Breaking: Holder ordered to find new venue for KSM trial?

What a clusterphuk. "Like a half baked souffle. The plan is collapsing."

From the Daily News:

The White House ordered the Justice Department to consider other places to try the 9/11 terror suspects after a wave of opposition to holding the trial in lower Manhattan.

The White House took the action hours after Mayor Bloomberg called Attorney General Eric Holder to say he would "prefer that they did it elsewhere."

"It would be an inconvenience at the least, and probably that's too mild a word for people that live in the neighborhood and businesses in the neighborhood," Bloomberg told reporters. "There are places that would be less expensive for the taxpayers and less disruptive for New York City."

State leaders have railed against a plan to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in Manhattan federal court since Holder proposed it last month.

The order to consider new venues does not change the White House's position that Mohammed should be tried in civilian court.

"President Obama is still committed to trying Mohammed and four other terrorist detainees in federal court," spokesman Bill Burton said Thursday. (Editor's Note: This is the same Bill Burton who called KSM a 'murderous thug' - no mention of his being an Islamic terrorist, of course.)

"He agrees with the attorney general's opinion that ... he and others can be litigated successfully and securely in the United States of America, just like others have," Burton said. Burton referred questions about the location debate to the Justice Department.

Officials there have apparently been caught off guard by the fiery opposition in New York, an insider told the Daily News. "They're in a tizzy at Justice over Bloomberg," a federal law enforcement official said. "It's like a half-baked souffle - the plan is collapsing."

Meanwhile, a source told The News that Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly was the driving force behind the push by Manhattan business leaders to change the mayor's mind on the trial. Kelly made an "extremely powerful" speech to a roomful of 150 prominent business leaders about how disruptive and costly the trial would be for lower Manhattan at an annual police charity event on Jan. 13, the source said.

"What turned this around was when Ray made a presentation to the Police Foundation," the source said. "Everyone went from thinking, 'Justice will be served' to thinking 'We are screwed.'"

Indeed.