By Suzanne Ma
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — The growing chorus from Manhattanites calling on the federal government to move the terror trials out of the city will finally be heard in Washington D.C.
Republican congressman Peter King said Thursday he had introduced a bill that would prevent the Sept. 11 terrorist trial from being held in New York City, the Associated Press reported.
King said Thursday that his bill would prohibit the use of Justice Department funds to try Guantanamo detainees in federal civilian courts.
The Obama administration announced last month plans to try the self-professed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others in a federal courthouse in lower Manhattan.
A date has not been set, but Mayor Michael bloomberg has estimated the trials, which he expects to run for 4 1/2 years, could cost as much as $1 billion.
Opposition to hosting the trials began with outraged residents living in Chinatown and Lower Manhattan, who would have to endure years of street closures and armed guards in a tight security zone surrounding the courts.
Now, King is calling it "one of the worst decisions ever made by any president." He told the Associated Press that terrorist suspects should be tried by military commissions.
Meanwhile, six senators have written to Attorney General Eric Holder, urging him to move the trials.
Sen. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand have also said they are open to the idea.
Earlier this week, Community Board 1 members passed a resolution requesting a meeting with Holder and suggesting four alternative venues: Governors Island, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh and a federal institution in Otisville.
The president of the Real Estate Board of New York has also chimed in, along with the Chairman of the Downtown Alliance, saying the trials would destroy the lower Manhattan economy.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg reversed his position this week, saying he would be happy if the trial was moved elsewhere. His comments come just days after he called moving the trials to Governors Island "dumb."
Finally, Gov. David Paterson, on radio station WOR-AM Thursday morning, said that he's always known lower Manhattan wasn't suitable for the trial.
"A change of venue would be certainly something we would consider, maybe even just different places where it won't tie up some many people and the cost," Paterson said. "The challenges are going to be formidable."
The Governor did not suggest alternate venues.
At a New York Press Club Event last week, it was Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly who revealed the NYPD's plans to lock down parts of Chinatown and lower Manhattan with armed guards during the forthcoming terror trials.
