The jury that will determine Zacarias Moussaoui's fate must decide whom it believes: Moussaoui himself, who, in stunning testimony, said he and shoe-bomber Richard Reid planned to fly a plane into the White House on Sept. 11, 2001; or the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, who said Moussaoui had nothing to do with the attacks on Washington and New York.
Moussaoui's testimony on Monday at his death-penalty trial that he was part of the Sept. 11 plot came as a shock, since he previously had denied any role in the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
As soon as Moussaoui finished testifying, the jury was read statements made by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the Sept. 11 mastermind now in US custody, who said Moussaoui was to have been used in a second wave of attacks completely disconnected from Sept. 11.
PHOTO: EPA
Moussaoui is the only person in the US charged in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks.
But even prosecutors are not alleging a direct role for Moussaoui in the Sept. 11 plot. Instead, they argue that Moussaoui allowed the Sept. 11 plot to go forward by lying about his al-Qaeda membership and his true plans when federal agents arrested him in August 2001.
He repeatedly had denied involvement in Sept. 11, and when he admitted guilt last April to conspiring with al-Qaeda to hijack aircraft and commit other crimes, he pointedly made a distinction between his conspiracy and Sept. 11.
On Monday, though, Moussaoui put himself at the center of the plot. He was asked by defense attorney Gerald Zerkin: "Before your arrest, were you scheduled to pilot a plane as part of the 9/11 operation?"
Moussaoui: "Yes. I was supposed to pilot a plane to hit the White House."
He said he knew few other details, except that planes were to be flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
He had met Reid, his purported partner, in the 1990s at London's Finsbury Park mosque.
On Dec. 22, 2001, Reid was subdued by passengers on a flight from Paris to Miami when he attempted to detonate a bomb in his shoe. That plane landed safely in Boston. Reid later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.
Moussaoui's defense attorneys, in their opening arguments, suggested that Moussaoui may prefer martyrdom to life in prison.
He is not cooperating with his court-appointed attorneys, and he testified against their wishes.
Mohammed's testimony came in the form of a 58-page statement culled from government interrogations. He said repeatedly that Moussaoui was to have been part of a second wave of attacks, distinct from US.
Mohammed said he was not aware that Moussaoui was in custody until after Sept. 11, and that Moussaoui's arrest on Aug. 16 would have disrupted Sept. 11 plans if he were a part of the operation. Mohammed said the second-wave of attacks never materialized because he did not anticipate the ferocity of the US response to Sept. 11 and the only other pilot backed out.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
RSS