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<p>WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Jailed Al-Qaida member Zacarias Moussaoui says he was part of a planned second-wave terrorist attack outside the United States after Sept. 11 2001, lawyers assisting him said in declassified documents made public Tuesday. The disclosure in papers unsealed by a federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., is the most detailed acknowledgment by Moussaoui that he was preparing to participate in an attack when he was detained in the Twin Cities on Aug. 16, 2001. He was taken into custody after arousing suspicious while learning to fly a jumbo jetliner at an Eagan flight school.</p>

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 25 — The government has asked a judge to dismiss all charges against terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui, according to a motion released Thursday. Prosecutors said they made the extraordinary request to hasten an appeal challenging the defendant’s right to question al-Qaida prisoners.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States obtained a slightly altered indictment against accused Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, updating information on financial transactions that the government contends helped fund the terrorist attacks. An allegation in the original indictment that Moussaoui and alleged hijacker leader Mohammed Atta looked into how to use planes for crop-dusting also was removed. The new indictment, issued Wednesday, adds that suspected hijacker Fayez Ahmed used a credit card in Florida to obtain $4,900 from an account that Moussaoui has been linked to, according to the government. The new indictment also adds Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia to...

The Saudi government paid off al-Qaida in exchange for immunity from terror attacks. Saudi princes knew in advance about the Sept. 11 attacks. Most of the Saudi officials who assisted al-Qaida all died mysteriously soon thereafter. The revelations in Gerald Posner's new book Why America Slept are an astonishing reminder of just how much we still don't know about Sept. 11 and its planning. But there is also plenty that we think we know but don't. I'm not talking about shoddy conspiracy theories (that Jews were warned not to show up for work at the World Trade Center, for example)...

What terrorist weapon is more destructive than TNT and more available than nukes? It's gasoline. By Richard A. Muller Technology for Presidents from Technology Review Online March 11, 2002 Before murdering thousands at the World Trade Center, Mohammad Atta made repeated trips to rural airports, trying to learn everything he could about crop dusters. Why? Most people think he was interested in spreading chemical or biological terror over a major city. But there is no evidence that al Qaeda had stores of such materials. Searches in Afghanistan turned up no major chemical or biological facilities—nor is there evidence the group...

BEVERLY -- Two men tried to buy a crop-dusting airplane at Beverly Airport Tuesday night and when questioned, jumped into a pickup truck and left the area, prompting a tight-lipped anti-terrorism investigation by state police and the FBI. State police confirmed they are investigating an incident that occurred at the airport at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, but wouldn't provide further details. Airport sources said the men, who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent, went to Aviators of New England, a flight school at the airport on LP Henderson Road, and asked the owner if they could buy a crop-duster. "They...

<> Forest Service tanker planes are used to drop flame-retardant chemicals on forest fires. They are often left unattended at remote airfields. They would seem to offer a tempting target for terrorists who could use them to spread harmful chemical or biological agents. But, when the Forest Service was warned of this danger after September 11, according to Philip Shenon of The New York Times, it decided that the risk of its tanker planes being used by terrorists "was not even worth examining closely." If that doesn't curl your hair, consider that the Energy Department's Inspector General reported a couple...

Barely two weeks before his arrest outside an Eagan hotel, Zacarias Moussaoui inquired about the University of Minnesota's crop-dusting program, a move suggesting the terror suspect might have considered staying in the state for a year or more. Moussaoui e-mailed the university's Crookston, Minn., campus on July 31, 2001, seeking information on a "short course you offer to become a crop duster (6 month, 1 years max.)" Moussaoui made a fleeting reference to the e-mail in a court filing late last month in Alexandria, Va., where he is awaiting trial on six federal charges, including conspiracy to commit air piracy...

USDA official: Atta tried to get loan to buy airplane Saturday, June 8, 2002 Associated Press MIAMI - Terrorist ringleader Mohamed Atta tried to get a $650,000 federal loan to build an airplane that could be used as a crop duster, according to a U.S. official who said she met Atta about 17 months before the Sept. 11 attacks. Johnell Bryant, a loan officer at a U.S. Department of Agriculture office in Florida City, said Atta visited her in early 2000, just before he and other members of his group began taking flying lessons. Atta is believed to have been...

June 6 — For more than an hour, a government loan officer was face to face with the man she now knows was the ringleader of the Sept. 11 hijackers, and he asked her for a $650,000 federal loan that apparently would have financed an attack on the United States with a modified crop-duster, the officer told ABCNEWS. In an interview with Brian Ross, Johnelle Bryant, a loan officer in Florida for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, recalled how Mohamed Atta sat across from her with his "very scary" black eyes, and then railed against her when the loan was...

Posted on Sun, Apr. 21, 2002 BY JENNIFER BABSON jbabson@herald.com BOCA CHICA KEY - They worry about allergies and immune system difficulties and ailments yet to be diagnosed. A few bolted for points north; others shuttered windows and stayed inside. Word that the U.S. Army was conducting biological and chemical detection tests off Key West last week -- using a crop duster to spray what it says are benign substances over a small swath of the Gulf -- set alarm bells ringing for some on this island chain. ''Monday I had my house closed up all day and the air...