9/11 suspects to be tried in New York

Civil liberties advocates hailed Friday's decision.

"Bringing these men to justice in a legitimate system will allow the world to focus at long last on the atrocities they are accused of committing against us, rather than on how we have treated them," said Tom Malinowski of Human Rights Watch.

Republican Senator John McCain, who lost to Obama in the 2008 presidential election but also supports closing Guantanamo, condemned the decision, arguing that military tribunals were the best venue for the terrorism suspects.

"They are war criminals, who committed acts of war against our citizens and those of dozens of other nations," he said.

The five September 11 suspects are unlikely to be moved until January because the administration must give Congress 45 days notice and alert state and local officials. Once in New York they will be held in a federal detention facility.

JAN 22 CLOSURE DEADLINE AT RISK

Potentially complicating the case is that while Mohammed was in U.S. custody before being brought to Guantanamo, he was subjected 183 times to "waterboarding," which simulates drowning by pouring water over the face while restrained.

Any confessions or other information gleaned through torture could probably not be used during trial. In many other Guantanamo cases, judges have barred such evidence. But Holder said other evidence was available for prosecutors.

In addition to claiming responsibility for the September 11 attacks, Mohammed has said he carried out other attacks and in 2002 beheaded kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan.

"I am absolutely convinced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be subject to the most exacting demands of justice," Obama said in Tokyo during a trip through Asia.

Holder said in the public television interview that he did not consult Obama about the decision but merely informed him.

He told reporters the New York trial would take place at a court a few blocks from where the World Trade Center twin towers stood before they were felled by hijacked planes. Almost 3,000 people in New York, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon were killed in the attacks.

"It is fitting that 9/11 suspects face justice near the World Trade Center site where so many New Yorkers were murdered," said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The decisions about the terrorism suspects came as Obama's top lawyer, Gregory Craig, who was charged with leading the White House's troubled effort to close Guantanamo, announced his resignation on Friday.

(Additional reporting by Caren Bohan in Tokyo and Michelle Nichols in New York, Editing by Arshad Mohammed and David Storey)