President Obama Seeks $200M to Help Cities Host 9 / 11 Trials

[cal04]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/30/us/politics/AP-US-Obama-Terror-Trial.html

The Obama administration is proposing a $200 million fund to help pay for security costs in cities hosting the trials of accused terrorists such as Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (HAH'-leed shayk moh-HAH'-med).

A congressional aide familiar with the plan says the money will be included in the president's budget being released Monday. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because the spending blueprint hasn't been announced.

The administration said late last year the trials would take place in federal court in lower Manhattan, near where the World Trade Center once stood. But there's growing opposition from the city, and it now seems likely that the White House will decide to hold the trial elsewhere.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has put the cost of tighter security at $216 million just for the first year after Mohammed and the others were to arrive from the U.S. military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. New York City officials had warned of massive gridlock in lower Manhattan due to the extraordinary security steps that would have been required to host the trial.

The money for terrorist trials is just one piece of a $3.7 trillion or so budget plan for 2011 to be released Monday.

[Flaneur]

1. Don't we already have, uh, courthouses and tons of cops and stuff?

[LeftyAndProud60]

2. Isn't there a courthouse in DC? And I'm sure the security there is always at high alert. NT