DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder address reporters, Nov. 10

Nearly a year after he announced his ill-fated decision to prosecute the five alleged 9/11 conspirators in a New York civilian court, Attorney General Eric Holder said on Wednesday that a final decision on where to now try them is “close.”

“We have been working on it, and I think we are close to a decision,” Holder said, declining to offer any specifics and skirting past a question over whether the decision would come by year’s end.

Speaking to reporters in Washington alongside Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and their Canadian counterparts, Holder said the decision over where to prosecute Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Al Qaeda associates will be guided by “what is best for the case and for justice in that case,” adding, “I would hope that whatever the decision is, it would be one that would be judged on the merits.”

Within an hour of Holder’s remarks, Rep. Peter T. King, R-N.Y., who is expected to become chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee in January, called on the Obama administration to have the military prosecute the case.

“I urge Attorney General Holder not to hold any 9/11 trials in New York or anywhere in the United States.  These 9/11 terrorists should be tried before a military commission at Guantanamo,” King said in the statement.

When asked privately when the Justice Department will make a decision in the case, some Justice Department officials insist the Justice Department has already made a decision: The one that was announced in November 2009. Such sentiments suggest those Justice Department officials believe the White House is in control of the final decision.

On Nov. 13, 2009, at a much-anticipated press conference in Washington, Holder announced that, “After eight years of delay, those allegedly responsible for the attacks of September the 11th will finally face justice.”

“They will be brought to New York to answer for their alleged crimes in a courthouse just blocks away from where the Twin Towers once stood,” he said.

Within months, however, Holder and the Obama administration backed off that decision, thanks in large part to opposition from New York City officials, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Republican lawmakers in Washington. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also opposed any civilian-court prosecution in his state.

The disposition of the so-called “9/11 case” has been in limbo ever since.

Six months ago, testifying before the House Judiciary Committee in April, Holder said a decision on where to prosecute the case was “weeks away,” but he insisted that, “New York City is not off the table.” At the time, Schumer said Holder wasn’t being forthright.

“We know the administration is not going to hold the trial in New York. They should just say it already,” Schumer said in a statement after Holder’s testimony.

Three months later, Holder blamed politics for the delay and said the “politicization of this issue” is “particularly bothersome” to him.

“When we’re dealing with ultimate national security issues, [it] is something that disturbs me a great deal,” he said on CBS. “[Having] Republicans and Democrats arguing about this in a political way, as opposed to dealing with the substance … is something that I think is regrettable and has resulted, I think, in the delays that we have seen.”

Republicans on Capitol Hill have tried to freeze funding for any civilian trial of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

On Wednesday, Holder was asked if the coming Republican takeover of the House of Representatives will make it harder for the Obama administration to prosecute the alleged 9/11 conspirators in a civilian court. He did not address the question, saying only that the process is “an on-going one.”

Meanwhile, in New York City on Wednesday, a jury began deliberations in what some see as a “test case” for prosecuting Guantanamo Bay detainees in civilian court.

Ahmed Ghailani is accused of being an Al Qaeda operative who took part in the 1998 bombins of U.S. embassies in east Africa. It is the nation’s first civilian trial for a Guantanamo Bay detainee.

When Holder announced his decision over “the 9/11 case” in November 2009, he said he was “confident in the ability” of civilian courts to prosecute alleged terrorists.

“The Justice Department has a long and a successful history of prosecuting terrorists for their crimes against our nation, particularly in New York,” he said. “Although these cases can often be complex and challenging, federal prosecutors have successfully met these challenges and have convicted a number of terrorists who are now serving lengthy sentences in our prisons.”

He said the Justice Department would seek the death penalty in the case, and he was “confident” that the outcome of the trial would be “a successful one.”