NEW YORK, Nov 13, (AFP) -US authorities on Friday vowed a fair trial for the alleged September 11 plotters after years of abuse in military jails, but when they arrive in New York they will find a city thirsting for revenge.
“Hang them,” said Joe Ricciardi, 55, a construction worker near the gaping hole of Ground Zero, site of the Twin Towers destroyed on September 11, 2001.
“Look at what they did to this place. Look at the families they wrecked,”added Ricciardi's son, also called Joe, gesturing toward Ground Zero, where nearly 3,000 people died when hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center.
“Put them in a bird cage and hang it in the middle of Times Square,” a third man in the group said to mordant laughter.
Rudy Giuliani, the mayor who sought to calm a shocked New York in the wake of the attacks, lambasted the move by President Barack Obama's administration to allow the five accused co-conspirators to face trial in a civilian court just blocks away from where the Twin Towers once stood.
“We have regressed to a pre-9/11 mentality with respect to Islamic extremist terrorism,” he said in a statement.
“Khalid Sheikh Mohammed should be tried like the war criminal he is and tried in a military court. He murdered as part of a declared war against us, America.”But the city's current mayor, Michael Bloomberg, disagreed, saying it was “fitting” that the trial will take place in the city and offering assurances that police would “handle security expertly.
”Announcing the stunning move, Attorney General Eric Holder promised to seek the death penalty against Sheikh Mohammed, the self-confessed 9/11 mastermind, and four others, but insisted they would have a fair hearing before a jury. |
E-mail