The jury that will determine whether Zacarias Moussaoui
lives or dies must decide whether to believe Moussaoui himself, who says he
planned to fly a plane into the White House on Sept. 11, 2001, or the mastermind
of the 9/11 attacks, who says Moussaoui had nothing to do with them.
This artist's rendering shows Zacarias
Moussaoui, left, being questioned by , Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert
Spencer, second from right, as David Novak, right, and Federal Judge
Leonie Brinkema, second from left, listen, Monday, March 27, 2006 in U.S.
District Court in Alexandria, Va. [AP] |
Moussaoui's testimony Monday at his death-penalty trial that he was part of
the 9/11 plot along with shoe-bomber Richard Reid came as a shock since he
previously had denied any role in the Sept. 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000
people.
As soon as Moussaoui finished testifying, the jury was read statements from
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the Sept. 11 mastermind now in U.S. custody, who said
Moussaoui was to have been used in a second wave of attacks completely
disconnected from Sept. 11.
The jury was expected to hear statements Tuesday from another al-Qaida
operative in U.S. custody, Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, a suspected paymaster for
al-Qaida.
Moussaoui is the only person in this country charged in connection with the
Sept. 11 attacks, during which hijackers crashed passenger jetliners into New
York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.
But 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 repeatedly had denied involvement in 9/11, and when he admitted
guilt in April 2005 to conspiring with al-Qaida to hijack aircraft and commit
other crimes, he pointedly made a distinction between his conspiracy and 9/11.
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
also were to be flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center.