The British-born shoe bomber, Richard Reid, had been part of an al-Qaeda plot to fly a fifth hijacked plane into the White House on September 11 2001, his self-confessed co-conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui told a Virginia court on Monday.
The revelations on an additional al-Qaeda plot involving Reid were the most dramatic in a day of surprising and damaging testimony from Moussaoui, who is on trial for his life for his knowledge of the September 11 2001 attacks.
Reid was jailed after he was subdued by fellow passengers as he tried to detonate a bomb in his shoe aboard a transatlantic flight in December 2001.
It was the first time Moussaoui had mentioned his involvement in the plot against the White House, which he said in earlier evidence was scheduled to take place later in 2001.
Earlier, Moussaoui testified that he misled his interrogators in the weeks before September 11 2001, to enable the attacks on the World Trade Centre to go ahead.
Taking the stand against his lawyers’ wishes, Moussaoui told the court: ”I had knowledge that the Twin Towers would be hit.” He added: ”I didn’t know the date. I knew it could happen after August.”
Asked whether he deliberately misled his interrogators, Moussaoui replied: ”Yes, you can say that.”
Reid has not previously been linked to the September 11 attacks.
In December 2001 a flight attendant noticed a burning smell on American Airlines flight 63 as it flew to the US from Paris. A wire was spotted coming from Reid’s shoes and he was overpowered on board.
Aviation sources said the device was viable and if Reid had successfully detonated it, it would have blown a hole in the plane, causing it to crash and its 184 passengers and 14 crew would have been killed.
Al-Qaeda recruited Reid and the British-born Saajid Badat to explode shoe bombs on planes in simultaneous attacks, but Badat pulled out and was later convicted for his part in the conspiracy.
At Badat’s UK trial it emerged that on September 12 2001, he was in Amsterdam with Reid.
Both were being ”handled” by Nizar Trabelsi, a former footballer now serving 10 years in a Belgian jail for plotting to bomb a Nato airbase.
If Moussaoui’s claims are true, and because of his erratic behaviour that is a very big if, it potentially links the radical cleric Abu Hamza in the fringes of the September 11 attacks.
Reid attended the Finsbury Park mosque in north London where Hamza gave firebrand sermons.
Monday’s testimony could prove pivotal in the court’s deliberations on whether Moussaoui should get the death penalty or spend the rest of his life in jail for his role as an al-Qaeda conspirator.
The prosecution argues that Moussaoui could have prevented the attacks by cooperating with interrogators after his arrest in August that year on immigration charges.
If it can establish that Moussaoui was directly responsible for at least one death on September 11 2001, he could be sentenced to death.
In his testimony Moussaoui said he knew in August 2001 that the attacks were imminent, and he had bought a radio so he could hear them unfold. But, while he has admitted membership of al-Qaeda and receiving flight training — and told the court on Monday he was acquainted with a dozen of the 19 hijackers — he has always said he was not a part of that particular plot.
The proceedings brought new drama to a case that has so far been dominated by prosecution gaffes, and a parade of witnesses from security agencies who told the court how their warnings about an impending al-Qaeda attack went ignored.
In his previous appearances in the court, Moussaoui’s behaviour has been bizarre. On Monday, however, he was calm, telling his lawyer, Gerald Zerkin, he signed a confession saying he was the 20th hijacker as a joke.
”Everybody used to refer to me as the 20th hijacker and it was a bit of fun.”
Moussaoui’s lawyers had sought to bar him from testifying, telling the court on Monday that he was not a competent witness. – Guardian Unlimited Â