When Zacarias Moussaoui pleaded guilty today to conspiracy charges linked to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks he said his mission included flying a commercial jetliner into the White House.
In its article on Moussaoui's guilty plea, Bloomberg reports on Moussaoui's admissions:
"I came to the U.S. and trained" on a 747 airplane simulator "to eventually use this plane to strike the White House," Moussaoui said. He denied that he was assigned any direct role in carrying out the Sept. 11 attacks that killed almost 3,000 people. "I'm guilty of a broad conspiracy," he said.
Moussaoui said that, in becoming a trained pilot, the plan for him was to help free blind sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the Islamic Group's spiritual leader who was sentenced to life in prison for plotting to blow up several U.S. targets including the United Nations building in New York City.
He said his assignment was to fly a jet into the White House if the U.S. didn't cooperate in freeing Rahman.
A five-page Statement of Facts as to Zacarias Moussaoui, signed "seen and agreed" by Moussaoui, and filed with the court listed a series of allegations that Moussaoui agreed the government could have proven at trial.
The document includes the following statements:
9. Moussaoui knew of al Qaeda's plan to fly airplanes into prominent buildings in the United States and he agreed to travel to the United States to participate in the plan.
Bin Laden personally selected Moussaoui to participate in the operation to fly planes into American buildings and approved Moussaoui attacking the White House.'' Bin Laden told Moussaoui: "Sahrawi, remember your dream," [according to the document, one of Moussaoui's aliases was Abu Khaled al Sahrawi.]10. An al Qaeda associate provided with information about flight schools in the United States. In September 2000, Moussaoui, who was in Malaysia, contacted the Airman Flight School in Norman, Oklahoma, via email, seeking flight training. Moussaoui intended to use his training as a pilot in furtherance of al Qaeda's plan to use planes to kill Americans.
11. Moussaoui trained in knife fighting in Afghanistan.
[. . .]
15. In August 2001, Moussaoui traveled to Minnesota where he trained on a Boeing 747-400 simulator at the Pam Am International Flight Academy in Eagan Minnesota. Moussaoui told an al Qaeda associate that he would complete simulator training before September 2001.
16. On August 16, 2001, Moussaoui was arrested in Minnesota by agents of the INS and the FBI. At the time of his arrest, Moussaoui possessed the following items:
- two knives;
- flight manuals for the Boeing 747 Model 400;
- a flight simulator computer program;
- fighting gloves and shin guards;
- a piece of paper referring to a handheld Global Positioning System;
- software that could be used to review pilot procedures for the Boeing 747 Model 400; and
- a hand-held aviation radio.The complete document can be accessed as a PDF file here.
Early reports about Moussaoui suggested he was to have been the pilot of one of the hijacked planes. Later, it was reported Moussaoui was to have been part of a later wave of attacks against the US.
According to The Independent, Moussaoui told the court:
"I was being trained on a 747 to eventually use this plane to strike the White House." Referring to the attacks of 11 September, he added: "That's not my conspiracy"
I am glad Moussaoui stands convicted, but I wonder how much more information would have been made available had Moussaoui forced the government to prove the charges against him.
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