(CNSNews.com) - A senior administration official providing the “details on the intelligence background” of the raid that killed al Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden said that when U.S. intelligence officials first discovered the compound in Pakistan where they believed bin Laden was living they “were shocked” by what they saw.

U.S. intelligence agencies found the compound after years of following a trail that began with information they gleaned from “post-9/11 period” al Qaeda detainees, the official said in a conference call briefing held by the White House shortly after midnight. The transcript of the briefing was posted on the White House website.

The first step on the trail was information about a courier, who had been a protégé of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11 attacks...

Republicans aren't the only ones opposed to a civilian trial for Sept. 11 conspirator Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his alleged four accomplices.

Attorney General Eric Holder's decision not to use a military commission to bring them to justice has driven a wedge between him and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, whose opposition is grounded in politics, according to the New Yorker.

Emanuel feared that a fight over Khalid Sheikh Mohammed could alienate key Republicans whom he argued the administration needed to help close the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.

"There was a lot of drama," a source told the magazine, explaining that Emanuel wanted to placate Sen. Lindsey Graham, a leading advocate of military commissions, who had helped Obama on other issues, such as the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor...

The Obama administration is looking for other options than New York City for the trial of Sept. 11 conspirator Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four co-conspirators while refusing to say that the Big Apple is off-limits.

Administration officials say no decision has been made on where the trail would be held though New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has switched his position from supporting holding the trial in a federal courtroom near the World Trade Center site to calling the plan a logistical and security nightmare.

White House senior adviser David Axelrod said the White House and Justice Department are considering reservations from Bloomberg and others about logistics and the cost of holding the trial in Manhattan...

As the Justice Department searches for a new venue to hold the trial of confessed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, critics are pouncing on the Obama administration's steadfast refusal to consider a military tribunal to bring the terror suspect and his four alleged accomplices to justice.

The administration's critics say moving the trial to a different venue isn't the solution. They maintain that the terror suspects, who were captured on foreign soil and are being held at the military prison in Guantanamo, shouldn't be brought to the U.S. at all.

"They belong in a military installation -- Guantanamo would be an ideal location," Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. said of Mohammed and his four alleged accomplices...

WASHINGTON — Self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court, an Obama administration official said Friday.

The official said Attorney General Eric Holder plans to announce the decision later in the morning. The official is not authorized to discuss the decision before the announcement, so spoke on condition of anonymity.

Without confirming details of the decision, President Barack Obama said it was a legal and national security matter. "I am absolutely convinced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be subjected to the most exacting demands of justice," Obama said at a joint news conference in Tokyo with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama...