Moussaoui’s 9/11 claim discounted by FBI

WASHINGTON – Federal officials revealed Thursday that they have no evidence that “shoe bomber” Richard Reid was told to fly a jet into the White House on Sept. 11, 2001, under the command of Zacarias Moussaoui, as Moussaoui testified in his death penalty trial.

The acknowledgment came in a document read into the record Thursday by Moussaoui’s defense lawyers. Prosecutors worked with the defense in preparing the document, which is called a stipulation and presented to the jury as fact.

The document said, “There is no information to indicate that Richard Reid had preknowledge of the 9/11 attacks or was instructed by al-Qaida leadership to conduct an operation in coordination with Moussaoui.” The document pointed out that Reid had left his possessions to Moussaoui in his will before Reid mounted a separate attack in December 2001 in which he tried to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with a bomb in his shoe.

“In the opinion of the FBI,” the document said “if Reid was to be part of the same martyrdom operation as Moussaoui, it is unlikely he would have bequeathed his possessions to Moussaoui.”

The document, read to the jury by defense lawyer Alan Yamamoto, concluded that according to two FBI analysts “it is highly unlikely” that Reid was to be part of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

The development casts significant doubt on the story Moussaoui told late last month when he said he had been planning to fly a fifth hijacked plane into the White House on Sept. 11 and Reid was to be part of his crew. Moussaoui’s lawyers have told the jury that he was exaggerating his role; prosecutors have said he was telling the truth.

Moussaoui pleaded guilty last year to conspiring with al-Qaida in the Sept. 11 plot and the jury in the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Va., is now deciding if he should be executed.

Moussaoui’s lawyers had tried to call Reid to the stand to discredit Moussaoui’s story, but U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema last week vacated her earlier order that required the government to produce Reid for Moussaoui’s trial. Reid is serving a life prison term for the attempted shoe bombing.