9/11 Attackers Will Plead Not Guilty

The five 9/11 detainees scheduled to face trial near the World Trade Center site in New York City will plead not guilty in order to share their "assessment of American foreign policy," according to Scott Fenstermaker, the lawyer defending Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali. "Their assessment is negative," said Fenstermaker, who spoke with his client at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay last week. Though the men will plead not guilty, they also will not deny that they participated in the Sept. 11 attacks, which killed close to 3,000 people within a mile of the courthouse where the defendants' civilian federal trial will take place, Fenstermaker said. In spite of criticism that trying the men in New York will provide a platform for "propaganda," a spokesman for the Department of Justice said they "have full confidence in the ability of the courts and in particular the federal judge who may preside over the trial to ensure that the proceeding is conducted appropriately and with minimal disruption, as federal courts have done in the past."