Posted on 12/02/2004 11:35:29 AM PST by knighthawk
DUESSELDORF, Germany -- A Jordanian man who claims he was Osama bin Laden's bodyguard was questioned by U.S. officials who are considering having him testify at the Virginia trial of terror suspect Zacarias Moussaoui, the man's attorney said Thursday.
Shadi Abdellah, 28, sentenced last November to four years in prison for helping plan terror attacks in Germany, was granted early release last month after serving more than half the time, including in pretrial custody.
While in prison, he served as a government witness in several trials, including that of his alleged co-plotters in the German cell of the Tawhid and Jihad group, headed by Islamic militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Abdellah is now in the country's witness protection program, but Germany allowed U.S. prosecutors to talk with him for three days this week as they consider whether to use him as a witness in the Moussaoui trial, defense attorney Ruediger Deckers said.
Deckers wouldn't comment on questions asked, but he said the interview went well.
"They want him as a witness," Deckers said.
Moussaoui, a French citizen who is the only defendant in the United States charged with a terrorism conspiracy that included the Sept. 11 attacks, is expected to go on trial at the end of May. He was indicted in December 2001.
The indictment against Moussaoui alleges he trained at an al-Qaida's camp in Afghanistan in April 1998.
Abdellah, who said he was in Afghanistan from early 2000 until May 2001, testified in Germany that he acted briefly as bin Laden's bodyguard while in one al-Qaida training camp for about two weeks.
He was arrested along with other alleged members of the Tawhid and Jihad group in Germany in April 2002 on suspicion of plotting terror attacks that never materialized.
Four more alleged members of the cell are currently on trial in Duesseldorf, but have refused to give evidence.
Abdellah testified extensively at their trial and at the Hamburg trials of two Moroccans accused of helping the three Sept. 11 suicide pilots who lived and studied in the northern port city.
He said he saw both men - Mounir el Motassadeq and Abdelghani Mzoudi - in Afghanistan at one of bin Laden's camps.
If he is chosen to testify at the Moussaoui trial, his attorney said it would likely be by video conference.
Ping
The Senate Committee report, IIRC, supported, via the statements of KSM, that Moussaoui was not part of the 9/11 crew, but was maybe for a "second wave" attack.
A curiosity (maybe not so curious) of the report was selection of statements by KSM that he was too bush with 9/11 plans to deal with later actions - then the Afghan invasion messed up things for AQ...which led me to ask the question "So what?" What was the idea of the second wave plan of attack? Cropdusters perhaps?
What was on Moussaoui's computer when it was seized? That might answer, or partially answer, the question of what the second wave was to consist of, if Moussaoui was part of those second wave plans.
You knew Mou had crop dusting info on his computer, no?
I think we ought to keep in mind that al-Qaeda often researches many possibilities before actually selecting and carrying out some particular attack.
Mohamed Atta also looked into cropdusting planes, but that's not what he ended up using.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.