Griffo Votes for Resolution to Relocate Terror Trials out of New York

(Albany, NY – Feb. 9, 2010) State Senator Joseph A. Griffo (R-IP-C, Rome) today joined a bi-partisan effort in calling for the Obama Administration to pull the 9/11 terrorist trials out of New York City.

Senator Griffo co-sponsored a State Senate resolution (J3889) to call upon the U.S. Justice Department to move the trials to outside of New York City.

“We passed this resolution to urge U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama to reverse this decision and prosecute these individuals on a secure military base where the public cannot be harmed,” said Senator Griffo. “The Obama Administration has offered no justification for this change in policy which places everyone in New York City at risk.”

“New York City isn’t the venue to try foreign nationals who succeeded in planning, attacking and killing Americans,” Griffo continued. “President Obama has acknowledged that we’re at war. By definition, war criminals deserve to be brought before a military tribunal, and not a federal court in downtown New York.”

Griffo asserts that holding the terror trials in New York City will also have a staggering economic impact on businesses, disrupt city residents, and cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. “Last month, when nineteen members of New York’s own Congressional delegation had to petition the President to pledge hundreds of millions to help defray the costs of these trials, that should’ve raised the alarm bells that the feds are unsure of how much of an impact the trials would have on New Yorkers.”

Senator Griffo himself was in Manhattan on September 11, 2001. He admonished the thinking behind moving the trials to New York City.

“The people of New York suffered one of the greatest tragedies in our nation’s history on September 11th,” Griffo stressed. “The idea that these trials would be held just blocks from where the tragedy occurred is at best questionable and at worst, an outrage, and shows a callous and blatant disregard for the people of New York.”

Griffo Votes for Resolution to Relocate Terror Trials out of New York

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