ALEXANDRIA, Va. - John Walker Lindh plead innocent today to a 10-count federal indictment that charged him with conspiring to kill Americans and aiding Osama bin Laden's terrorist network. The widow of a CIA officer killed shortly after questioning Lindh called him a traitor.

Associated Press Marilyn Walker and Frank Lindh, parents of captured Taliban member John Walker Lindh, leave federal court earlier this month in Alexandria, Va., after their son was denied bail.

"Not guilty, sir," Lindh answered, after U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III asked, "How do you plead to all the charges?"

It was Lindh's third appearance at the federal courthouse since he was brought back to the United States by military aircraft on Jan. 24. His parents, Frank Lindh and Marilyn Walker, were there for the arraignment, as they had been for his previous court appearances. Also present were Johnny and Gail Spann, the parents of CIA officer Johnny "Mike" Spann, killed in a prison uprising in Mazar e-Sharif in November, and his widow, Shannon Spann.

Lindh no longer has the shaved head that he had in his initial appearances and his black hair, still closely cropped, was starting to grow back. He was clean-shaven, a sharp contrast from the long beard and long hair seen in televised images of him from Afghanistan.

Lindh answered, "Yes" and "Yes" and "Correct, sir," when the judge asked whether he had seen the indictment and had reviewed it with his attorneys.

If convicted on the charges, 21-year-old Lindh could face life imprisonment. Shannon Spann, talking to reporters outside the courthouse, said she thinks he should get the death penalty.

"We expect Mr. Walker to be personally held responsible for all the things he's done," she said. "My view today is certainly that he should have been charged with treason," Shannon Spann said, "but I haven't had a chance to speak with the prosecutors yet and to understand the evidentiary decision-making that went into that decision."

"John Walker was a traitor because of the way he lived," Gail Spann said.

After the hearing, Lindh's father attempted to speak to Johnny Spann, but several officials from the U.S. attorney's office intervened and prevented the conversation, according to Sam Dibbley, a spokeswoman for U.S. attorney's office, who was there. Dibbley said the officials told everyone in the area "we were trying to get the family out without anyone speaking to them."

Johnny Spann said before the hearing, on ABC's "Good Morning America," that he feels Lindh was an accomplice in his son's death because he was present during the uprising that resulted in the killing of the CIA officer.

"If you and I went out to rob a store and I shot someone in the process of that, it is my understanding you would be an accomplice and you would feel the same price I pay," Spann said.

Ellis did not set a trial date, but said that as a target, he would like jury selection to begin in late August. He scheduled a hearing for Friday to set a trial date and go over a pretrial schedule, which would likely include hearings on handling classified information in the case.

The government and defense counsel had suggested in motions yesterday that the trial not begin before mid-November, but Ellis said that was too long to wait.

"November is too far," Ellis said, adding that he was thinking of a trial in September.

Outside the courthouse, Spann's parents said they were there to see justice done.

"Tell them, Americans will not tolerate traitors," Spann told reporters on the courthouse steps.

"We sent our son ... to a faraway land to fight against evil so we could continue to live and enjoy the freedom that we live in today," he said. "But as we all know, freedom is not free. Bodies have come home draped in flags, and Mike's was the first."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Bellows said he expected the government's case to take two weeks.

In asking for a November trial, the defense had said it would need time to conduct overseas investigations, handle classified information, argue for suppression of evidence and allow the effects of prejudicial publicity to fade.

Federal prosecutors said they disagreed with a delay due to publicity, but accepted the other reasons for a November date.

Until now the two sides have agreed on little, with prosecutors portraying Lindh as a cold-blooded killer who hated America, and the defense contending he signed up to fight the anti-Taliban northern alliance, not the United States.

The defense said in the motion that "due to the high level of prejudicial publicity, passage of time will be necessary in order that the defendant receive a fair and impartial trial."

The federal courthouse in Alexandria is just a few miles from the Pentagon, where suicide hijackers crashed one of the four airliners they commandeered on Sept. 11.

Pointing out that the indictment describes Lindh's conduct in Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the defense said it would conduct interviews abroad. Lindh's lawyers also served notice that pretrial hearings would be required on the handling of classified information.

Lindh trained in an Osama bin Laden camp in Pakistan and stayed after he was told bin Laden "had sent forth some fifty people to carry out twenty suicide terrorist operations against the United States and Israel," the indictment charges.

Bin Laden is the No. 1 suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks.

Lindh's lawyers have argued in court and to the news media that the government is relying on a tainted FBI interview of Lindh in Afghanistan, conducted without a lawyer present. The government countered that Lindh signed a paper waiving his right to an attorney.