Is the Justice Department considering relocating the federal criminal trial of self-professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-conspirators to New Haven, Conn.?

The Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post, citing unnamed Obama administration officials, says New Haven has been discussed as one possibility.

Topping the list, the source said, is upstate Otisville — home to a federal penitentiary where the terrorists, now at Guantanamo Bay, could be housed. Other cities being considered, the source said, include White Plains in Westchester County and New Haven, Conn.

The Hartford Courant, citing the Jan. 29 Post report, said, “the old granite federal courthouse on the east side of the New Haven Green was under consideration as a possible alternative site.” A current online version of the Post report does not contain that detail.

A spokeswoman for New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, Jr., the city has not been in contact with Justice Department officials about the possibility.

“No, we were not contacted by the Federal government about holding the trials here,” Jessica Mayorga, DeStefano’s spokeswoman, told The Public Record Wednesday.

Two high-profile federal prosecutors based in Connecticut, Nora Dannehy and John Durham, both of who are still conducting separate, independent investigations into Bush administration-related abuses, including the destruction of torture a tapes and the firing of nine US attorneys, would be the likely picks to try Mohammed and the other alleged conspirators.

Tom Carson, a spokesman for Dannehy and Durham, had no comment on the possibility of the 9/11 trial being moved to New Haven. A spokesperson for the Department of Justice was unavailable for comment because of massive snowfall in the Washington, D.C. area that effectively shut down the city.

The Courant noted that “experts said that the U.S. District Court in New Haven, designed originally as an easily accessible U.S. Post Office, would be difficult to protect and lacks capacity. What’s more, moving the trial from New York to Connecticut could provide the defendant, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, with a legal issue that could be challenged.”

The Courant report added:

The only recent high-security, terror-related trial in Connecticut took place in New Haven in 2008. A federal jury, in a trial involving elaborate security measures, convicted former U.S. Navy signalman Hassan Abu-Jihaad of passing military secrets to London-based al-Qaida sympathizers. Abu-Jihaad was accused of crimes in California, Arizona and aboard ship, but was tried in New Haven because his e-mail to London passed through a computer server in Connecticut.

Two weeks ago, the Obama administration signaled that the Justice Department could change the venue of the 9/11 trial.  Last week, Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) sent a message to the White House in a cosponsored a bill to cut federal funding for a civilian 9/11 trial.  Lieberman, and legislation sponsor Senator Lindsey Graham, both cited the price tag for the trial as one concern.

Spokesman for the mayor, Jason Post said, “The cost estimate was prepared by the NYPD.”  The NYPD was contacted but did not return a comment at the time.  It is still unclear how exactly the price tag for the trial, $200 million, was figured.

Graham and Lieberman claim that it will be cheaper and more secure to try Mohammed and the four co-conspirators in military commissions.  Which civil liberty groups such as the ACLU, have staunchly opposed.

“Terrorists are criminals, not warriors, and the U.S. should try all terrorism cases in federal courts where they belong,” said Ben Wizner, Staff Attorney of the ACLU.  Wizner went on to say that American courts are capable of handling the trials, and that the “military commissions system is designed to ensure convictions rather than fair trials, and still fails to ensure basic due process guaranteed by U.S. and international law.”

Additionally, retired members of the military spoke out against the federal government trying terrorists as soldiers, in military commissions.  “In a letter to President Obama last month, 33 retired military officials wrote that terrorists should be treated as mass-murderers,” Main Justice reported.

A report released by the Department of Justice in 2009 said, “[The Department’s] efforts have resulted in the securing of 319 convictions or guilty pleas in terrorism or terrorism-related cases arising from investigations conducted primarily after September 11, 2001.”

It is unclear whether the convictions and guilty pleas cited came out of civilian trials or military commissions.

Joshua Durkin is a contributor to The Public Record based in Connecticut. He can be reached at joshua.durkin@pubrecord.org