Five men facing trial for the September 11, 2001 attacks plan to plead not guilty, according to a lawyer for one of the men.

Attorney Scott Fenstermaker met with his client, accused terrorist Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay last week.  Fenstermaker says the defendants will use the trial as a platform to explain their "assessment of American foreign policy."

Fenstermaker said the men would not deny their role in the 2001 attacks, but "would explain what happened and why they did it."

The U.S. Justice Department announced earlier this month that Ali and four other men accused of murdering nearly 3,000 people in the nation's deadliest terrorist attack will face a civilian federal trial just blocks from the World Trade Center site.

Ali, also known as Ammar al-Baluchi, is a nephew of professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.