He had met Reid, his purported partner, in the 1990s at London's Finsbury
Park mosque, a haven for Islamic fundamentalists.
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 execution, which he would see as martyrdom, to life in
prison. He isn't cooperating with his court-appointed attorneys and 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 be part of a
second wave of attacks, distinct from 9/11.
He was said to have wanted to use only Middle Easterners for Sept. 11 so that
Europeans like Moussaoui would stand a better chance of mounting a subsequent
attack after security was increased.
Mohammed said he wasn't 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 U.S.
response to Sept. 11 and the only other pilot backed out.
Mohammed considered Moussaoui too self-confident and too talkative. He
instructed Sept. 11 planner Ramzi Binalshibh to cut off contact with Moussaoui
in early August 2001 for fear that Moussaoui would get Binalshibh caught.
One other tidbit from Mohammed's statement: He said the plane that crashed in
a Pennsylvania field on Sept. 11 after passengers rebelled against the hijackers
was to have targeted the U.S. Capitol. There has been ongoing debate about
whether the plane was headed for the Capitol or the White House.
Because Moussaoui has already pleaded, the jury must only determine his
sentence: death or life in prison. To obtain the death penalty, prosecutors must
prove that Moussaoui's actions resulted in at least one death on Sept. 11.
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