THE long and painful quest to bring the plotters of the September 11, 2001 attacks to justice entered a potentially destructive new phase yesterday after the announcement of plans for a terrorist trial in New York provoked an angry backlash at President Barack Obama’s administration.

The decision to transfer Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 assaults, and four other accused terrorists from Guantanamo Bay to a high-security federal prison in Manhattan, has divided New York’s political establishment, angered many victims’ relatives and heightened fears that the trial may turn into a “propaganda circus” that could end with one of Al-Qaeda’s most dangerous leaders walking free.

Although Obama had pledged to close Guantanamo and bring its inmates to trial, the decision by Eric Holder, the attorney-general, to opt for civilian proceedings in place of military commissions was assailed by prominent New Yorkers yesterday as “horribly misguided”, “a terrible call” and certain to provoke a “wave of fury”.

Despite support from Michael Bloomberg, the city’s Republican mayor — who declared it “fitting” that the 9/11 accused would be tried close to ground zero, the site of the former World Trade Center — Obama was facing a revolt from some of the New Yorkers most closely identified with the attacks that cost almost 3,000 lives.

Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor who won acclaim as the architect of the city’s recovery, warned that Obama was making a mistake by treating terrorists like domestic criminals.

“Khalid Sheikh Mohammed should be treated like the war criminal he is and tried in a military court,” Giuliani said.

Debra Burlingame, an advocate for victims’ families, said more than 300 family members had urged Obama not to move the trial to New York. “They’re going to see a wave of fury and I don’t think they are prepared for it,” she said.

Peter King, a New York congressman and senior Republican on the homeland security committee, said the decision to bring Mohammed — known as KSM — to New York “will go down in history as one of the worst made by any US president . . . [Obama] may have set into motion a process that could result in KSM walking free”.

An editorial in the New York Post complained that the administration was returning to “pre 9/11 sensibilities, when terrorism was seen as a law enforcement issue, to be fought in the courtroom — not on the battlefield”.

Both federal and city officials insisted that New York has plenty of experience in high-profile terrorist cases and the trial will not pose a security risk.

The main fear for critics was that controversy over the alleged use of torture in interrogations will give defence lawyers the grounds to challenge evidence and ultimately free their clients.

“Hopefully we’re doing the right thing,” said James Riches, whose fireman son died on 9/11. “But if all this goes awry, I’m going to hold Obama and his justice department responsible.”

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