Moussaoui testifies he was to fly plane into White House on 9/11

Enoch · Mar 27, 2006

Fox News

Moussaoui Admits Lying so Sept. 11 Attacks Could Go Forward

Fast Facts: Moussaoui Jurors
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui helped himself get one huge step closer toward being sentenced with the death penalty Monday when he testified that not only did he know about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks ahead of time, but that he and shoe-bomber Richard Reid were supposed to hijack a fifth airplane and fly it into the White House.

Moussaoui's testimony in his death-penalty trial stunned the courtroom as he disclosed details he had never revealed before. It was in stark contrast to the self-confessed Al Qaeda member's previous statements in which he said the White House attack was to come later if the United States refused to release a radical Egyptian sheik imprisoned on earlier terrorist convictions.

On Dec. 22, 2001, Reid was subdued by passengers when he attempted to detonate a bomb in his shoe aboard American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami. There were 197 people on board. The plane was diverted to Boston, where it landed safely.

A FOX News producer who were in the courtroom during the testimony said Moussaoui was very composed and articulate and spoke very deliberately while on the stand.

But the Sept. 11 conspirator gave several contradictory remarks during his testimony.

Moussaoui told the court he knew the World Trade Center attack was coming and that he lied to investigators when arrested in August 2001 because he wanted it to happen. He said he knew the attacks were coming some time after August 2001 and bought a radio so he could hear them unfold. The statement was key to the government's case that the attacks might have been averted if Moussaoui had been more cooperative following his arrest.

But he asserted he was not part of that specific plot and didn't know the details.

"That's correct," Moussaoui said when the prosecution asked if that was why he misled them. The statement was key to the government's case that the attacks might have been averted if Moussaoui had been more cooperative following his arrest.

Moussaoui said he declined to become a suicide pilot in some future attack when asked by a senior Al Qaeda official in 1999. But he later said that he dreamed about flying a plane in an attack against the United States and that led him to volunteer for the mission.

Nineteen men pulled off the Sept. 11 attacks on New York in Washington in the worst act of terrorism ever on U.S. soil, leaving nearly 3,000 people dead in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and on the four planes that crashed.

"I had knowledge that the Twin Towers would be hit," Moussaoui said. "I didn't know the details of this."

Asked by his lawyer why he signed his guilty plea in April as "the 20th hijacker," Moussaoui replied: "Because everybody used to refer to me as the 20th hijacker and it was a bit of fun."

Click here to read the legal history of the case (pdf).

Before he took the stand, his lawyers made a last attempt to stop him from testifying, but failed. Defense attorney Gerald Zerkin argued that his client would not be a competent witness because he has contempt for the court, only recognizes Islamic law and therefore "the affirmation he undertakes would be meaningless."

Asked by Zerkin if he was supposed to be one of the men who would pilot a plane on Sept. 11, he said no, adding: "I'm sorry, I don't know about the number of planes but I was not the fifth (pilot) hijacker."

About his guilty plea, he said: "I took a pen. I signed it."

But under cross examination spoke of the plan that would have him attack the White House. He said Reid was the only person he knew for sure would have been on that mission, but others were discussed.

He said talked with an Al Qaeda official in 1999 about why a 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center failed to bring the towers down. He said "was asked in the same period for the first time if I want to be a suicide pilot and I declined."

Yet, he said he was taking flight training for a separate attack on the White House, when he was arrested in August 2001 on immigration charges. He was vague on whether this attack was to have been after Sept. 11 or on it.

"I know it was something going on," he said in French-accented English. "We don't do single operation. We do multiple strikes."

He told the court it was "difficult to say" whether he was involved in the planning for Sept. 11.

Just before Moussaoui took the stand, the court heard testimony that two months before the attacks that a CIA deputy chief waited in vain for permission to tell the FBI about a "very high interest" Al Qarda operative who became one of the hijackers.

The official, a senior figure in the CIA's Usama bin Laden unit, said he sought authorization on July 13, 2001, to send information to the FBI but got no response for 10 days, then asked again.

As it turned out, the information on Khalid al-Mihdhar did not reach the FBI until late August. At the time, CIA officers needed permission from a special unit before passing certain intelligence on to the FBI.

The official was identified only as John. His written testimony was read into the record.

"John's" testimony was part of the defense's case that federal authorities missed multiple opportunities to catch hijackers and perhaps thwart the Sept. 11 plot.

His testimony included an e-mail sent by FBI supervisor Michael Maltbie discussing Moussaoui but playing down his terrorist connections. Maltbie's e-mail said "there's no indication that (Moussaoui) had plans for any nefarious activity."

