New York split over plan to try September 11 plotters

By Edith Honan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Some New Yorkers are angry that accused plotters of the September 11, 2001 attacks will be tried in a court near where the World Trade Center once stood, while others are relieved that justice may soon be served.

Five men, including the alleged mastermind of the attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be brought to New York from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to face prosecution in a criminal court, the Obama administration said on Friday.

The 2001 attacks destroyed the World Trade Center's twin towers in lower Manhattan and killed nearly 3,000 people.

"I think it's insensitive to New Yorkers and Americans because we've been through so much with 9/11," said Lucie Mansuetto, 23, a legal assistant from Brooklyn, as she waited in line for coffee not far from the World Trade Center site.

Bringing the men to New York would also "cause a security concern to New Yorkers," she said.

Several security scares since 2001 -- a 2007 steam pipe explosion and earlier this year a low flying plane trailed by a fighter jet flying over the Statue of Liberty for a photo shoot -- have created panic among still jittery New Yorkers.

Some people questioned whether trying the men in a criminal court was appropriate. There already are concerns about whether the accused will be able to get a fair trial in the city.

"How are they going to impanel a jury here?" asked engineer Joe Klein, 56. "I would think a military court would be more appropriate. The offense is of a military nature."

Wearing a Yankees baseball cap and selling coffee from a cart in Times Square, Bashir Saleh, 52, who moved to the United States from Afghanistan in 1982, said he could not understand why people would get upset about the trials being held here.

"Justice should be served one way or another. We have to do this," he said. "It's very simple, people who commit a crime, they have to pay for it."

Plumber Jon Adorno, from Long Island, New York, said he would just like to see justice done.

"They have to go in front of court somewhere so it might as well be here. Why not?" he said. "I would like to see them go to court anywhere, I don't mind it being here."

Other New Yorkers thought the city was the right place for the men to face court. "It's always good where you can bring a person back to a country where they committed their ill deed," said consultant Stephen Massel, 49.

As she smoked a cigarette in Times Square before starting work, Sacha Thomas, 31, a legal assistant from Brooklyn, described New York as "a very protective city" and said some people would be upset that the trials were being held here.

"You just have to put your faith in the system and hope that it works," she said. "We just have to trust in our government."

(Writing by Michelle Nichols, editing by Mark Egan and Paul Simao)