Obama says will miss Guantanamo deadline

By Jeremy Pelofsky and James Vicini

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama suggested on Wednesday the self-professed mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks would be convicted and put to death, but later said he was not trying to prejudge the trial.

Speaking in television interviews while travelling in Asia, Obama acknowledged he would miss his January 22 deadline to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is now held, but said he believed it would be shut next year.

Separately, Attorney General Eric Holder told lawmakers Mohammed and his accused four co-conspirators could be safely tried in New York despite Republican security concerns.

In testimony before Congress, Holder also said the federal government was open to paying for some of the added security costs, which a New York senator said could be upwards of $75 million (45 million pounds) a year.

Obama defended Holder's decision on Friday to move the five men from the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for a trial in a U.S. federal court in New York.

"(What) I think we have to break is this fearful notion that somehow our justice system can't handle these guys," Obama said in an interview with NBC News.

Asked if he understood why some people were offended by trying the men in U.S. courts, he replied: "I don't think it will be offensive at all when he's convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him."

He then backtracked, saying, "What I said was people will not be offended if that's outcome. I'm not prejudging" them.