Old news takes on new life in Moussaoui trial
Details of what happened to the four hijacked jetliners on September 11, 2001, have been known for years, but when a US prosecutor read a simple minute-by-minute account of the attacks, the jury deciding the fate of confessed al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui hung on every word.
In a similar vein, the missed opportunities of the FBI and other agencies to prevent September 11 have been known for years, but when FBI agents are forced to admit them on cross-examination, they seem fresh to the jury, sitting in Alexandria, Virginia.
The jury has so far heard two days of testimony from FBI agents who provided a generic history of al-Qaida and an accounting of the 19 hijackers’ actions leading up to September 11. Testimony continues today.
The government must establish that Moussaoui’s actions resulted in death on September 11.
Prosecutors contend that if Moussaoui had not lied about his terrorist links and his flight training for a future attack, the government would have unravelled the September 11 plot.
The blow-by-blow recitation yesterday by prosecutor David Raskin of the hijackings – a stipulation of facts agreed to by both sides – did nothing to link Moussaoui to the plot, but nonetheless provided an emotional wallop.
Raskin quoted a radiophone call by flight attendant Amy Sweeney just before her plane became the first to strike the World Trade Centre: “We are flying very very low,” she told ground controllers.
“We are flying way too low. … Oh my God, we are way too low!” Then the phone went dead.
Moussaoui pumped his fist after hearing Raskin’s account.
Moussaoui has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to hijack aircraft, but argues he had nothing to do with September 11 and was training for a possible future attack.
Defence lawyers argue that the FBI’s incompetence and bureaucratic gridlock kept them from stopping the attacks, and a confession from Moussaoui would have changed nothing.
FBI agents have been forced to admit under cross-examination that the FBI knew years before September 11 that al-Qaida had plans to use planes as missiles to destroy prominent buildings.
They also had to acknowledge numerous missed opportunities in the months before September 11 to catch two of the hijackers with terror links known to the government, even though the pair frequently used their own names in the US to rent cars, purchase plane tickets and even, once, to file a police report after getting mugged.
