9/11 ATTACKS Papers reveal details of plan

The case alleges that other would-be hijackers and planes were involved.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- Terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui was part of a conspiracy to fly an airliner into the White House, a prosecutor alleged in a transcript released Friday, raising the possibility of other would-be hijackers.
While previous court documents said Moussaoui spoke of plans to crash a plane into the White House, it was unclear how he could do so without help if the 19 hijackers involved in the attack Sept. 11 2001, were committed to four other airplanes.
"It was going to involve others," Karas said at a Jan. 30 court hearing, without further elaboration. "The fact that he didn't know the precise whereabouts, or even if we can assume he didn't know the names of the people, doesn't mean he doesn't know the objects of the conspiracy."
Moussaoui "was keenly aware of why he was here," prosecutor Kenneth Karas said, responding to defense lawyers' arguments that the French citizen didn't know about Al-Qaida's plot to fly planes into U.S. buildings.
Moussaoui, an acknowledged Al-Qaida loyalist, is accused of participating in a terror war against the United States. The overt acts alleged in the indictment did not confine the conspiracy to the 19 attackers and four airplanes that crashed into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania countryside.
Charges
The charges mention a broad conspiracy that included religious edicts to kill U.S. soldiers in Somalia, training Al-Qaida terrorists for a holy war and attempts by Al-Qaida to obtain components of nuclear weapons.
"Thus, even if Al-Qaida never intended to put Moussaoui on one of the four planes on Sept. 11, he would nonetheless be guilty of the charges specified in the indictment," the government said in one document.
Karas said Jan. 30 "the evidence is clear" that Moussaoui had accomplices in a plan to fly a fifth attack plane, although he did not make clear whether the alleged operation was planned for Sept. 11.
Indeed, prior defense filings said Moussaoui contended he was part of a post-Sept. 11 operation outside the United States.
The prosecutor named one of those who provided evidence as Faiz Bafana, a member of Jemaah Islamiya, a Southeast Asian group that Indonesian authorities are investigating in the bombing of a Marriott hotel this week in Jakarta.
Moussaoui met with Bafana in Malaysia in 2000 and "talked freely ... about a dream he had to fly an airplane into the White House," defense documents have said. However, the defense lawyers said Bafana did not take Moussaoui seriously.
Casting doubt
Edward MacMahon, a defense team member, tried at the January hearing to cast doubt on the prosecutor's statements, declaring that Moussaoui -- who was arrested in August 2001 while taking flight lessons -- wasn't capable of flying a plane anywhere.
"Mr. Moussaoui couldn't even fly a paper airplane," MacMahon said. "He was the worst pilot. ... He couldn't get a Cessna up off the ground."
Moussaoui's court-appointed defense lawyers are representing his legal interests even though he is serving as his own lawyer.
The transcript of the Jan. 30 hearing and other court documents were made public Thursday and Friday by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema. Most were released with numerous deletions to remove secret material.
At the Jan. 30 hearing, Brinkema ruled that Moussaoui had the right to question the alleged Sept. 11 organizer, Ramzi Binalshibh, who is being held in an undisclosed location abroad. Moussaoui has contended that Binalshibh and other Al-Qaida captives could back up his claim that he was not involved with the attacks.
In a hearing a few days later, Brinkema acknowledged that her order, if affirmed by a higher court, would probably lead the government to move the case out of her civilian court.