And, quite probably, rescues the government’s case from a near-certain defeat.
Zacarias Moussaoui testified in an Alexandria courtroom this morning that he was tapped by Osama bin Laden to hijack a plane and fly it into the White House as part of the terrorist attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives on Sept. 11, 2001.
Testifying at his own death-penalty trial, over the objections of his attorneys, Moussaoui said he had not known the precise date the attacks were to take place, but that he knew they would involve the White House, the World Trade Center and other targets.
He said he was supposed to head a five-man crew that also would have included Richard Reid, a British citizen who tried to set off explosives in his shoes aboard a transatlantic flight two months after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Moussaoui was arrested a few weeks before the attacks for immigration violations, and eventually charged as an al-Qaeda co-conspirator. He pleaded guilty last April, and is on trial to determine whether he should be executed for his role.
No wonder his lawyer’s didn’t want him testifying.
Questioned by defense lawyer Gerald Zerkin for less than 30 minutes, Moussaoui was asked: “Were you scheduled to be a pilot in the operation that was to be run on Sept. 11, 2001?”
He replied: “Yes. I was supposed to pilot a plane to hit the White House. I only knew about the two planes of the World Trade Center in addition to my own plane.”
(…)
Looking at photographs flashed on a screen by prosecutors when they cross-examined him, Moussaoui said he knew most of the 19 hijackers, many of whom he had seen when he attended an al-Qaeda training camp and managed an al-Qaeda guesthouse in Afghanistan.
He said he knew other hijackers were in the United States in the summer of 2001 but did not have any contact with them. He said he was unsure if the other members of the crew for his plane were in the United States.
When he accepted a request from bin Laden and another top al-Qaeda leader to pilot a plane in a suicide mission, Moussaoui said he initially did not know the full extent of the operation. But he figured it would involve more than his own plane. “Being al-Qaeda, we don’t do one operation. We do multiple strikes, so I knew there would be other operations,” he said.
Before today, the government’s case looked like it was a loser, especially after the fiasco with the coached TSA witnesses. After this testimony, though, I will be surprised if he doesn’t get the death penalty.
More at Outside The Beltway and Wizbang
Previous Posts:
Did Incompetence Contribute To 9/11 ?
The Rest of the Story
Has The Government Blown The Moussaoui Case ?
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