2nd German 9/11 Trial: "U.S. was aware of political advantages of the attack"

WP -Friday, August 15

Defense attorneys signaled today that they have planned an aggressive defense that will demand that the United States turn over key witnesses who are in secret custody...it might attempt to explore theories that the hijackings served the foreign policy goals of U.S. conservatives by creating a pretext to transform the U.S. military posture in the world. "It appears the U.S.A. was aware of the political advantages of the attack on the World Trade Center, as an idea, in advance.."

more:

2nd German 9/11 Trial: Jarrah's Girlfriend testified:
Court Told 'Lovely Man' Became 9/11 Pilot

"He was a lovely man, very nice, rather introverted. He only became really religious at the end," Aysel Sengun, a German-born doctor, said of Ziad Jarrah, who U.S. officials believe flew the hijacked jet that crashed in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001.

from the WP-article:

HAMBURG, Aug. 14 -- Germany opened its second trial of an alleged member of the Hamburg terror cell that investigators say led the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a proceeding that promises to be more politicized and protracted than the country's first, successful prosecution of an al Qaeda functionary.

Abdelghani Mzoudi, a 30-year-old Moroccan student, is charged with 3,066 counts of accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organization for allegedly providing critical logistical support to cell members who carried out the suicide hijackings.

Defense attorneys signaled today that they have planned an aggressive defense that will demand that the United States turn over key witnesses who are in secret custody, and will force prosecutors to prove through physical or other explicit evidence what the state calls basic accepted facts, such as the presence of cell member Mohamed Atta on the first plane that hit the World Trade Center.

The defense said further that it might attempt to explore theories that the hijackings served the foreign policy goals of U.S. conservatives by creating a pretext to transform the U.S. military posture in the world. "It appears the U.S.A. was aware of the political advantages of the attack on the World Trade Center, as an idea, in advance," defense attorney Michael Rosenthal said.

In the first trial, another Moroccan, Mounir Motassadeq, was convicted in February of the same charges and sentenced to the maximum 15 years in prison after prosecutors built a circumstantial case based on his close contacts with the hijackers and his travel to Afghanistan to attend an al Qaeda training camp.

Legal experts predict that in the Mzoudi case prosecutors will follow a similar course that tracks the defendant's radicalization, his intimacy with the hijackers and exposes suspicious actions that amount to complicity.

"From early summer 1999 until Sept. 11, 2001, he was a member of a terrorist organization and helped the suspected terrorists commit murder and other crimes," said prosecutor Matthias Krauss, reading sections of the indictment in this morning's opening session.

The prosecution alleges that Mzoudi trained in Afghanistan, transferred money to the hijackers and provided other logistical support, including allowing them to use his address so their absence from Germany would not be noticed. The defense counters that he was merely acting as an unwitting friend and good Muslim by helping his fellow devotees.

A short man with a thick beard and a receding hairline, Mzoudi made a brief statement to the panel of five judges today about his upbringing and religious beliefs, but unlike Motassadeq he said nothing about spending time in Afghanistan in 2000 or his contacts with Atta and others.

Defense attorneys said after the hearing that they would push hard for access to witnesses such as Ramzi Binalshibh, a citizen of Yemen who investigators say was a key organizer of the attacks. He is now in secret CIA detention following his capture in Pakistan.

A U.S. federal judge overseeing the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui in Alexandria said that Moussaoui should be allowed to call Binalshibh as a witness, rejecting U.S. government arguments that his appearance could endanger national security. If the Justice Department loses its appeal of the decision, many legal experts expect the government to move the case to a military tribunal.

Lawyers here, including those sympathetic to the German prosecutors' case, said shifting the Moussaoui case to a military court could affect the outcome of the trial in Hamburg.

"Americans expect a conviction here, so they should consider their position on Binalshibh carefully if they want one," said Ulrich von Jeinsen, who is representing American relatives of people killed in the attacks as a co-prosecutor, as allowed under German law. "When these guys don't obey their own federal courts, the court here may say, 'Why should we sentence Mzoudi to 15 years in prison?' "

Jeinsen said he was also worried about the prospect that the defense might air alternative theories of how the Sept. 11 plot unfolded, a strategy that he condemned as conspiratorial and potentially damaging to U.S.-German relations.

According to a recent survey by a German newsweekly, one in five Germans believes that the U.S. government had a role in the attacks.

Reuters article

...Sengun testified at the trial in Hamburg of Abdelghani Mzoudi, a Moroccan man accused of helping the attackers.

He is only the second September 11 suspect ever brought to trial. Fellow Moroccan Mounir El Motassadeq was sentenced to 15 years by the Hamburg High Court in February. Mzoudi, a 30-year-old electrical engineering student, is charged with 3,066 counts of aiding and abetting murder, and membership in the Hamburg-based al Qaeda cell that led the attacks on U.S. cities.

Like Motassadeq, prosecutors say Mzoudi handled money for a plotter, helped cover for the absence of others while they were in Afghanistan or taking flying lessons in the United States, and trained at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan himself.

Defense lawyers argue Mzoudi did little more than befriend and help fellow Muslims living abroad and say his paying of student fees and other bills was in no way central to the September 11 plot. Sengun recounted how she had met the Lebanese Jarrah when he came to Germany in 1997 and the two became close.

"No one knew him better than me. I was perhaps closer to him than his parents," she said.

Jarrah disappeared from November 1999 to February 2000 and returned with a plan to train as a pilot. Prosecutors say he had been with co-conspirators at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan.

He subsequently headed to the United States in June 2000, making Sengun swear not to tell anyone where he was. Jarrah, who she had described as "very western oriented" before, steadily became more focused on Islam and insisted she dress more conservatively. He also often talked about waging a jihad, she said. "It was the holy war for him. It meant fighting, not using words," Sengun told presiding Judge Klaus Ruehle.

Mzoudi, a short man with a full black beard, sat with his head bowed throughout most of her testimony. Sengun said she and Jarrah met one final time in July 2001 when he returned briefly to Germany. "He was very different. He was disinterested. I was ill and he had little sympathy. He was very distant," she said.

If convicted Mzoudi could get 15 years in prison.

Tyskland
... Aysel Sengun, en tyskfødt læge, talte længe om sit forhold til Ziad Jarrah, som
de amerikanske myndigheder mener fløj det kaprede passagerfly, som styrtede ...
fomi.ytring.dk/Verdenrundt/Tyskland.htm - 69k - Cached - Similar pages

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printed from 2nd German 9/11 Trial: "U.S. was aware of political advantages of the attack" on 2004-05-31 01:10:17