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Moussaoui Shouts 'God Curse America' at Trial NewsMax.com Wires ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Prosecutors in Zacarias Moussaoui's death penalty trial sought Tuesday to unravel his claims that he knew nothing of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, arguing that al-Qaida members are carefully scripted to lie when caught. FBI agent Michael Anticev, testifying for a second day, offered the jury a primer on al-Qaida cover stories and the organization's techniques of deception when cell members are questioned. Moussaoui's lawyers are portraying him as a pathetic loner who dreamed of becoming a terrorist but was shut out of Sept. 11 planning and considered by one al-Qaida leader a "cuckoo in the head." They also want to show the government knew far more about brewing al-Qaida plots than Moussaoui did, and in that vein pressed Anticev on what the FBI was doing to follow up on warning signals before 9/11. Anticev at first asserted, "I don't think anybody was looking at using aircraft as weapons," but acknowledged under questioning that the FBI had been aware of supposed plans to fly airliners into the Eiffel Tower and CIA headquarters. Story Continues Below
Moussaoui's mother, Aicha, sat three rows behind her son in the courtroom; he ignored her except for a glance. She said later he was angry with her for speaking to his court-appointed lawyers, whom he has disavowed. Moussaoui has been less disruptive than in earlier proceedings, but when leaving the courtroom for a recess, declared, "God curse America" and his lawyers, and "God bless Osama bin Laden." Anticev read excerpts from an al-Qaida training manual that included instructions on coded communications and how to develop a cover story if cell members are detained. The manual says members should be prepared to answer questions about how they got their travel money, whether they belong to religious organizations and more. When Moussaoui was arrested in the month before the attacks, he told the FBI his flight-training was merely an "ego-boosting thing." The government argues Moussaoui should be put to death rather than imprisoned for life because he told lies that prevented authorities from foiling attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. Opening his cross-examination, defense lawyer Edward MacMahon sought to show that the FBI knew more than a decade ago that Osama bin Laden was sending trainees to U.S. flight schools to learn to be pilots, and at least one went to the same Oklahoma school where Moussaoui trained. For Moussaoui, who readily acknowledges his allegiance to bin Laden and al-Qaida, Anticev's testimony seemed to provide a trip down memory lane. Prosecutor David Raskin questioned Anticev about the structure of bin Laden's al-Qaida organization. Moussaoui smiled Monday when prosecutors played a 1998 ABC television interview of bin Laden as part of Anticev's testimony. He smiled again after the jury was shown portions of an al-Qaida training tape that showed the bombing of the USS Cole in a Yemeni port in 2000. Anticev's testimony touched on the some of the names and faces that will be a part of Moussaoui's death-penalty trial over the next one to three months, including Sept. 11 attack mastermind, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Moussaoui pleaded guilty in April to conspiring with al-Qaida to hijack planes and commit other crimes. The trial will simply determine Moussaoui's punishment, and only two options are available: death or life in prison. To obtain the death penalty, prosecutors must first prove a direct link between Moussaoui and the Sept. 11 attacks. Moussaoui denies any connection to 9/11 and says he was training for a possible future attack. During opening statements, prosecutor Rob Spencer maintained that if Moussaoui had told the truth about his plans and his terrorist links when he was arrested in August 2001, the FBI and other agencies would have been able to unravel the al-Qaida threat and thwarted the Sept. 11 attacks. "Had Mr. Moussaoui just told the truth, it would all have been different," said Spencer. MacMahon scoffed at the notion, saying Moussaoui's arrest set off numerous red flags to the FBI bureau in Minneapolis that arrested him, but FBI headquarters simply chose to ignore the warnings. "The government expects you to believe Moussaoui held all the clues to finding these men," MacMahon told the jury. "You will see right through it."
© 2006 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Editor's note: Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
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