Well, actually, that would be standard journalistic practice. al-Qaeda claimed responsibility, and the evidence that they were actually responsible is pretty overwhelming, but no member of al-Qaeda has been convicted in a court of law of the WTC attack. So, they’re the “alleged” terrorists. Assuming we ever get one of these guys up before a judge of some sort, they will then likely be referred to as “convicted” terrorists. Until then, pinning the blame of al-Qaeda is just speculation, no matter how well-founded, and reputable news outlets should avoid speculation, or at least clearly lable it as such.
There was a thread a while back where this was discussed, lemme see if I can find it… Here ya go.