At Satellite Courthouses, 9/11 Relatives Will Watch Moussaoui's Sentencing

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"Release of the document responsive to plaintiff's FOIA request would threaten to interfere with the criminal prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person to be brought to trial in the United States for the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. The process of selecting prospective jurors for the penalty phase of Moussaoui's trial is expected to begin in late 2005. Therefore, the FBI withheld the responsible record, a CD-ROM of time-lapse images from Pentagon security cameras, pursuant to Exemption 7(A) because its release could reasonably be expected to interfere with that law enforcement proceeding. Federal prosecutors may ask the Court to impose the death penalty. Widespread dissemination of this record could present significant harm to the government's criminal case."

That is the reason given to Scott Hodes of www.flight77.info as to why they won't release the videos of the Pentagon. That reason no longer has merit because as we just found out, "to avoid inflaming the jury at this sentencing trial, prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed instead to read an account of the flight, including major sections of the phone call transcripts".

They're not going to be needing the tapes, so why not release them?

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Convicted 9/11 conspirator appeals life sentence

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_4541197.htm

WASHINGTON, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Convicted Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui appealed on Friday the life sentence imposed on him earlier this month.

Moussaoui, 37, who was spared the death penalty on May 4, also appealed against the judge's refusal to allow him to change his guilty plea on the six conspiracy charges.

Moussaoui is the only person to have been charged and tried in the United States for the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, which killed nearly 3,000 people.

His court-appointed lawyers said in a one-paragraph notice of appeal that Moussaoui wanted the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review the final judgment and sentence he received last week at a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, and the judge's refusal of his request to withdraw his guilty plea.

On May 8, Moussaoui filed a motion to withdraw his guilty plea, saying that he lied when he testified last year that he was involved in the plot even though he knew that was a "complete fabrication."

He said he wanted to withdraw his guilty plea because he now believed he could get a fair trial.

Moussaoui, a Frenchman of Moroccan descent, was arrested in August 2001. He was to serve his life sentence in the federal supermax prison at Florence, Colorado.

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Rowley Criticized Over Moussaoui Probe

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlates...896704,00.html

By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Monday June 19, 2006 3:16 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) - The former FBI whistle-blower who urged the agency to probe terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui in the weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks was criticized Monday in a government report for her own role in the case.

Coleen Rowley, a former lawyer in the FBI's Minneapolis field office who is now running for Congress, received both praise and criticism in the report prepared by the Justice Department's inspector general.

The report credits Rowley overall for blowing the whistle on mistakes at FBI headquarters in its failure to aggressively investigate Moussaoui. "Her complaints resulted in an important reassessment of how the FBI handled this matter," it said.

But the report faults Rowley for failing to pursue investigative avenues, such as a traditional criminal search warrant. Her focus instead was on obtaining a search warrant from a special intelligence court that operates in secret.

"At the outset, she assumed that (the U.S. Attorney's Office) would not support a criminal warrant," the report states. "Contrary to the implication in her letter, which placed the blame for failing to seek a warrant solely on FBI headquarters, she advised the field agents not to seek a criminal warrant."

Rowley, in an interview with The Associated Press, said Monday that she simply advised that seeking a warrant through the intelligence court was a better option. She said agents eventually came up with another idea: deporting Moussaoui, which would have allowed immigration agents to search his belongings.

Moussaoui was already scheduled for deportation when the attacks occurred.

Rowley maintained that, in a pre-9/11 environment, prosecutors demanded an exceedingly high standard before they would ask a judge for a warrant.

"I will stand by that to the day I die," Rowley said.

Moussaoui was arrested in Minnesota on Aug. 15, 2001, on immigration violations after his efforts to obtain flight training drew suspicion. A search warrant of his belongings was not obtained until Sept. 11, after the suicide attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives.

At Moussaoui's trial earlier this year, prosecutors convinced a jury that a full investigation of Moussaoui prior to Sept. 11 could have yielded the investigative clues necessary for federal agents to thwart or at least minimize the attacks.

Rowley said she is proud that her memo resulted in the 450-page inspector general report, which provides in many places a stinging assessment of the FBI's handling of terror investigations prior to 9/11.

Most of the inspector general's report was publicly released last year, but the chapter about Moussaoui was redacted in an effort to protect Moussaoui's right to a fair trial.

