OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said Friday that prosecuting terror suspects in federal court in New York rather than a military tribunal jeopardizes the safety of Americans.

The former two-term Missouri governor and senator told reporters that information coming out of a future trial could reveal important intelligence to terrorists.

Ashcroft was in Overland Park to help raise money for fellow Republican Todd Tiahrt's campaign for the U.S. Senate. Tiahrt currently serves in the U.S. House from Kansas' 4th District.

Ashcroft said it was up to President Barack Obama -- not Attorney General Holder -- to decide to put five suspects in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on trial in New York rather than at a military commission at the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay.

``When the Defense Department has someone in detention . . . it takes the president's decision if it's to be changed from the Defense Department to the Justice Department,'' Ashcroft said. ``The attorney general doesn't have the authority to order the Secretary of Defense around.''

Ashcroft said the decision puts New York at risk for future terrorist activity.

``It also puts America at risk if it requires the revelation of information, which could be damaging to our intelligence-gathering and defense operations,'' he added. ``I think we are still in a very significant war on terror, and the administration doesn't appear to believe it.''

He said information released at the trial of Muslim extremists convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing became ``very valuable to Osama bin Laden, as a matter of fact, who was in Sudan at the time.''

Tiahrt also said he opposes trying terror suspects in federal court.