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04/23/2005:

"Moussaoui Tells Court He's Guilty of a Terror Plot"

ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 22 - Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person facing a trial in the United States in connection with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, pleaded guilty on Friday to participating in a broad conspiracy by Al Qaeda to fly planes into American buildings.

Mr. Moussaoui, wearing a dark-green prison jumpsuit, stood before Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of the Federal District Court here and said that he was forgoing a trial on the facts and that he understood that his guilty plea meant he might be executed.

But Mr. Moussaoui, 36, a Frenchman of Moroccan heritage who was arrested in August 2001, offered a surprise. He said that despite his guilty plea he had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks.

Instead, he said, he had been planning to participate in a separate undisclosed plot to fly a plane into the White House at a different time.

In a rambling discourse, he said his role was part of a plan to force the release of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, a blind Muslim scholar who is serving a life sentence for conspiracy to blow up New York bridges and tunnels and other landmarks in 1993.

"I am guilty of a broad conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction to destroy the White House," he said, offering a new account of his role in plots that is at odds with the different versions government prosecutors have put forward.

Speaking with a heavy French accent, Mr. Moussaoui said there was nothing in the indictment or the fact sheet to which he assented that demonstrated that he was supposed to participate in the Sept. 11 attacks.

"You can't point to me and say that Moussaoui came to U.S. to participate in 9/11," he said.

He told the court he felt it was important to emphasize that he had not admitted any connection with the Sept. 11 attacks because that would increase the pressure for his execution "when the government brings victim statements to court."

Mr. Moussaoui, who has shunned most of his defense lawyers and has shown himself to be a shrewd student of American criminal law, was referring to the trial he faces on whether he should be executed or spend the rest of his life in prison.

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, speaking to reporters at the Justice Department shortly after the hearing, said prosecutors would seek the death penalty at the new phase, which will in essence be a copy of what the criminal trial would have been, with both sides presenting their cases before a jury.

"As you know, we are seeking the death penalty in this case," Mr. Gonzales said.

"Moussaoui and his co-conspirators," he added, "were responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocents on Sept. 11, each one a son or daughter, father or mother, husband and wife."

Mr. Gonzales brushed aside Mr. Moussaoui's statement that he was not involved in the Sept. 11 attacks.

"The fact that Moussaoui participated in this terrorist conspiracy is no longer in doubt," he said. "In a chilling admission of guilt, Moussaoui confessed to his participation."
Full: nytimes.com

Well no Mr. Gonzales, actually he didn't confess. To suggest that he's trying to avoid the death penalty is ridiculous.
Full: nytimes.com