W A S H I N G T O N, Dec. 11 — A man who raised suspicions of instructors at a flight school in Minnesota almost a month before the Sept. 11 terror attacks on America has become the first person indicted in connection with the probe, Attorney General John Ashcroft said today.A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., filed a six-count indictment against Zacarias Moussaoui today, exactly three months after the hijacked airline attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The indictment accuses Moussaoui, a 33-year-old French citizen, of conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism, to commit aircraft piracy, to destroy aircraft, to use weapons of mass destruction, to murder U.S. employees and to destroy property.
If convicted, he could face the death penalty on four of the counts.
"The indictment issued today is a chronicle of evil," Ashcroft said in announcing the 30-page criminal filing, the first directly related to the Sept. 11 attacks.
‘Trained and Funded by Al Qaeda and Bin Laden’
Moussaoui is accused of training with the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers at the Khalden Camp in Afghanistan run by Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda terrorist network. Today's indictment named bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders as unindicted co-conspirators in the suicide hijacking attacks.
Moussaoui, whose family moved to France from Morocco before he was born, had the "same commitment to kill Americans as the hijackers," Ashcroft said, though he did not link him directly to the 19 hijackers' activities in America.
According to the indictment, Moussaoui's activities in the 12 months before Sept. 11 closely paralleled those of the hijackers.
"Moussaoui followed many of the same patterns, and took many of the same steps as the other 19 hijackers," FBI Director Robert Mueller said today.
Almost a year before the hijackings took place, Moussaoui contacted Airman Flight School, in Norman, Okla. Soon after, he bought flight deck pilot training videos for the Boeing 747 Model 200 and Boeing 757 Model 200 from a pilot store in Ohio, the indictment said.
Investigators said hijackers Mohamed Atta and Nawaf al-Hazmi bought similar training videos at the same Ohio store. Authorities believe Atta was the ringleader of the group, and that he steered one of the planes into the World Trade Center.
Moussaoui, who allegedly used the aliases "Shaqil" and "Abu Khalid al Sahrawi," then traveled to Pakistan, declaring at least $35,000 in cash when he returned to the United States last February, authorities said.
Moussaoui allegedly inquired about crop-dusting equipment in Oklahoma in June, and then traveled to Minnesota about a month before Sept. 11. He paid $6,300 in cash to the Pan Am International Flight Academy in Minnesota to take simulator training courses on the 747 Model 400.
He told authorities he simply wanted to learn to fly.
Detained Before the Terror Attacks
The suspected terrorist was detained before the Sept. 11 attacks, however, after instructors at the Minnesota flight school became suspicious. FBI and Immigration and Naturalization Service investigators held him initially on visa violation charges.
Moussaoui was placed under arrest as a material witness in September following the suicide hijacking attacks in Washington and New York.
When authorities detained him on Aug. 17, they reported finding a variety of incriminating evidence in his possession, including two knives, binoculars, flight manuals for the 747, flight simulator computer program, fighting gloves, shin guards, papers referring to a global positioning device, and a hand-held aviation radio. They also found notes and phone numbers linked to Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, who had Atta stay with him in Hamburg, Germany.
Moussaoui May Meant to Participate on Sept. 11
Based on the indictment, it was not clear whether investigators believe that Moussaoui intended to take part in the Sept. 11 attacks or in a separate plot.
Bin al-Shibh was prevented from entering the United States when his visa requests were denied repeatedly, and Moussaoui may have been intended to take his place on one of the planes. Three of the Sept. 11 hijacking teams had five members, but one had only four.
Ashcroft said today's announcement was an important first step in bringing terrorists to justice.
"Al Qaeda will now meet the justice it abhors and the judgment it fears," he said.
Moussaoui is scheduled to be arraigned on Jan. 2.
ABCNEWS' Pierre Thomas, Beverley Lumpkin and Oliver Libaw contributed to this report.
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