Attorney General Eric Holder testifies before a Senate committee Wednesday, defending the Obama administration's decision to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in New York City. (Wong/Getty / November 18, 2009) |
NEW YORK (WPIX)—
Five men facing trial in the 9/11 attacks will plead not guilty so they can voice their criticisms of U.S. foreign policy, an attorney for one of the defendants said Sunday.Scott Fenstermaker, who's representing accused terrorist Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, said the men would not deny their role in the 2001 attacks, but "would explain what happened and why they did it."
Ali and four other men face a civilian trial just a few blocks from the World Trade Center site in the coming weeks. The men are accused of murdering nearly 3,000 people in the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
Ali, also known as Ammar al-Baluchi, is a nephew of professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Mohammed, Ali and the others will explain "their assessment of American foreign policy," Fenstermaker said. "Their assessment is negative," he added.
Critics of Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to try the men in a New York City civilian courthouse warn the trial will provide the defendants with a propaganda platform.
But, Holder has continued to push for full transparency: "I have every confidence that the nation and the world will see him for the coward that he is," Holder told the committee. "I'm not scared of what Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has to say at trial, and no one else needs to be, either."
