Saturday, September 28, 2002

Sigh.


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An FBI agent said in August 2001 that accused Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui might take control of an airplane and crash it into the World Trade Center if he was released from custody, according to a court document made public on Friday.

The document relates communications between FBI headquarters and its office in Minneapolis involving Moussaoui, who was being held in Minnesota in August 2001 on immigration violations after arousing suspicion at a flight school.

The agent said Moussaoui ``might take control of an airplane and crash it into the World Trade Center,'' prosecutors said in the document detailing what has been given to the congressional intelligence committees investigating the attacks.

Moussaoui, who was still in custody on Sept. 11 last year, later became the only person charged in the United States with conspiring in the attacks.

The prosecutors also described an FBI report concerning interviews with Moussaoui in mid-August 2001, in which FBI agents accused him of giving misleading and evasive answers.

The FBI report described how Moussaoui involved his right to a lawyer when confronted with information ``that he was known to be an extremist intent on using his past and future aviation training in furtherance of a terrorist goal.''

Questioning of Moussaoui then stopped.


Middle panel sums it up: