Horror of September 11 takes centre stage in Moussaoui trial

ALEXANDRIA – The horror of the September 11 attacks took centre stage yesterday, at the start of the second half of the death penalty trial of al Qaeda plotter Zacarias Moussaoui.

Following a jury verdict on Monday making the Frenchman eligible for the death penalty, jurors will now be asked to weigh mitigating and aggravating factors before deciding whether the death sentence will be executed. Jurors decided that lies by Moussaoui, the only man tried in the United States in connection with the world’s worst terror strike, facilitated the attacks and directly led to the death of at least one of the nearly 3 000 people who perished.Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled on Wednesday that a cockpit recording from one of the four planes hijacked during the attacks can be played in public for the first time by prosecutors.United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after a passenger uprising against the hijackers and never reached its target, identified in testimony earlier in the trial as the US Capitol building in Washington.Former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani will also testify for the prosecution, CNN television reported.Giuliani, a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2008, shepherded New Yorkers through the horrific aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center, a role which won him many admirers across the United States.Most observers believe the prosecution has already passed its most difficult test by securing the eligibility finding, so see very little chance that Moussaoui will escape execution.Jurors will also hear testimony from at least 40 family members of those killed in the attacks.Footage of the terror spawned in the fiery collapse of the World Trade Center’s twin towers in New York will also reportedly be included.In a proposed verdict form filed to the court on Tuesday, prosecutors said they planned to show Moussaoui’s actions led to nearly 3 000 deaths on September 11, 2001, caused serious physical, emotional injuries, including maiming and disfigurement to “numerous individuals”.Moussaoui last year pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to fly planes into buildings for al Qaeda, opening himself up to possible execution.Though he has refused to cooperate with his lawyers, he has the right to testify – as he did to electrifying effect when he salvaged the government case against him, in the first stage of the trial, by saying he was selected to fly a fifth plane into the White House on September 11.Asked whether he was proud to have been involved, he said he was “grateful” after declaring every American his “enemy”.- Nampa-APJurors decided that lies by Moussaoui, the only man tried in the United States in connection with the world’s worst terror strike, facilitated the attacks and directly led to the death of at least one of the nearly 3 000 people who perished.Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled on Wednesday that a cockpit recording from one of the four planes hijacked during the attacks can be played in public for the first time by prosecutors.United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after a passenger uprising against the hijackers and never reached its target, identified in testimony earlier in the trial as the US Capitol building in Washington.Former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani will also testify for the prosecution, CNN television reported.Giuliani, a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2008, shepherded New Yorkers through the horrific aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center, a role which won him many admirers across the United States.Most observers believe the prosecution has already passed its most difficult test by securing the eligibility finding, so see very little chance that Moussaoui will escape execution.Jurors will also hear testimony from at least 40 family members of those killed in the attacks.Footage of the terror spawned in the fiery collapse of the World Trade Center’s twin towers in New York will also reportedly be included.In a proposed verdict form filed to the court on Tuesday, prosecutors said they planned to show Moussaoui’s actions led to nearly 3 000 deaths on September 11, 2001, caused serious physical, emotional injuries, including maiming and disfigurement to “numerous individuals”.Moussaoui last year pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to fly planes into buildings for al Qaeda, opening himself up to possible execution.Though he has refused to cooperate with his lawyers, he has the right to testify – as he did to electrifying effect when he salvaged the government case against him, in the first stage of the trial, by saying he was selected to fly a fifth plane into the White House on September 11.Asked whether he was proud to have been involved, he said he was “grateful” after declaring every American his “enemy”.- Nampa-AP