US admits no proof Moussaoui was key 9/11 player, death penalty trial hears

THE United States government admitted there was no proof to back Zacarias Moussaoui’s dramatic courtroom confession that he was to have been a key player in the September 11 attacks.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, presented the final evidence in the trial in a bid to debunk defence claims that the al-Qaida plotter is a paranoid schizophrenic so he should not be put to death.

Judge Leonie Brinkema told jurors they would be sent out to start deliberating on Monday on the fate of Moussaoui, the only man tried in the US in connection with the 2001 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people.

Defence lawyers tried to blunt testimony from grief-stricken relatives who testified for the prosecution.

The most startling revelation came on Thursday as defence lawyers tried to undercut Moussaoui’s claim that he and British shoebomber Richard Reid were to have hit the White House with a fifth jet in the 2001 attacks.

“To date, there is no information available to indicate Richard Reid had pre-knowledge of the 9/11 attacks, or was instructed by the al-Qaida leadership to conduct an operation in co-ordination with Moussaoui,” an information document read out in court by defence lawyer Alan Yamamoto said.

The statement said that while the 19 September 11 hijackers were in the US before the attacks, Reid was travelling between Israel, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Netherlands and Turkey.

“It is highly unlikely that Reid was part of this operation,” the declaration said, attributing the comment to two unnamed FBI analysts.

Moussaoui’s claim, made from the witness stand on March 27, conflicted with all previous knowledge of the September 11 attacks - and with his own earlier denials that he had no role in the attacks.

It was seen as a key factor in the jury’s decision of April 3, that Moussaoui was eligible for the death penalty, over claims his “lies” while in jail in August 2001 let the September 11 attacks go forward.

Prosecutors called a forensic psychologist to rebut the main defence argument that Moussaoui is a paranoid schizophrenic, and so should be spared the death penalty.

“Can you tell us to a reasonable degree of medical certainty as to whether the defendant suffers from schizophrenia?” prosecutor David Novak asked Dr Raymond Patterson.

“My opinion is that Mr Moussaoui does not suffer from schizophrenia and has never suffered from schizophrenia,” Dr Patterson said. He also concluded, unlike clinical psychologists called by the defence, that Moussaoui did not suffer from delusions.

Under court rules, September 11 family members were not permitted to comment on the sentence. But their testimony at the climax of the defence case is a sign they oppose the drive to execute him.