Everyone surely remembers with horror the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, by terrorist hijackers of airliners upon the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon, outside Washington.
The hijackers died in their suicide attacks, killing nearly 3,000 innocent people.
Now there is controversy about where some of those charged with helping plot the attacks should be tried.
New York City has been announced as a trial site. But many New Yorkers, for good reasons, don’t want the trial there.
Some fear that trying terrorism suspects in the Big Apple would be a magnet for other terrorists to try to muster new attacks that would endanger people in that big population center.
Some just oppose the traffic tie-ups that surely would occur as necessary security measures were taken in the midst of the big city.
And then there are questions about the cost. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said security might cost as much as a staggering $200 million a year for necessary policing — and that the trial might last more than a year!
What are some other options? Suggestions include some military base outside a large population area, or an island in New York Harbor, or perhaps inside a secure federal prison.
Surely, safety, disruption and cost should be considered. No trial date has been set yet. But the trial site should be carefully weighed to avoid inviting new troubles.