg said he’s against the president’s plan to move the 9/11 mastermind and four other terrorists from Guantanamo Bay to Manhattan to face trial.
“It’s gonna cost and awful lot of money and disturb an awful lot of people,” Bloomberg said. “My hope is the attorney general and the president decide to change their minds.”
After the president initially made his decision, the mayor and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly sort of sucked it up and agreed to the move, providing the federal government paid the costs. But that was when police brass thought it would cost $75 million.
Sources told CBS 2 HD on Wednesday the $1 billion price tag, intense community opposition, and Obama’s falling popularity caused them to change their mind.
“I have to see his statement, okay? I have to see his reasoning and everything else,” Sen. Charles Schumer said.
Schumer has supported having the trial in New York from the very start.
But Congressman Peter King, the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, said having the terror trial here shows another one of the financial shots Obama is taking at New York. Taxing the banks is one; the terror trials are another, King said.
“Barack Obama’s policies certainly are not friendly to New York, not when it comes to 9/11 trial in Manhattan, which is going to cost the city over $1 billion over the next several years,” King said.
Community activists like Julie Menin, the chairwoman of Community Board 1, said the mayor’s change of heart shows he feels their pain.
“We shouldn’t spend a billion dollars to have the terror trial. We shouldn’t have it in the heart of the Financial District, the financial capital of this country, the only neighborhood that’s been attacked twice.”
The mayor said the trials should be held on a military base and a number of Republicans, like Sen. Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader John Boehner, agree.
Boehner said he didn’t think Congress will change the law to allow the suspected terrorists to leave Gitmo and come here.
{WCBS-TV/Noam Amdurski-Matzav.com Newscenter}
