There will be a trial in New York City on federal terrorism charges, as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his colleagues will plead not guilty – sort of:

The five men facing trial in the Sept. 11 attacks will plead not guilty so that they can air their criticisms of U.S. foreign policy, the lawyer for one of the defendants said.

Scott Fenstermaker, the lawyer for accused terrorist Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, said Sunday the men would not deny their role in the 2001 attacks but “would explain what happened and why they did it.” [...]

Mohammed, Ali and the others will explain “their assessment of American foreign policy,” Fenstermaker said.

“Their assessment is negative,” he said.

The “we killed 3,000 innocent people for political reasons, so let us go” defense is not likely to be compelling.

As for the platform that KSM and friends will have for their rhetoric, as Adam Serwer notes this isn’t the OJ trial:

What the articles on the subject all seem to omit is that there will be no TV cameras in the courtroom for this trial. Khalid Sheik Mohammed’s rants will be available only by transcript. Americans, to the extent they aren’t bored to tears, will get to experience KSM’s pontificating on the evening news through the age-old craft of voice-overs placed over tastefully edited court drawings made mildly more exciting by creative use of keyframes. There’s a reason why you can’t get Zacarias Moussaoui’s greatest hits on Blu-ray.

Even if KSM had an hour in primetime, it’s not clear why anyone should fear his rantings. But the fact that it won’t be heard directly by more than 100 or so people should make everyone even less worried.