NEW YORK (AP) – A lawyer for one of five men facing trial for the Sept. 11 attacks says the men plan to plead not guilty and use the trial to express their political views.
Attorney Scott Fenstermaker says his client Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali and the others will not deny their role in the 2001 attacks but will tell the jury “why they did it.”
He says the men will explain “their assessment of American foreign policy.”
Fenstermaker met with Ali last week at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay. He says the men, including professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, have discussed the trial among themselves.
Tell me again why trials are a good idea.
November 22nd, 2009 at 9:09 pm
These guys have got to be thanking Allah that their prayers for a trial in New York have been answered.
November 22nd, 2009 at 10:24 pm
These trials are a good idea for the simple fact that they are the only legal and moral thing to do. There is no declaration of war so these men are not “enemy combatants”, they are criminals.
As for denouncing US foreign policy, their rhetoric will resemble what’s been put out by MoveOn.org, International ANSWER, far left Democrats in Congress, Ron Paul and his supporters, Antiwar.com, LewRockwell.com, and rest of the political fringe of the anti-war movement. The country has survived all of the above’s rantings and the country will survive the rantings of KSM and his accomplices.
Finally, as to what I expect from the trials, I expect the cases will either be dismissed or enough reasonable doubt to be raised to cause an acquittal because of the means the government has used to obtain the evidence (ie. torture).
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:59 am
These guys would be doing the exact same thing in a military court as a civilian one.
November 23rd, 2009 at 12:53 pm
“As for denouncing US foreign policy, their rhetoric will resemble what’s been put out by MoveOn.org, International ANSWER, far left Democrats in Congress, Ron Paul and his supporters, Antiwar.com, LewRockwell.com, and rest of the political fringe of the anti-war movement. The country has survived all of the above’s rantings and the country will survive the rantings of KSM and his accomplices.”
Yeah, because the US never makes mistakes an we should cheer any and all policies.
November 23rd, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Remember that one of Bush’s justifications for the wars in the Middle East was that we were bringing democracy to those countries. If either of them resorted to hidden military tribunals, we would be all over them in a New York minute. Recall that Sadam H. was tried in an open court and allowed to rant and rave all he wanted. This did not result in the overthrow of any governments over there or over here. It did, however, result in his execution.
It is time for us to start putting our money where our mouth is. If we don’t want our citizens to be tried by kangaroo courts in other countries, we can’t turn around and decide that American democracy and open justice is reserved solely for “nice” convicts.
Just like in the old west, let’s give them a fair trial and then we’ll hang them.