9/11 Mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to Be to New York for Trial

WASHINGTON — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and four others accused in the attacks will be put on criminal trial in New York, Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to announce later Friday.

The decision, described by people familiar with the matter, is part of wider announcement planned on how to bring to justice detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay prison. It’s the first set of decisions before a Monday deadline on how to deal with the more than 200 prisoners remaining at the facility, which President Barack Obama has ordered closed.

Also expected in the announcement Friday will be plans to hold a military tribunal for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, alleged to have planned the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial in New York was widely expected since the Obama administration announced a preference to hold criminal trials, instead of military commissions for terror suspects held at Guantanamo. New York’s Manhattan U.S. attorney competed with the district in northern Virginia, home to the Pentagon, to prosecute the 9/11 accused and senior al-Qaeda leader. A team of prosecutors from both districts will handle the government’s case, people familiar with the matter said.

Formal charges aren’t expected to be announced for another few weeks. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has claimed authorship of the attacks, but he has also accused U.S. interrogators of torturing him. U.S. officials have acknowledged the use of harsh tactics, including water boarding, a technique intended to simulate drowning, which Mr. Obama and other government officials have called torture.

Mr. Obama signed an executive order Jan. 22 to close the prison within a year. Since then, the administration has run into obstacles erected by lawmakers, including some Democrats, who are nervous about political implications of moving detainees to the U.S. The deadline is expected to slip, administration officials have said, but plans to close the prison remain on track.