Report: No U.S. rush to try 9/11 plotter

WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- Political resistance to trying the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. terror attacks could keep him imprisoned for two more years, officials say.

Khalid Sheik Mohammed, 46, claims responsibility for orchestrating the attacks that saw four passenger jets hijacked and used as weapons in 2001. The Pakistani native was captured there in March 2003 and held in several secret overseas prisons before being transferred to the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in September 2006.

Despite President Barack Obama's pledge to close the prison, he faces stiff political opposition to bringing Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators to trial in the United States, as well as opposition to giving him a military trial in the Cuban prison, The Washington Post said.

Unidentified White House sources told the Post it's unlikely Mohammed will be tried anywhere until after the next presidential election in 2012.

New York's Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer and Republican Rep. Peter King, along with Democratic governor-elect, Andrew Cuomo have all said they don't want Mohammed tried in Manhattan because of the legal and security costs, the report said.

In January, Obama ordered the end to military trials at Guantanamo, which now holds174 detainees, down from 241 when Obama took office.