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Librarian heard 9/11 warning
28/08/2003 21:28 - (SA)
Germany - A German librarian recalled in court on Thursday how she heard one of the future September 11 hijackers warn of "thousands dead" in the United States.
The 31-year-old woman, testifying at the trial of a suspected accomplice in the 2001 suicide plane attacks, said she heard Marwan al-Shehhi's outburst in early 1999.
The witness was working as a librarian at a university in Hamburg, northern Germany, when she overheard a loud discussion between four Arabs in which the word America repeatedly came up.
"America is shit"
Then al-Shehhi "typed furiously at the computer" and later, still obviously angry at something, shouted "America is shit."
"Something will happen, you'll see," he shouted. "There'll be thousands of dead."
Al-Shehhi died flying the United Airlines plane that crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001, part of a coordinated attack using hijacked aircraft that killed more than 3 000 people.
On trial in Hamburg is Abdelghani Mzoudi, a Moroccan alleged by prosecutors to have helped preparations for the attacks by providing logistical back-up.
Hijackers called Hamburg home
Hamburg was home to three of the hijackers, including suspected ringleader Mohammed Atta who also died.
Mzoudi, 30, faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of the charges of accessory to the murder of more than 3 000 people as well as membership of a "terrorist organization".
He is only the second person worldwide to stand trial for the plot, after his fellow Moroccan Mounir El Motasadeq was jailed for 15 years by the same court on the same charges earlier this year.
The witness appearing on Thursday at Mzoudi's trial gave similar testimony in the case against Motassadeq.
Prosecutors are using her evidence to try to show that the aim of attacking the United States was a long-term plot.
She said she often saw Atta and some of the other later suicide hijackers working in the library, usually using its free Internet access.
"I had the feeling they were working on something," she added. However, she said she had not seen either Motassadeq or Mzoudi in the library.
- AFP
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