‘20th hijacker’ seeks role in civil terror cases

Associated Press

NEW YORK

The man who became known as the “20th hijacker” from the Sept. 11 attacks wants to testify in lawsuits filed by victims of terrorism.

The imprisoned Zacarias Moussaoui recently wrote to federal courts in New York and Oklahoma, claiming he can offer inside information about the inner workings of al-Qaida to boost legal claims that the government of Saudi Arabia and financial institutions supported terrorism.

Some lawyers have taken him seriously enough to interview him at the Supermax federal prison in Colorado, where he is serving a life sentence. But other observers are skeptical, saying it could be a desperate grab for leniency or relevancy.

The offers are also clouded by his record of changing his account of his involvement in the Sept. 11 plot and his erratic behavior in court.

Moussaoui, who is 46 and refers to himself in writing as “Slave of Allah,” has been a curious character from the moment he was arrested on immigration charges in August 2001 after employees of a Minnesota flight school became alarmed that he wanted to learn to fly a Boeing 747 even though he had no pilot’s license. He was in custody Sept. 11 and pleaded guilty in April 2005 to conspiring with the hijackers to kill Americans.

The plea initially seemed to subdue the mercurial Moussaoui, who during a three-year legal fight repeatedly insulted the judge and tried to fire his lawyers. But his combustible side re-emerged at his death-penalty proceedings, when he surprised everyone by testifying that he had planned to pilot a plane into the White House on Sept. 11.