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| Moussaoui lied to enable 9/11 |
| 2006-03-07 |
| A TERRORIST conspirator who studied in London must be executed for causing the deaths of nearly 3,000 people by failing to tell what he knew of the 11 September attacks, prosecutors in the United States argued yesterday. As Zacarias Moussaoui stroked his beard on the opening day of his sentencing trial, and families of the 11 September victims watched on closed-circuit television, prosecutor Rob Spencer described the horror of the 2001 attacks and laid blame on the only man charged over them. "He lied so the plot could proceed unimpeded," Mr Spencer charged. "With that lie, he caused the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. He rejoiced in the death and destruction. Had Mr Moussaoui just told the truth, it would all have been different." Moussaoui's defence countered that his dreams of being a terrorist were far removed from anything he could actually do, and that he had no part in the attacks. "That is Zacarias Moussaoui in a nutshell," said his court-appointed lawyer Edward MacMahon. "Sound and fury signifying nothing." US District Judge Leonie Brinkema had 18 jurors and substitutes sworn in over a 90-minute period yesterday. One who appeared upset at being chosen was excused, meaning the trial will proceed with 12 jurors and five substitutes instead of six. Moussaoui, a 37-year-old French citizen, has acknowledged his loyalty to the al-Qaeda terrorist network and his intent to commit acts of terrorism, but denies any prior knowledge of the 11 September plot. Moussaoui pleaded guilty in April to conspiring with al-Qaeda to hijack planes and commit other crimes. The trial will determine Moussaoui's punishment and only two options are available: death or life in prison. The jury included a high school maths teacher who has travelled widely in the Middle East, a Sunni Muslim woman who was born in Iran and a man who served as a Navy lieutenant in the Gulf during the Desert Storm war against Iraq in 1990-91. Two prospective jurors with some loose connection to the September 11 attacks made it on to the final panel of 17. One was a woman whose brother-in-law works for the New York City Police Department and helped with rescue work at the World Trade Centre. The maths teacher had a more remote connection - the fathers of two of her pupils are firefighters who responded to the September 11 crash at the Pentagon. She helped students make a quilt to give to the fire department. In his opening statement, Mr MacMahon appealed to jurors to judge his client fairly, not "as a substitute for Osama bin Laden". He scoffed at the idea Moussaoui had any part in the plot. "Moussaoui certainly wasn't sent over here to tell a lie, ladies and gentlemen." Frequently ejected from the courtroom earlier because of his outbursts against his court-appointed attorneys, Moussaoui sat quietly through the opening of his trial, often gazing at the jurors or the gallery. At the end of the morning hearing, he spoke to one member of his defence team: "Just to let you know, you're not my lawyer, thanks a lot." His mother, Aicha el-Wafi, spoke up for her son in a television interview. "All they can have against him is the things that he said, the words that he has used," she said, "but actual acts that he committed, there aren't any." Hamilton Peterson, who lost his father Donald and stepmother Jean on hijacked Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania, came to witness the trial. Standing in the hallway outside the courtroom, talking to reporters, he declared: "I want accountability. I would like to have accountability after a fair trial for the world to see. "I believe Moussaoui is an excellent candidate for the death penalty. He is nothing less than a mass murderer." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |