|
Document casts doubt on Moussaoui's claim of a 9/11 role
Federal officials revealed yesterday that they have no evidence that ''shoe bomber" Richard Reid was told to fly a jet into the White House on Sept. 11, 2001, under the command of Zacarias Moussaoui, as Moussaoui testified in his death penalty trial.The acknowledgment came in a document read into the record yesterday morning by Moussaoui's defense lawyers. Prosecutors worked with the defense in preparing the document, which is called a stipulation and is presented to the jury as fact. The document said, ''There is no information to indicate that Richard Reid had preknowledge of the 9/11 attacks or was instructed by Al Qaeda leadership to conduct an operation in coordination with Moussaoui." The document pointed out that Reid had left his possessions to Moussaoui in his will before Reid mounted a an attack in December 2001 in which he tried to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with a bomb in his shoe. ''In the opinion of the FBI," the document said, ''if Reid was to be part of the same martyrdom operation as Moussaoui, it is unlikely he would have bequeathed his possessions to Moussaoui." The document, read to the jury by defense lawyer Alan Yamamoto, concluded that according to two FBI analysts ''it is highly unlikely" that Reid was to have been part of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The development casts doubt on Moussaoui's account last month when he said he had been planning to fly a fifth hijacked plane into the White House on Sept. 11 and Reid was to have been part of his crew. Moussaoui's lawyers have told the jury that he was exaggerating his role; prosecutors have said he was telling the truth. Moussaoui pleaded guilty last year to conspiring with Al Qaeda in the Sept. 11 plot and the jury in the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Va., is now deciding if he should be executed. Moussaoui's lawyers had tried to call Reid to the stand to discredit Moussaoui's story, but US District Judge Leonie Brinkema last week vacated her earlier order that required the government to produce Reid for Moussaoui's trial. At the time, prosecution and defense attorneys reportedly were trying to work out an agreement to tell the jury what Reid would have said if he testified, partly because of the expense and security concerns if they moved him to Alexandria. Reid is serving a life prison term for the attempted bombing. When Moussaoui testified again last week, prosecutors apparently attempted to blunt the impact of the document that was revealed yesterday. Moussaoui testified that he and Reid were good friends and prosecutors asked him if they ever discussed the Sept. 11 attacks. ''Never," Moussaoui said, adding that a senior Al Qaeda official had told Moussaoui that ''Reid was part of the team. I was in charge, he was my second. He did not have a single clue about the operation. . . . They told me not to say anything to him." The document was revealed after the jury heard again yesterday from family members of people killed in the Sept. 11 attacks who are testifying for the defense in its efforts to spare Moussaoui's life. The witnesses, barred from speaking for or against execution, instead provided remembrances of their loved ones in what amounted to a series of moving memorials about how they lived rather than how they died. Jennifer Glick, a sister of Jeremy Glick, who was aboard the commandeered flight that went down in Pennsylvania, told the jurors that her brother was a leader of his family, which has preserved his memory by setting up a program called Jeremy's Heroes, to aid young people in physical education. Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-04-22 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=149392 |