He sent that e-mail to the CIA even after receiving a lengthy memo from the FBI agent who arrested Moussaoui and suspected him of being a terrorist with plans to hijack aircraft.

Former FBI agent Erik Rigler, the first defense witness, was questioned about a Justice Department report that he said criticized the CIA for keeping intelligence about two known Al Qaeda terrorist operatives in the United States from the FBI for more than a year.

Under cross-examination from the prosecution, he acknowledged the report did not link the pair specifically to a civil aviation plot. But he said the report's thrust was about their preparations for what turned out to be the Sept. 11 attacks, and their ability to elude federal agents.

"That's why they came here," he said. "They didn't come for Disney."

The two were among the 19 suicide hijackers on Sept. 11. The report said they had been placed on a watch list in Thailand in January 2000, but not on a U.S. list until August 2001.

Prosecutors argue that Moussaoui, a French citizen, thwarted a prime opportunity to track down the hijackers and possibly unravel the plot when he was arrested in August 2001 on immigration violations and lied to the FBI about his Al Qaeda membership and plans to hijack a plane.

Had Moussaoui confessed, the FBI could have pursued leads that would have led them to most of the hijackers, government witnesses have testified.

To win the death penalty, prosecutors have to prove that Moussaoui's actions — specifically, his lies — were directly responsible for at least one death on Sept. 11. Moussaoui's Monday testimony nearly guarantees that fate. Otherwise, he may have received life in prison.
Click to expand...

hillclimber · Mar 29, 2006

I wouldn't believe anything he has to say.

I heard a report on the radio today that he was a constant goof off and unreliable as a terrorist.

Enoch · Mar 29, 2006

Al Qaeda Plotters Dismiss Moussaoui Role
Tuesday, March 28, 2006

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Two more high-ranking Al Qaeda operatives cast doubt on whether Zacarias Moussaoui was involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, with one portraying him as a misfit who refused to follow orders, in testimony Tuesday at his death penalty trial.

The testimony of both was read to the jury, in one case because the witness is a captive whom the U.S. government did not want to appear in court.

One terrorist, identified as Sayf al-Adl, a senior member of Al Qaeda's military committee, stated sometime between Sept. 1, 2001, and late July 2004, that Moussaoui was "a confirmed jihadist but was absolutely not going to take part in the Sept. 11, 2001, mission." The 9/11 Commission reported that the U.S. had recovered from a safehouse in Pakistan a letter written by al-Adl describing the various candidates considered for the Sept. 11 attacks.

The other — Waleed bin Attash, often known simply as Khallad — is considered the mastermind of the 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole and an early planner of the Sept. 11, 2001, plot. He said he knew of no part that Moussaoui was to have played in the 9/11 attacks. Khallad was captured in April 2003.

Their testimony backs up the claims of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, chief organizer of the 9/11 attacks. He said in testimony read to the jury Monday that Moussaoui had nothing to do with the plot but was to have been used for a second wave of attacks distinct from Sept. 11.
Click to expand...

Moussaoui is the only person in this country charged in the Sept. 11 attacks, during which hijackers crashed passenger jetliners into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. Mohammed is in custody abroad in undisclosed circumstances, having been interrogated but not yet charged.

Even prosecutors are not alleging a direct role for Moussaoui in the 9/11 plot. Instead, they argue that Moussaoui allowed the Sept. 11 plot to go forward by lying about his al-Qaida membership and his true plans when federal agents arrested him in August 2001.

Moussaoui's defense attorneys, in their opening arguments, suggested Moussaoui may prefer execution, which he would see as martyrdom, to life in prison. He isn't cooperating with his court-appointed attorneys.

In his testimony, Mohammed said the plane that crashed in a Pennsylvania field on Sept. 11 after passengers rebelled against the hijackers was to have targeted the U.S. Capitol. There has been ongoing debate about whether the plane was headed for the Capitol or the White House.

Because Moussaoui has already pleaded, the jury must only determine his sentence: death or life in prison. To obtain the death penalty, prosecutors must prove that Moussaoui's actions resulted in at least one death on Sept. 11.
Click to expand...

Fox News

Daisy · Mar 29, 2006

Originally posted by hillclimber:
I wouldn't believe anything he has to say.

I heard a report on the radio today that he was a constant goof off and unreliable as a terrorist.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'd heard that long before, that he was such a nut the cell had pretty much cut him loose and kept him in the dark.

I don't think his testimony even against himself is at all reliable.

Moussaoui testifies he was to fly plane into White House on 9/11

Enoch New Member

hillclimber New Member

Enoch New Member

Daisy New Member

Useful Searches

Moussaoui testifies he was to fly plane into White House on 9/11

Enoch New Member

hillclimber New Member

Enoch New Member

Daisy New Member