Snipers, dogs and small army to keep city secure during 9/11 terrorists trial blocks from WTC site
Snipers, dogs and small army to keep city secure during 9/11 terrorists trial blocks from WTC site
BY Patrice O'Shaughnessy, Rocco Parascandola and Alison Gendar
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Saturday, November 14th 2009, 4:00 AM
Rooftop snipers, armored vehicles and lock-down zones around the Pearl Street courthouse are part of the plan to insure safety during the trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his cohorts.
Schwartz for News
Rooftop snipers, armored vehicles and lock-down zones around the Pearl Street courthouse are part of the plan to insure safety during the trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his cohorts.
New York's law enforcement leaders are busy planning to keep things safe and secure.
Schwartz for News
New York's law enforcement leaders are busy planning to keep things safe and secure.
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Security will be at an all-time high for the trial of five accused 9/11 terrorists - just a few blocks and eight years away from the lost twin towers of the World Trade Center.
Rooftop snipers, armored vehicles and lock-down zones around the Pearl Street courthouse are part of the plan to insure safety during the trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his cohorts.
"It's highly appropriate that those accused in the deaths of nearly 3,000 human beings in New York City be tried here, and the NYPD is prepared for the security required," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly vowed.
The men are in the Guantanamo Bay terror prison and likely won't be brought here for weeks, but New York's law enforcement leaders are busy planning to keep things safe and secure.
The U.S. marshals will handle courthouse security, and their main mission is to protect those on trial. The job for the FBI and the NYPD is protecting the public from anyone hoping to disrupt the trial or gain international recognition by trying to free the defendants.
Security will include 24-hour fixed canine posts and a counterassault team car - an unmarked bulletproof SUV in the area.
The NYPD's heavily armed Hercules teams will lock down and sweep the area before suspects are moved from the federal lockup to the courtroom via a not-so-secret underground tunnel.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder noted the tunnel means the accused terrorists "never have to see the light of day."
Behind the scenes, the FBI, NYPD and CIA intelligence officers will take the temperature of the Muslim community while monitoring chatter from known terror groups to Internet chat rooms.
Holder said New York, after handling a number of terrorist trials in the past, was the clear choice for the trial of the 9/11 detainees.
"I asked the Marshals Service to look at a number of sites and tell me... 'Which one is going to be the safest to bring these cases?'" Holder said. "They said New York."
The city has handled several high-stakes, high-security terror trials since 1995.
That's when the city mobilized against potential retaliation following the clean-sweep terrorism convictions of radical Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and nine followers. Their terrorist bombing plot targeted the United Nations, the FBI's New York headquarters, the Lincoln and Holland tunnels and the George Washington Bridge.
During the 2001 trial of the four men accused of plotting to blow up American embassies for Osama Bin Laden, bomb-sniffing dogs patrolled the court corridors during jury selection.
New Yorkers took the news, and the prospect of additional security measures, in stride.
"I'm not worried. I think it would be symbolic if he was tried and convicted here - a just result," said lawyer James Powers, 37, who witnessed the 9/11 attack from his office window on Broadway. "To the extent we are already a target, I don't think this really makes us more of one."
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