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American Morning

Authorities Ironing Out Details for First Trial of Accused 9-11 Co-Conspirator

Aired December 14, 2001 - 07:20   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Authorities are ironing out the details for the first trial of an accused 9-11 co-conspirator. No word yet on when Zacarias Moussaoui will leave New York for hearings in Virginia or even where he will be held during the proceedings. Officials only saying they are trying to avoid a circus.

Our Deborah Feyerick has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Heavily armed U.S. marshals surrounded the U.S. courthouse in lower Manhattan as Zacarias Moussaoui, his hands and feet shackled, shuffled into the hushed courtroom. Since his arrest in August, he's grown a long and bushy beard. At the hearing, a federal judge gave prosecutors the green light to transfer Moussaoui from New York to Virginia, where he was indicted and where he will now be tried.

Moussaoui is the first man indicted in direct connection with attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. Prosecutors are charging the 33-year-old French citizen of Moroccan descent with conspiracy in the September 11 attacks. Moussaoui, government officials think, may have been destined to be on United Airlines Flight 93. It was the only skyjacked plane that had four, not five, hijackers. And it was the only plane that did not hit a U.S. target, instead, crashing in a Pennsylvania field after passengers fought back.

The government is charging Moussaoui with conspiracy to commit terrorist acts, conspiracy to pirate planes and use them as weapons of mass destruction and conspiracy to murder government workers.

His lawyer, Donald DuBoulay, says, his client contends he didn't do anything.

DONALD DUBOULAY: Well, he's not going to plead guilty, that's for sure.

FEYERICK: Prosecutors say Moussaoui came to America in February of this year, settling in Norman, Oklahoma, where he began taking flying lessons. By August, he was on his way to Minnesota to train on Boeing 747 flight simulators. Employees of the flight school became suspicious. That's when Moussaoui was picked, up a month before the attacks, charged only with immigration violations.

FBI Director Robert Mueller has said there wasn't enough proof of criminal activity to justify searching his computer even though the indictment says telltale evidence was found there later.

ROBERT MUELLER, FBI DIRECTOR: All I can tell you is that the agents on the scene attempted to follow up aggressively.

FEYERICK: If Moussaoui ever met any of the 19 dead hijackers who are named as co-conspirators, the indictment does not say.

(on camera): Four of the six charges against Moussaoui carry the death penalty. He's expected to be taken to Virginia this week, where he'll be arraigned January 2.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And on the other side, Mayor Giuliani will react to that as well as to the release of the bin Laden tapes. We will also give you more information on reports that bin Laden is trapped. And we're going to have details of a national terrorist alert system.

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