FBI Agent: Moussaoui Might Crash Plane Into WTC

By Reuters

Friday, 27 September, 2002

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An FBI agent said in August 2001 that accused Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui might take control of an airplane and crash it into the World Trade Center if he was released from custody, according to a court document made public on Friday.

The document relates communications between FBI headquarters and its office in Minneapolis involving Moussaoui, who was being held in Minnesota in August 2001 on immigration violations after arousing suspicion at a flight school.

The agent said Moussaoui ``might take control of an airplane and crash it into the World Trade Center,'' prosecutors said in the document detailing what has been given to the congressional intelligence committees investigating the attacks.

Moussaoui, who was still in custody on Sept. 11 last year, later became the only person charged in the United States with conspiring in the attacks.

The prosecutors also described an FBI report concerning interviews with Moussaoui in mid-August 2001, in which FBI agents accused him of giving misleading and evasive answers.

The FBI report described how Moussaoui involved his right to a lawyer when confronted with information ``that he was known to be an extremist intent on using his past and future aviation training in furtherance of a terrorist goal.''

Questioning of Moussaoui then stopped.

Earlier in the questioning, Moussaoui discussed his suspicion of immigration authorities, his desire to fly a large jet aircraft, his reasons for not attending a flight school in Europe, his connections in Saudi Arabia and his recent travel to Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia, according to the FBI report dated Aug. 18, 2001.

When asked about his travel to Pakistan, Moussaoui, a French national of Moroccan descent, became ``extremely agitated and he refused to discuss the matter further,'' according to the FBI report.

It says Moussaoui became angry when agents suggested to him that he did not have an adequate explanation for the large sums of money in his possession.

The FBI report said agents in Minneapolis had assessed Moussaoui as an ``Islamic fundamentalist preparing for some future act in furtherance of radical fundamentalist goals'' involving an aircraft.

The FBI report was turned over as part of the congressional investigation into whether the FBI and CIA had missed possible clues that could have prevented the hijacked plane attacks.

The 34-year-old Moussaoui has been charged with six counts of conspiracy in the Sept. 11 attacks. Four of them carry the death penalty. His trial is scheduled to begin in January.

He has denied being a part of the hijacking, but admitted to being a member of al Qaeda. The United States blames Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network for the attacks that killed about 3,000 people.

The judge in the Moussaoui case on Friday unsealed the document, which prosecutors filed on Sept. 19. Prosecutors had wanted clarification from the judge on what the FBI and Justice Department could disclose in the public congressional hearings.

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