Posted on 04/23/2005 9:32:48 AM PDT by Cornpone
WASHINGTON, April 22 (AFP) - Zacarias Moussaoui's admission that he took part in Al-Qaeda's September 11 conspiracy during an angry court appearance has left him facing a desperate battle to avoid the death penalty.
The 36-year-old Frenchman has said he was chosen by Osama bin Laden to fly a jet into the White House.
US media emphasised how Moussaoui shouted "God curse America" as he left Friday's hearing in Alexandria, Virginia and US authorities announced straight away that they would press for his execution.
Lawyers have warned, however, that a long court process remains -- during which Moussaoui could renew calls to be allowed to question Al-Qaeda leaders kept in secret detention by the United States -- before a jury starts to decide on the penalty.
Moussaoui pleaded guilty to six conspiracy charges linked to the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people. He is the first person to face charges over the attacks.
But he has also insisted that he was not to be one of the September 11 hijackers and that he was to take part in a later attack on the White House.
Moussaoui, who said he uses the moniker Abu Khalid al Sahrawi as his nom de guerre, signed a statement of fact during the hearing in which he said the Al-Qaeda leader chose him for the second wave of attacks.
"Bin Laden personally selected Moussaoui to participate in the operation to fly planes into American buildings and approved Moussaoui attacking the White House," according to the document.
"Bin Laden told Moussaoui: 'Sahrawi, remember your dream.'" Despite his guilty pleas, Moussaoui, balding, bearded and wearing a green prison jumpsuit, stressed he was not seeking his execution.
"I don't expect any leniency from the Americans," he said, but he added: "I will not apply for death, and in fact, I will fight every inch against the death penalty."
US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said, however, that prosecutors would seek execution for the avowed Al-Qaeda member.
"The fact that Moussaoui participated in this terrorist conspiracy is no longer in doubt," Gonzales said. "Moussaoui and his co-conspirators were responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocents on September 11."
Moussaoui admitted conspiracy to commit terrorism, to commit aircraft piracy, to destroy aircraft and to use weapons of mass destruction -- charges which carry the death penalty. He also pleaded guilt to conspiracy to murder and to destroy property.
He is the first Al-Qaeda conspirator to appear in a US civilian court over September 11. All of the others remain in US military custody.
And there are still many contradictions in his case, during which he has regularly railed against his defence team.
On Friday, Moussaoui called his lead lawyer Frank Dunham a "Judas" for talking to the US media about his case.
Lawyers had expressed doubts that Moussaoui was mentally competent to make a guilty plea. He withdrew a guilty plea made in 2002.
But US District Judge Leonie Brinkema said Moussaoui was capable. She complimented the defendant, saying he was an "extremely intelligent man.
"He better understands the legal system than some lawyers that I have seen in this court," she said.
Moussaoui's statement that he was not part of the September 11 plot was consistent with earlier claims that although he is an Al-Qaeda member, he was to participate in other plots.
The official US commission which looked into the September 11 attacks said captured Al-Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told interrogators that Moussaoui was to be used in a loosely planned "second wave" of attacks.
Nineteen men hijacked the four jets and crashed them into the twin World Trade Center towers in New York, the Defence Department headquarters near Washington and a field in Pennsylvania.
Despite his insistence that he was not part of the September 11 operation, Moussaoui signed the statement of facts as "the 20th hijacker".
A dozen relatives of September 11 victims attended the hearing. Some later said they wanted Moussaoui to be sentenced to death.
"I'm just happy that we didn't have to go through a long trial," said Debra Burlingame, whose brother, Charles Burlingame, 51, was the captain of American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon.
"I view him (Moussaoui) and all of his confederates ... as lost souls, utterly lost souls," she said.
Desired end for Mr. Mouss--owie (with W's "9/14/01 and after" remarks added for emphasis):
Firing squad.
("I can hear you...")
On National television.
("The rest of the world hears you.")
Survivors of 9/11 victims able to attend if they desire. ("And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.")
Next...Hussein...Sadr...Bin Laden...Zarqawi......Tent grenade boy...
("I say, 'bring 'em on.")
We had about 5,000 to 6,000 for McVeigh. I will probably be worse for this joker.
I still think we should part him out, a lot of people need
eyes, and kidneys, lungs and such, I know a few republicans
that could use a spine or a set of balls.
This way, he'd be sort of "undead", he wouldn't go to Allah
but he'd still live in the body of an infidel.
Of course, we could be magnanimous and sentence them to 25 years in prison - in the general population.
All you need to do to prevent a Muslim from meeting Allah is plant them tainted with pig's blood on their body or a piece of pork in the shroud...its kind of like a wooden stake through the heart.
LOL! Well that witty riposte cost me a screen splattered with coffee. Your sense of humor is sick. But then, so am I. Part the ba$tard out. Send the testicles to Bill Clinton.
No, send his testicles to congress, there is a shortage of them there.
Send the testicles to Bill Clinton.
What? Jeez, the guy should have been neutered years ago.
Probably would have if Hillery! had had her way.
To whom will France protest his sentence to Hell?
The obvious answer would presume facts not in evidence, such as their belief in God.
Is there any better and more compelling example than the endless Moussaoui trial for keeping these foreign terrorists from clogging our court systems by prosecuting them like criminals as the Liberals want to do?
Can anybody imagine the endless chaos that would ensue if we were to try just the Guantanamo detainees alone in court - not to mention the expense of paying the lawyers for both sides?
Burn'em...send them to hell as meals ready to eat....
I'd say let him starve to death but think the executioner needs to slip a little pig blood into his IV along with the "night night" juice...and let Moussaoui see him do it.
What, and allow him the peaceful death we gave Terry Schiavo? Starving is too good for the scum...and I would inject them with pigs blood with a transfusion straight from the sow...it must be a sow...
As much as Hitlery may have wanted to neuter Booba, she wouldn't because she would not have gotten very far with a enuich. I hope I spelled that right.
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