Moussaoui says he was planning for post-Sept. 11 operation

Mpls (red)Star tribune ^ | 5/14/03 | Greg Gordon

[Valin]

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Jailed Al-Qaida member Zacarias Moussaoui says he was part of a planned second-wave terrorist attack outside the United States after Sept. 11 2001, lawyers assisting him said in declassified documents made public Tuesday. The disclosure in papers unsealed by a federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., is the most detailed acknowledgment by Moussaoui that he was preparing to participate in an attack when he was detained in the Twin Cities on Aug. 16, 2001. He was taken into custody after arousing suspicious while learning to fly a jumbo jetliner at an Eagan flight school.

[Shermy]

The Washington Post has reported that Binalshibh told CIA interrogators that Moussaoui was dropped from the suicide hijacking plot and relegated to a backup role because he was indiscreet. Moussaoui's assertion that he was part of a second-wave attack would match the account that U.S. intelligence sources say suspected Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed has given since his capture this winter.