Posted on 09/07/2002 9:19:22 PM PDT by HAL9000
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US government accidentally gave Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged in connection with the September 11 attacks, classified information about al-Qaeda, ABC News reported.The documents and computer disks were mistakenly handed over to Moussaoui along with materials the government is required to furnish for his legal defense, several legal sources, including one at the Justice Department, told the network Friday. Moussaoui is serving as his own counsel.
Officials "are not 100 percent certain, but there is no evidence that Zacarias Moussaoui had read" the classified material about the terror network of Osama bin Laden that was blamed for the September 11 attacks, the Justice official told ABC.
Once the mistake was discovered, federal marshals searched Moussaoui's cell in the Alexandria, Virginia federal penitentiary at least three times, with permission from Judge Leonie Brinkema, who is presiding over the case, the sources said.
ABC reported it was not yet clear whether the marshals had recovered the documents in question.
Authorities are "still looking into it, in terms of making sure we did get everything back," the Justice Department official told the network.
Another source told the network that "cannonballs are rolling around at the Department of Justice and the (Federal Bureau of Investigation)" over the mishap.
The likelihood of the 34-year-old French national's finding the classified information, however, would be like "finding a needle in a very large haystack," the Justice official said.
He would not specify how the mishap occurred or disclose whether the US marshals would return to Moussaoui's cell, declining also to describe what kind of information had inadvertently been passed to the self-professed member of al-Qaeda, whose trial is to start in January.
The 34-year-old Moussaoui has been accused of being the 20th hijacker of the September 11 attacks, which killed more than 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. He has been indicted on six federal charges, four of which carry a possible death sentence.
Odds are 50-50 he'll be found innocent anyway.
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