US authorities on Friday vowed a fair trial for the alleged September 11 plotters after years of abuse in military jails, but when they arrive in New York they will find a city thirsting for revenge. "Hang them," said Joe Ricciardi, 55, a construction worker near the gaping hole of Ground Zero, site of the Twin Towers destroyed on September 11, 2001.
"Look at what they did to this place. Look at the families they wrecked," added Ricciardi's son, also called Joe, gesturing toward Ground Zero, where nearly 3,000 people died when hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center. "Put them in a bird cage and hang it in the middle of Times Square," a third man in the group said to mordant laughter.
Rudy Giuliani, the mayor who sought to calm a shocked New York in the wake of the attacks, lambasted the move by President Barack Obama's administration to allow the five accused co-conspirators to face trial in a civilian court just blocks away from where the Twin Towers once stood. "We have regressed to a pre-9/11 mentality with respect to Islamic extremist terrorism," he said in a statement. "Khalid Sheikh Mohammed should be tried like the war criminal he is and tried in a military court. He murdered as part of a declared war against us, America."
But the city's current mayor, Michael Bloomberg, disagreed, saying it was "fitting" that the trial will take place in the city and offering assurances that police would "handle security expertly." Announcing the stunning move, Attorney General Eric Holder promised to seek the death penalty against Sheikh Mohammed, the self-confessed 9/11 mastermind, and four others, but insisted they would have a fair hearing before a jury. The transfer would go some way toward meeting Obama's promise to shut down the legal twilight zone of Guantanamo Bay.
Human Rights Watch praised the decision as an "important step forward for justice." Yet when the five arrive in a southern Manhattan courtroom located just minutes from the scene of their alleged crime, the ensuing trial will be quite unlike any other.
New Yorkers have neither forgiven nor forgotten 9/11: the barely started reconstruction project at the World Trade Center reminds them daily of the carnage. So the chance to mete out justice to the alleged lead plotter himself promises sweet revenge. "It's the way it should have been from the beginning. This is where the crime happened," said John Watt, 39, who walks past Ground Zero every day to his marketing job.
He predicted frenzied coverage in the US media capital, street protests and a "reopening" of psychological wounds from that fateful day eight years ago. "I don't know how they'll handle security." The huge and heavily guarded federal courthouse at 500 Pearl Street regularly handles high-profile cases ranging from the man behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing to Wall Street conman Bernard Madoff and New York Mafia kingpins.
Bloomberg assured that "the NYPD is the best police department in the world and it has experience dealing with high-profile terrorism suspects and any logistical issues that may come up during the trials." Still, mathematics teacher Arielle Pink, 26, wondered how a New York court would ever find 12 people to form an impartial jury. "It would be tough to find jurors," she said. "Justice? I don't know I believe that will happen."
Some relatives of those killed in the World Trade Center attacks also question the wisdom of a trial, although for different reasons. "We feel that that's a terrible mistake," said Ed Kowalski, a director of the 9/11 Families for a Secure America Foundation.
"To allow a terrorist and a war criminal the opportunity of having US constitutional protections is a wrong thing to do and it's never been done before," he said. "Why would we as a country give these people a platform to further their cause?" For Jim, a 49-year-old carpenter taking a break on a bench by Ground Zero, the solution is simple. "They should hang these guys from one of the cranes in Ground Zero," said Jim, who wouldn't give his last name. "Everyone would come down to watch."
Comments
Comments are closed.