Obama backtracks on electoral promise

US Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks and four other suspects will face justice before a US tribunal at Guatanamo rather than in a civilian court in New York.

The decision marks a major reversal both for Obama and Holder, especially since the president initially promised to shut down the prison at the US Naval Base on Guantanamo Bay — where Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and the others will now be tried.

"Sadly, this case has been marked by needless controversy since the beginning," Holder said, revealing that a 2009 indictment against Mohammed and the four others has sat for months under seal in federal court in New York, without ever proceeding. "But despite all the argument and debate it has engendered, the prosecution for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his co-conspirators should never have been about settling ideological arguments or scoring political points."

Republican lawmakers, and some Democrats, who vigorously opposed a federal civilian trial for the alleged the 11 September plotters welcomed the news that the White house and Holder had reversed their earlier decision to move the defendants from Cuba to New York.

In late 2009, the attorney general said that the trials of the five men would be held in the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan, a decision that at first was met with general public approval.

In early 2010, Holder was running into steep opposition from New York politicians from both parties, along with much of the public, who were concerned that a civilian trial would cost too much, place New York once again in the terror spotlight, and possibly endanger the New York public. At the same time, there were mounting protests over a new Muslim mosque centre near the trade centre site as well.