Remember 9/11? Supposedly the "mastermind" of these attacks, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and other inmates at the soon-to-be-shuttered Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba could be "making a return" to the same Virginia they attacked on that fateful day. But don't worry, it will only affect Newport News!
While high-level security risk terrorists like Zacarias Moussaoui have usually been tried in Alexandria's federal courthouse, should they be tried in Virginia, local congressmen have balked at holding any of those publicity spectacles in the future, given all the local commercial and residential development.
Fortunately, according to the Washington Post, Virginia has a "back-up plan" for terrrorists comin' to town: some new expensive-sounding thing 100 miles south!
Prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia are competing with the Manhattan U.S. attorney for the opportunity to prosecute high-profile cases, including those of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his co-conspirators, the sources said.
"Competing" with New York for the terrorist trials! Amazing.
In response to the concerns about Alexandria, the U.S. Marshals Service is preparing security plans for possible trials at the Newport News courthouse, a sleek brick-and-glass building in a semi-industrial area. The courthouse, which opened last year, was built under the Pentagon's anti-terrorism force-protection standards, which specify requirements such as blast-resistant walls to protect from truck bombs.
Only one way to test that resistance, no?
Enjoy your terrorists, fancy Newport News!
Jim Newell writes for Wonkette and IvyGate.
