Moussaoui's silence 'blocked chances to find 9/11 attackers'
US prosecutors rested their death penalty case against British-linked al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui today with the testimony of a former FBI agent.
Former agent Aaron Zebley claimed the chances of finding the September 11 hijackers before the attacks would have been increased if the defendant had confessed when he was first arrested instead of last year.
When Moussaoui pleaded guilty last year, he came out with details that could have helped identify 11 of the 19 hijackers if he had been forthcoming when he was arrested in the month before the attacks, former agent Aaron Zebley said.
After Mr Zebley’s testimony, US District Judge at the trial in Virginia Leonie Brinkema held a closed hearing and sent the jury on a half-hour break.
Leaving the courtroom, Moussaoui made clear he intended to take the stand in his own defence.
“I will testify, Zerkin, whether you want it or not,” he said, referring to one of his lawyers, Gerald Zerkin. Moussaoui has consistently refused to cooperate with his lawyers.
Mr Zebley testified that Moussaoui’s admission that he received more than $14,000 in wire transfers from a man using the name Ahad Sabet could have allowed the FBI to go through mobile phone and motor vehicle records, as well as leases, to identify most of the hijackers.
Brinkema’s rulings prevented Mr Zebley from explicitly speculating what the FBI actually would have accomplished had it known this information when Moussaoui was arrested in August 2001.
But the clear implication was that Moussaoui’s refusal to give a timely confession thwarted some of the FBI’s best opportunities to prevent or at least minimise the September 11 attacks.
“We could have set about finding the hijackers,” Zebley said.
As it was, certain details did not come out until Moussaoui pleaded guilty in federal court in April.
On cross-examination, defence lawyer Edward MacMahon asked why the urgent pleadings of the FBI agent who arrested Moussaoui for an all-out investigation were ignored.
“The FBI has to have a confession … before anybody listens?” MacMahon asked.
Zebley replied that the arresting agent, Harry Samit, did not know all the details that were later included in Moussaoui’s confession.
The defence also argues that it’s not relevant to look at what the results might have been if Moussaoui had confessed when arrested, because he had a right to remain silent in the face of interrogation.
Earlier in the trial, Samit said he spent four weeks warning his bosses about the radical Islamic student pilot. He said bureaucratic resistance to a thorough investigation blocked “a serious opportunity to stop the 9/11 attacks.”
Moussaoui, a French citizen who holds a master’s degree in International Business from South Bank University in London, pleaded guilty in April to conspiring with al Qaida to hijack aircraft and commit other crimes. However, he denies a specific role in September 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
The sentencing trial now under way will determine whether he is executed or imprisoned for life, the jury’s only choices.
When Moussaoui pleaded guilty, he confessed his al Qaida membership and divulged numerous details of his terrorist plans, including his flight training, his receipt of al Qaida money from an individual in Germany, and al Qaida’s general plans to hijack aircraft and crash them into prominent US targets.
Moussaoui was arrested on August 16, 2001, on immigration violations after he aroused suspicion at a Minnesota flight school. He lied to agents and insisted his flight training was for personal enjoyment
To obtain the death penalty, prosecutors must prove that Moussaoui’s actions caused the death of at least one person on September 11. They argue that he could have prevented or at least minimised the attacks if he had confessed and alerted federal agents to the imminent threat posed by al Qaida.
The defence argues that nothing Moussaoui said after his arrest would have made any difference to the FBI because its bureaucratic intransigence rendered it incapable of recting swiftly to Moussaoui’s arrest under any circumstances.
Prosecutors argue that Moussaoui was obliged to tell the truth once he decided to talk to federal agents, and that the jury can consider what might have happened if Moussaoui had confessed.
During his time in London, Moussaoui is thought to have attended Finsbury Park mosque where extremist Abu Hamza held lessons.