Moussaoui was convicted earlier this year of aiding the Sept. 11 plot and sentenced to life in prison. He jurors on the witness stand that he was to have piloted a fifth plane on Sept. 11 and fly it into the White House.

The report singles out other individuals at FBI headquarters for sharper criticism than Rowley, including David Frasca, then head of the FBI's radical fundamentalist unit, and his subordinate, Michael Maltbie. The failure of Frasca and Maltbie to heed the Minneapolis bureau's concerns about Moussaoui were a major issue at Moussaoui's trial.

[YouCrazyDiamond]

"The inquiry is "the largest criminal investigation in our nation's history, which is still ongoing."

According to who? CERTAINLY not the Government. Ok, if the investigation is still ongoing, then why won't you accept the MOUNTAINS of evidence we have collected?

And why is there physical evidence from the crime scene sitting on Donald Rumsfeld’s desk, looking more like a war trophy than anything else I can think of? Pictures of grieving survivors, etc. on the wall would be a memorial, but baubles on the desk are just ghoulish.

And tampering with evidence from a crime scene is criminal, no?

[Gold9472]

Familes of 9-11 victims seek Moussaoui evidence

http://www.wdbj7.com/Global/story.as...50666&nav=S6aK

11/30/2006

RICHMOND, Va. The Richmond federal appeals court heard arguments today on whether some families of the Nine-Eleven victims should be given evidence from the trial of al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui for civil lawsuits.

District Judge Leonie Brinkema (LAY'-eh-nee BRINK'-eh-mah) of Alexandria has ordered the government to give the plaintiffs non-sensitive information that prosecutors turned over to Moussaoui's attorneys, but which was never used at his trial.

Moussaoui was sentenced to life in prison earlier this year.

Justice Department lawyer Steven Lane urged a three-judge panel of the Fourth U-S Circuit Court of Appeals today to overturn that ruling.

Lane said the case is about the procedures for obtaining the evidence, not whether the victims' families are entitled to it.

Nathan Lewin (LOO'-win), attorney for the plaintiffs, argued that Brinkema was correct in allowing access to the evidence in "an unusual case."

The victims' families are suing parts of the airline industry and those alleged to have financed the terror group that hijacked airplanes and crashed them on September 11th, 2001.

[Gold9472]

Court says 9/11 families do not have right to Moussaoui trial evidence

http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?I...82&Category=23

6:14 PM, Wednesday, March 14, 2007

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) A federal appeals court ruled today that the government does not have to turn over evidence from the trial of Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui to family members of those killed in the terrorist attacks.

The three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a Virginia judge lacked authority to order the government to provide the evidence for use in lawsuits against the airline industry and others.

Last April, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria said the families were entitled to nonsensitive information that prosecutors shared with Moussaoui’s attorneys but never introduced at his trial.

The appeals court ruled unanimously that Brinkema had exceeded her authority, saying a federal court in New York has exclusive jurisdiction over civil actions arising from the Sept. 11 attacks.

“We, like the district court, have great sympathy for the victims of September 11 and their families,” Judge Karen Williams wrote. “But regardless of how much respect and compassion this court has, we must ensure that the federal courts in our jurisdiction — no matter how well intentioned — do not exceed their legal power.”

Moussaoui, a confessed al-Qaida conspirator and the only person in the United States charged in the attacks, was sentenced to life in prison in May after a jury found him responsible for at least one death on Sept. 11.

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Moussaoui judge questions government

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071120/...rror_paintball

By MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press Writer Tue Nov 20, 6:55 PM ET

McLEAN, Va. - A federal judge expressed frustration Tuesday that the government provided incorrect information about evidence in the prosecution of Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and raised the possibility of ordering a new trial in another high-profile terrorism case.

At a post-trial hearing Tuesday for Ali al-Timimi, a Muslim cleric from Virginia sentenced to life in prison in 2004 for soliciting treason, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said she can no longer trust the CIA and other government agencies on how they represent classified evidence in terror cases.

Attorneys for al-Timimi have been seeking access to documents. They also want to depose government witnesses to determine whether the government improperly failed to disclose the existence of certain evidence.

The prosecutors have asked her to dismiss the defense request. The government has denied the allegations but has done so in secret pleadings to the judge that defense lawyers are not allowed to see. Even the lead prosecutors in the al-Timimi case have not had access to the information; they have relied on the representations of other government lawyers.

