September 11 plotters could already be on death row: US Attorney General

US Attorney General Eric Holder said that accused September 11 attack mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators would already have been convicted and set for execution if they had been tried in civilian courts as Holder wanted in 2009.

At a news conference on Monday about corporate fraud, Holder was asked if he stood by his decision to try the men in federal court in New York, a plan the Obama administration reversed in the face of opposition from the mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, and lawmakers in Washington.

"The opposition was largely political in nature, and I think this is an example of what happens when politics gets into matters that ought to be simply decided by lawyers and national security experts," said Holder, the chief US law enforcement officer.

Mohammed and the four others instead face a proceeding in a military commission at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for allegedly training and funding the hijackers who flew planes into the Pentagon and New York's World Trade Centre. They could be executed if convicted of charges that include murdering 2,976 people.

Military prosecutors hope to start a trial in January 2015, but no date has been set.

Holder said that fears had been exaggerated about trying the men in the US District Court in Manhattan.