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| Atta may have been involved in terrorism earlier than previously believed |
| 2005-03-09 |
| Lead Sept. 11 pilot Mohamed Atta may have been involved in the plot to attack the United States earlier than is widely believed, a U.S. investigator who helped write the 9/11 Commission Report said Tuesday at the retrial of a Moroccan accused of aiding the hijackers. The testimony by Dietrich Snell could bolster prosecutors' contention that suicide hijackers Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, and Ziad Jarrah and their alleged accomplice Ramzi Binalshibh formed a terrorist organization in Germany before going to Afghanistan in 1999 to train at one of Osama bin Laden's camps. Mounir el Motassadeq, 30, is accused of providing logistical support to the group. He risks 15 years in prison on more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organization. He was attentive as Snell testified, taking notes and occasionally stroking his beard. Snell, a New York prosecutor who led the team of investigators behind the U.S. Sept. 11 Commission's report to Congress last year, conceded he had no hard evidence to back up his suspicion. "In the report, we did point out the possibility, due to the lack of evidence of the whereabouts of Mohamed Atta, that he may have traveled to Afghanistan previously," Snell told the six-judge panel. "One fact that we thought was particularly important was the speed with which Atta was nominated to lead the conspiracy" in the 1999 trip. El Motassadeq was convicted in 2003 on the same charges he faces now and handed the maximum sentence. An appeals court threw out the conviction last year, ruling he was unfairly denied testimony by key al-Qaida suspects in U.S. custody, including Binalshibh and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the al-Qaida No. 3 who is alleged to have played a leading role in planning the 2001 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. The Hamburg state court called Snell as a witness to find out more about the interrogations of the two because the U.S. Justice Department has only provided summaries of the questioning - despite court requests for the two to testify in person. Snell also said Tuesday that reports from interrogations of Binalshibh, who is being held in secret U.S. custody, indicate the group took precautions to distance themselves from other radical Muslims in Hamburg before the trip to Afghanistan. "Binalshibh is reported to have said the group was already concerned about being identifiable," he testified. Still, Snell said evidence indicates the overall Sept. 11 plan was developed by Mohammed and bin Laden between 1996 and 1999 in Afghanistan. Outside court, el Motassadeq's defense lawyer said if the planning was done in Afghanistan, he could not have been part of it. "This has always been our position, that the plan was set up in Afghanistan and not in Hamburg," Udo Jacob said. "He's completely innocent. There's no proof against him." Proving the Sept. 11 plotters were a German-based terror group is critical for the government to convict el Motassadeq of belonging to a terrorist organization. "It is important that they were prepared to take part in jihad," lead prosecutor Walter Hemberger told The Associated Press, using a word for holy war. And Binalshibh made that plain, Snell testified. "What is clear is Binalshibh recalled to his interrogators that the group wanted to pursue jihad in Chechnya," he told the court. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |