Moussaoui spews hatred Sept. 11 conspirator mocks suffering of victims, families

Jurors were keeping poker faces, for the most part.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- Al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui's second appearance on the witness stand was as hateful as his first appearance was stunning. But this time jurors were able to look away. At one point, some even laughed at him.
Seventeen days ago, he stunned the courtroom by claiming a role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that he had denied for four years. The jury sat almost motionless for his nearly three hours on the stand. They didn't look down to take notes; all eyes locked on the bearded 37-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan descent -- the only person charged in this country in connection with Sept. 11.
Back on the stand Thursday, Moussaoui defiantly proclaimed he felt "no regret, no remorse."
He said heart-rending testimony of victims and relatives had disgusted him, and he wished they had suffered more. Watching a Navy officer sobbing in court made his day.
But during his 21/2 hours on the stand, some jurors occasionally took notes, others glanced around the courtroom from time to time.
At one point, Moussaoui briefly forgot his angry al-Qaida rhetoric. Describing a jail visit by a public defender aide who helped set up his computer, Moussaoui said; "He gave me a session. I said, 'Bye-bye.' Uh, I mean, 'God curse you."' Two jurors chuckled.
Poker faces
They simply weren't rapt the second time around. And they've gotten better at keeping poker faces.
Had they not heard him before, his remarks Thursday might have hit them harder.
"So you would be happy to see 9/11 again?" Prosecutor Rob Spencer asked.
"Every day until we get you," Moussaoui shot back.
The sentencing trial is in the last phase of the defense effort to save him from execution.
Moussaoui bickered almost nonstop with defense lawyer Gerald Zerkin and Spencer about when he had been telling the truth over the past four years and whether he was sane.
Among the most startling statements, Moussaoui said Army Lt. Col. John Thurman's harrowing account of escaping the burning Pentagon left him with "regret that he didn't die."
Mocked officer
He mocked a Navy officer who wept as she described the death of two subordinates in the attack on the Pentagon.
"I think it was disgusting for a military person" to cry, Moussaoui said of Navy Lt. Nancy McKeown. "She is military. She should expect people at war with her to want to kill her."
Asked if he was happy to hear her sobbing, he said, "Make my day."
He noted many relatives of victims wept on the witness stand, then walked past him in the courtroom and looked his way without crying. "I find it disgusting that people come here to share their grief over the death of some other person," he said.
"I'm glad there was pain, and I wish there will be more pain," Moussaoui said. "The children in Palestine and in Chechnya will have pain. I want you to share their pain."
So, Spencer asked: "You have no regret, no remorse?"
"No regret, no remorse," Moussaoui responded.
When he left court after the judge and jury, he yelled: "God curse America. We will win. It's just a question of time."
Revealing response
In a particularly revealing response, Moussaoui explained to Spencer why he shocked the sentencing trial by testifying March 27 that he had been ordered to hijack a fifth plane Sept. 11 and fly it into the White House -- a plot he had long maintained was targeted for a later date.
"I thought it was useless to try to differentiate myself from 9/11," Moussaoui said. "I wanted to stand for 9/11 from the beginning. I thought I could do so and fight on against the death penalty. On purely rational grounds, it's a bit odd. ... By testifying truthfully I will save my life. It's an act of religion."
For the first time in four years of fighting to represent himself or get a Muslim lawyer, he finally explained the defense he wanted to put on. With U.S. troops engaged around the world, Moussaoui said, a life sentence would make him available "as a bargaining chip they could exchange for U.S. troops" held prisoner.
"This would work with even the most vengeful juror," Moussaoui said. "Put him in jail and one day he could save an American life."
The trial resumes Monday.
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