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Posted on 03/08/2006 5:07:15 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
TERROR plotter Zacarias Moussaoui told a Muslim militant he dreamed of crashing a plane into the White House, according to testimony at the al-Qaeda conspirator's death penalty trial today.
Singapore-born Faiz Abu Bakar Bafana, a member of the radical Indonesia-based group Jemaah Islamiah, said in testimony recorded in 2002 that he hosted a man he knew only as "John" in Kuala Lumpur in mid-2000, who told him of the dream.
Jurors later saw Bafana assert during cross-examination that "John" was Moussaoui.
Moussaoui is the first person tried in the US in connection with the September 11, 2001 attacks, which killed nearly 3000 people, and he has admitted conspiring to fly planes into US buildings for al-Qaeda.
Though he was in detention at the time of the attacks, prosecutors argue Moussouai should be executed, because he knew Osama bin Laden's group planned to use airliners as weapons, but did not tell US authorities.
A video recording of prosecutors and Moussaoui questioning Bafana in 2002 was played at the trial. In it Bafana identified Moussaoui as the man who told of the dream.
The witness, who gave testimony while he was in jail in Singapore, was asked to relate a conversation he had with "John" in his house.
"He told me he had a dream, flying an airplane into the White House," Bafana said.
During his cross-examination Moussaoui asked Bafana to describe "John".
"He looks exactly like you," Bafana replied.
Moussaoui asked Bafana if he was sure and he replied: "Certain, I am sure it is you."
He went on: "There is no doubt it is you. We always referred to you as John among the JI members."
Bafana said "John" attempted to get flying lessons in Kuala Lumpur, but they were expensive, so instead he busied himself trying to find ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder for explosives.
He said he was later told by "John" that he was leaving Malaysia after a conversation with "brothers" in Europe.
"He said he had managed to get some brothers to assist him for flying training in the US because it would be cheaper in the US," he said.
The US commission that investigated the September 11 attacks concluded that Moussaoui was ordered to undergo flight training in Malaysia in late 2000 by September 11 mastermind Khaled Sheihk Mohammed, but was unable to find a school he liked.
The prosecution must prove that acts by Moussaoui directly contributed to deaths on September 11 for him to be eligible for the death penalty.
If jurors unanimously agree he is guilty, they will be asked to consider recommending capital punishment. The alternative sentence is life in prison, without possibility of parole.
Moussaoui pleaded guilty last year to six counts of conspiring to fly airliners into US buildings - but maintains he was involved in a follow-up plot to September 11, not the attacks on New York and Washington.
I don't understand why everyone wants him to get the needle. Me, I'm not that forgiving and compassionate. A lifetime of a different kind of injection would be more like it.
We want this man executed because we don't want him recruiting inside the penitentiary.
But wouldn't everyone there be lifers anyway?
I wondered this last night. The did in McVeigh in Terre Haute, supposedly the only Fed Death Row there is. IIRC
Is that where he's headed?
I've no idea. I just think death would be too easy, especially when that's what he wants. Also, given the belief structure of these people, jail is a stronger deterrent than "martyrdom."
I don't care what he wants; if he prefers death to life in prison, that's great- for once we can agree on something. His opinion on the matter is irrelevent once convicted. If he's dead, he can't preach, he can't write books to poison Berkeley students' brains, he can't recruit more people to the cause, he can't communicate with like-minded individuals or conspire with them to carry out more acts of terrorism like the 1993 WTC bomb plotter did with his lawyer Lynne Stewart, he can't give interviews to an adoring and breathless press, he can't raise a "Free Moussaoui" fan club, he can't stab a prison guard in the eye like that other terrorist did, and he can't ever get out due to some silly-arse supreme court decision in 2022. Besides, his execution would free up air and space for some endangered species and perhaps even provide fertilizer for a few daisies.
Why expect Americans waste their lives as prison guards for human debitage when they can be employed elsewhere in much more fufilling and productive ways?
L
Perchance the brotherhood will have some sport with him while whatever sentence is on the appeal. Portable video technology is amazing. This performance may prove humiliating and insulting for the convicted, and enlightening for those disposed toward such behaviour. The actual sentence is not relevant.
RE: Wouldn't everyone there be lifers anyway?
Not at all. Prisoners serving life terms aren't necessarily segregated from those who will be resleased one day.
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>>I've no idea. I just think death would be too easy, especially when that's what he wants.<<
Death may be easy, but Hell is a b**ch.
"I may not have been the best President, but I had the most fun!" - Real, honest-to-goodness quote by Bill Clinton
If it was a military trial and he received death, he would end up at Leavenworth.
And I had a dream that Moosies intestines were stapled to a pole and he was made to walk around it till it pulled tight and he couldn't move any more.
Neither has come true.
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