Moussaoui offered to testify against himself

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui offered last month to testify for prosecutors against himself at his death-penalty trial and told agents that he did not want to die in prison, according to dramatic last-minute testimony Tuesday.

The bizarre testimony capped a trial that has seen more than its share of the unusual over three tumultuous weeks. Introduced as part of a brief government rebuttal case, this testimony may be the firmest evidence the 37-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan descent hopes for martyrdom through execution and could provide fodder for the closing arguments of both prosecutors and Moussaoui’s court-appointed defense attorneys.

Moussaoui offered on Feb. 2, just before jury selection began, to testify that he was to have hijacked and piloted a fifth plane on Sept. 11, 2001. He did not ask that prosecutors stop pursuing the death penalty in return. He sought only better conditions in prison and a promise not to be called to testify against other al-Qaida members.

FBI agent James Fitzgerald said Moussaoui told him — in a jailhouse meeting the defendant requested — that he did not want to die behind bars and it was “different to die in a battle ... than in a jail on a toilet.” Moussaoui dropped this bid after he learned that he had an absolute right to testify in his own defense.

The defense in the case rested Tuesday after two more high-ranking al-Qaida operatives cast doubt on whether Moussaoui was involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, with one portraying him as a misfit who refused to follow orders.

Stunning admission on Monday
On Monday, he stunned the court by asserting that he was to fly a 747 jetliner into the White House on 9/11, despite having claimed for three years that he had no role in the Sept. 11 plot. Instead, he had said his attack was to be part of a possible later assault.

The February meeting was to have been off the record but was introduced by prosecutors at the end of testimony in the case to rebut a defense exhibit. Closing its case Tuesday, the defense had introduced a partial transcript of Moussaoui’s guilty plea last April.

In the pleading, Moussaoui said, “Everybody knows that I’m not 9/11 material.” He said 9/11 “is not my conspiracy.” He said he was going to attack the White House if the United States did not release radical Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel Rahman, imprisoned for other terrorist crimes.

Closing arguments and instructions to the jury were expected Wednesday.

Because Moussaoui has already pleaded guilty, 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.

The jury was to begin deliberations immediately, according to NBC News. Five alternate jurors for Moussaoui’s trial will be drawn from a hat, NBC News reported on Tuesday. Even though they are alternates, their notebooks will be impounded and they will remain sequestered from any news of the trial, NBC said.

The testimony of both al-Qaida operatives was read to the jury, in one case because the witness is a captive whom the U.S. government did not want to appear in court.

One, identified as Sayf al-Adl, a senior member of al-Qaida’s military committee, stated that sometime between Sept. 1, 2001, and late July 2004, Moussaoui was “a confirmed jihadist but was absolutely not going to take part in the Sept. 11, 2001, mission.” The 9/11 commission reported that the U.S. had recovered from a safehouse in Pakistan a letter written by al-Adl describing the various candidates considered for the Sept. 11 attacks.

The other operative — Waleed bin Attash, often known simply as Khallad — is considered the mastermind of the 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole in Yemen and an early planner of the Sept. 11, 2001, plot. Khallad, who was captured in April 2003, said he knew of no part that Moussaoui was to have played in the 9/11 attacks.

Testimony supports 9/11 organizer’s claims
Their testimony backs up the claims of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, chief organizer of the 9/11 attacks. He said in testimony read to the jury Monday that Moussaoui had nothing to do with the plot but was to have been used for a second wave of attacks distinct from Sept. 11.

Moussaoui said for the first time Monday that he was supposed to pilot a fifth plane in the 9/11 plot and attack the White House. He had previously denied a role in 9/11 and claimed to be part of a different plot.

The defense introduced an array of written testimony from these captives that was read to the jurors in an effort to undercut Moussaoui’s dramatic testimony Monday. His lawyers were trying to undo damage he might have done to himself when he testified against their wishes.

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