Times Square security a preview of Sept. 11 trials

A policeman stands on Broadway in front of the Nasdaq Stock Market after an area of Times Square was evacuated while a suspicious vehicle was investigated in New York, December 30, 2009.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A plan to protect New Year's Eve revelers in Times Square is a template for how New York City will secure Manhattan during the trials of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other suspected September 11 plotters, police say.

Critics have accused the U.S. Justice Department of endangering America's most populous city by choosing to try Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks on the United States, and four others in a lower Manhattan court.

Tens of thousands of people pack Times Square and nearby streets every year to celebrate New Year's Eve, making the party a potential target. Security has been particularly tight at the celebrations since the 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

"You have similar elements protecting Times Square that would be employed protecting the prison. We're concerned about similar things," police spokesman Paul Browne said, adding that a suicide car bomb was a concern at both sites.

Aggressive crowd control at Times Square had already begun on Wednesday, and an investigation of a suspicious vehicle led to an even larger presence of emergency vehicles and heavily armed police, who shouted at bystanders to move.

The Nasdaq stock exchange building and three nearby buildings were briefly evacuated as police used robots and remote cameras to examine a parked van, which turned out not to contain explosives.

The security scare came less than a week after a Nigerian man was arrested for attempting to blow up a U.S.-bound passenger jet on Christmas Day.

No new specific threats have been directed at New York in the past five days and plans for New Year's Eve security have not changed as a result of the Christmas Day incident, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

PREPARING FOR CELEBRATIONS

If the accused September 11 plotters are indicted -- a federal grand jury is weighing the evidence, according to media reports -- authorities have 45 days to transfer them from the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the high-security wing of a jail adjacent to the federal court in New York.

U.S. Representative Peter King of New York is among those who have opposed the Justice Department plan.

"If you're talking about protecting New Year's Eve, that's one thing," said King, the senior Republican on the House of Representatives Homeland Security committee, "but all of the city becomes at risk with these trials."

Police securing the area around the court will employ many of the same procedures used at other big public events, including massing large numbers of officers to deter attacks, said Lydia Khalil of the Council on Foreign Relations.

New York police parked unmarked mobile units on adjacent streets and briefed surrounding hotel and business owners days ahead of the New Year's Eve celebrations.

They've also readied concrete barriers, radiation detection equipment, air testing for chemicals, rapid response and sniper teams, a mobile intelligence fusion center, collapsible watch towers, multiple security checkpoints and parking lot checks.

Richard Kolko, an FBI spokesman, said the Bureau plans to set up a mobile command post nearby to monitor celebrations.

Technicians will seal sewer vanes and close off mailboxes to prevent them from being used for explosives.

After the September 11 attacks, New York police increased routine security for New Year's Eve celebrations at Times Square, said Michael Sheehan, former head of counterterrorism for the New York Police Department.

"The threat is high, and we all hold our breath, and the ball drops and the people scatter and we've made it another year," Sheehan said.