After the hearing, the judge issued an order that said she would not rule on the prosecutors' motion until the government grants needed security clearances to al-Timimi's defense lawyer, Jonathan Turley, and the lead trial prosecutor so they can review the secret pleadings.

Brinkema said she no longer feels confident relying on the government briefs, particularly since prosecutors admitted last week that similar representations made in the Moussaoui case were false.

In a letter made public Nov. 13, prosecutors in the Moussaoui case admitted to Brinkema that the CIA had wrongly assured her that no videotapes or audiotapes existed of interrogations of certain high-profile terrorism detainees. In fact, two such videotapes and one audio tape existed.

Moussaoui, who had pleaded guilty to terrorism charges, was sentenced to life in prison last year. Because Moussaoui admitted his guilt, it is unlikely that the disclosures of new evidence would result in his conviction being overturned.

Turley, al-Timimi's defense lawyer, praised Brinkema for taking a skeptical view of the government's assertions in addressing al-Timimi's case.

"We believe a new trial is warranted," he said in a phone interview. "We are entirely confident that there are communications that were not turned over to the defense. These are very serious allegations."

Al-Timimi challenged his conviction in 2005 after revelations that President Bush had authorized the National Security Agency to conduct certain types of domestic surveillance without a search warrant. Turley contends that the program is illegal and that any evidence obtained from such surveillance should have been turned over to defense lawyers.

He is confident that al-Timimi, a prominent U.S. Muslim cleric who was known to keep close ties with radical Saudi clerics would have been a target of the surveillance program.

Brinkema made no rulings during the brief, 20-minute hearing in Alexandria, but her displeasure at the government was apparent. Prosecutors did not have the opportunity to speak during the hearing, except to note their appearance for the record.

Al-Timimi, a born U.S. citizen from Fairfax, was convicted after prosecutors portrayed him as the spiritual leader of a group of young Muslim men from the Washington area who played paintball games in 2000 and 2001 as a means of preparing for holy war around the globe.

After Sept. 11, they said, al-Timimi told his followers that the attacks were a harbinger of a final apocalyptic battle between Muslims and nonbelievers and exhorted them to travel to Afghanistan and join the Taliban to fight U.S. troops.

Several of his followers admitted that they traveled to Pakistan and received training from a militant Pakistani group called Lashkar-e-Taiba, but none actually joined the Taliban.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Alexandria declined to comment Tuesday.

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Moussaoui appeals, calling plea invalid
Lawyers claim he pleaded guilty without seeing secret evidence

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...n/5573527.html

By MATT APUZZO
Associated Press
2/26/2008

WASHINGTON — Lawyers urged Zacarias Moussaoui not to plead guilty to terrorism charges. They just couldn't tell him why.

In newly filed court documents, Moussaoui argues that court-imposed secrecy undermined his ability to present an adequate defense. His new lawyers say Moussaoui's guilty plea should be thrown out and a new trial should be convened for the man who once claimed to have been a part of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist plot.

Moussaoui was not allowed to see the classified evidence against him and was shut out from closed-door hearings in which that evidence was laid out.

Defense lawyers say they were barred from even discussing with Moussaoui evidence that could help prove his innocence. They say Moussaoui faced an unconstitutional choice: plead guilty or go to trial without knowing the evidence.

"Moussaoui appeals because his plea was unknowing, uncounselled and invalid," attorneys Justin Antonipillai and Barbara Hartung wrote.

The documents, filed with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., raise a fundamental question about whether terrorism suspects like Moussaoui should be given access to all the evidence against them — access that is normally guaranteed in criminal cases.

The Bush administration has sought to avoid such conflicts by keeping most terrorism cases out of civilian courts. Instead, officials plan to try several cases before special military commissions at the Guantanamo Bay naval base, where judges have broad authority to limit what evidence detainees can see.

Because Moussaoui's appeal deals solely with civilian law, it won't directly affect the military commissions, even if he wins. But lawyers say the Bush administration increasingly cites national security concerns to justify keeping evidence from defendants in criminal cases and they see that as a flaw that persists at Guantanamo Bay.

Since being sentenced to life in prison, Moussaoui has said he lied when testifying that he was to hijack a fifth jetliner on Sept. 11. He has returned to claiming that he had nothing to do with the suicide hijackings.

[Gold9472]

Philly 9/11 Truth Confronts Judge Leona Brinkema

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