U.S. Sees Moussaoui Link to Hijacker

U.S. Sees Moussaoui Link to Hijacker

Prosecutors allegedly tie phone number to both men

MSNBC
September 24, 2002
http://www.msnbc.com/news/812422.asp

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 — Prosecutors for the first time Tuesday revealed evidence that they claimed directly linked conspiracy suspect Zacarias Moussaoui with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, alleging that a telephone number Moussaoui called was scrawled on a business card belonging to one of the hijackers of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed into a Pennsylvania field.

The government said Tuesday that the business card, which was found in the wreckage of the crash site in Shanksville, Pa., belonged to Ziad Jarrah, one of the suspected pilots of Flight 93.

Prosecutors said it reinforced their argument that U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema should allow them to play cockpit tape recordings from the doomed plane and a private jet that picked up the conversations. Brinkema said this month that she would probably reject the government’s request unless prosecutors could demonstrate that the recordings held essential evidence.

Moussaoui’s court-appointed standby lawyers have argued that the tapes would unfairly prejudice a jury in the trial, which is scheduled for Jan. 6. Moussaoui is representing himself, but Brinkema has ordered the team of court-appointed defense lawyers to remain in the case to assist Moussaoui, a French citizen.

Brinkema said in the earlier hearing that she agreed with the defense argument, but she gave prosecutors a chance to explain the “relevance of these recordings to any issue in dispute, and why any ... value outweighs the danger of unfair prejudice.”

In response, the pleading said, “Jarrah’s role as a hijacker on Flight 93 is important to the government’s evidence linking defendant to the conspiracy, because a telephone number that defendant called during the conspiracy was scrawled on a business card belonging to Jarrah, which was found at the crash site in Pennsylvania.”

“In the end, the [cockpit voice recordings] constitute ... evidence that directly substantiates the overt acts charged in the indictment, thus tipping the scale heavily in favor of admissibility.”

EVIDENCE KEPT CLOSE TO VEST

Investigators have said little about what they had found in the wreckage at Shanksville. It was only recently that the government quietly disclosed that it also recovered a singed piece of Jarrah’s passport.

The indictment itself accuses Moussaoui of conspiring with Jarrah and 18 other hijackers to commit terror but gives no indication of any direct contacts. It says Moussaoui’s conduct mirrored that of the hijackers, including enrollment in U.S. flight schools.

NBC’s Pete Williams reported that the government’s disclosure Tuesday coincided with the release of a congressional report that said an FBI supervisor warned FBI headquarters ahead of time about Moussaoui, who was in prison on immigration charges on Sept. 11, 2001.

The supervisor “was trying to get people at FBI headquarters spun up, because he was trying to make sure that Moussaoui, quote, did not take control of a plane and fly it into the World Trade Center,” said Eleanor Hill, head of the joint House-Senate Intelligence Committee investigation of intelligence failures before the attacks.

Prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty if Moussaoui was convicted. Moussaoui, 34, has admitted participation in Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network but has denied involvement in the Sept. 11 plot.

NBC’s Pete Williams and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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