An airliner takes aim at one of the towers
The Twin Towers on 9/11
Estimates of a £200m-a-year bill to host the trials of 9/11 terror suspects are threatening to force them out of New York altogether.
In a letter this month, Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned of the likely cost of securing the city during the court cases which could push them out of the scene of the crime.
It is more than double the original estimate and officials were again forced to think twice when New York's chief policeman detailed the huge security arrangements which would have to be put in place.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly described the planned operation for lower Manhattan to officials on Friday.
Proposals included inner and outer cordons as well as thousands of officers, mobile guard towers, vehicle checkpoints, sniffer dogs sensitive to bombs, rooftop snipers and helicopter surveillance.
Constant radiation sweeps would detect attacks with dirty bombs.
'That was the first time they heard it in one fell swoop, so to speak, and it raised their concerns,' he said.
The Obama administration has been cornered into rethinking the idea that the city itself should host the biggest terrorist atrocity it and America has ever seen.
It now faces the task of finding a more suitable home for the high-profile trial.
The argument over what proportion of the city's day-to-day security costs should be met by Washington has raged ever since the attacks in 2001, with the federal government claiming it contributes enough as it spreads resources around the entire nation.
Bloomberg's letter to the office of management and budget in Washington was simply the latest round of point scoring in that fight.
The letter said the security costs for the trials of mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators would hit $216m in the first year and $200m a year after that.
The huge sum arises mainly from overtime payments for extra police patrols.
'As 9/11 was an attack on the entire nation, we need the federal government to shoulder the significant costs we will incur and ease this burden,' Bloomberg wrote.
Then in a speech a week later Kelly highlighted the risk that terrorists could use the trials to earn maximum publicity by attempting to strike another blow.
He predicted the public backlash over the arrangements and huge financial penalties would most likely prevent the trial being held in the city. Then two Obama officials confirmed alternate locations were being looked at.
But Patrick Rowan, once the top counter terrorism official in the Bush Justice Department, said holding it elsewhere could be just as problematic.
'If it's too risky to hold a major terrorism trial in downtown Manhattan, then they're going to face the same argument from civic leaders in other metropolitan areas.
'If you follow the logic behind this decision, they may quickly find themselves in a position where they need to create a single facility, perhaps on a military base in the middle of a cornfield.'
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