PROTESTING TO CANCEL 9/11 TRIALS

Family members of victims and first responders lost during the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks will gather in lower Manhattan this Saturday, Dec. 5, to protest the federal government’s plan to try the alleged mastermind of the attack in New York City.

Organized by the 9/11 Never Forget Coalition, the event will take place at noon Saturday at Foley Square, located across from the federal courthouse.

As announced, the coalition is protesting last month’s decision by President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder to hold the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed— identified as the al- Qaeda operative who helped coordinate the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and United Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pa.—in federal court in lower Manhattan, only blocks away from Ground Zero.

Four other alleged co-conspirators of Mohammed—Walid Muhammed Salih Mubarak Bin Attash, Ramzi Bin Al Shibh, Ali Abdul-Aziz Ali, and Mustafa Ahmed Al Hawsawi—are also scheduled to be tried during the same proceedings in New York.

The 9/11 Never Forget Coalition charges that giving the conspirators a trial under the American criminal justice system is tantamount to “giving war criminals the same rights as American citizens while endangering the safety of all New Yorkers.” The organization has sent a letter signed by 300 relatives of 9/11 victims to President Obama, Attorney General Holder and Defense Secretary Robert Gates urging them to reverse the decision.