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'September 11 made my day'
14/04/2006 08:28 - (SA)
Alexandria - Al-Qaeda plotter Zacarias Moussaoui said on Thursday he wished it could be September 11 every day, and that he had "no remorse" for the carnage as he mocked grief-stricken survivors as "pathetic" and "disgusting".
"It make my day," Moussaoui replied when asked for his reaction to harrowing testimony from families shattered by the loss of loved ones in the 2001 attacks which killed nearly 3 000 people.
On the witness stand days before jurors will be asked to decide whether he should be executed, Moussaoui testified he had a dream that President George W Bush would release him before he leaves office in 2009.
He justified Al-Qaeda's strikes against America by citing Koranic verses he said show Islam must strive to be a "superpower" and argued the US is "the head of the snake" that has "The Jewish State of Palestine" on life support.
As observers reeled from his bombshell testimony, Judge Leonie Brinkema abruptly adjourned the court two hours before its scheduled close, telling jurors they would likely get the case early next week.
Asked by prosecutor Rob Spencer what he thought of September 11, Moussaoui replied quickly, "No regret, no remorse."
"I just wish it had happened on the 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th, we can go on and on."
'I would have laughed'
Spencer asked Moussaoui, the only person charged in the US in connection with the attacks, if he had enjoyed seeing footage in the trial of the Pentagon in flames.
"That is for sure," he replied. "I would have laughed but I knew I would have been kicked out of court."
One officer, Lieutenant Colonel John Thurman, described on Wednesday the terrible scenes moments after a hijacked jet slammed into the Pentagon and how he crawled out of the flames on his knees.
"It was pathetic. I was regretful he didn't die," said Moussaoui, adding: "I find it pathetic that people would come here to share their grief in order to obtain the death of someone."
Asked about sobs on the witness stand from navy Lietenant Nancy McKeown, who lost two subordinates in the Pentagon, he replied: "I think it was disgusting."
While the defence has been urging the jury to send Moussaoui to prison for life so that he does not become a martyr, the al-Qaeda operative said he dreamt that President George W Bush would release him.
"I have 100% belief that you will never get my blood because I will be free," he said.
The jury has ruled that Moussaoui, already in jail at the time of the attacks, is eligible for the death penalty, accepting prosecution arguments that his "lies" let his al-Qaeda "brothers" go ahead with the attacks.
They must now decide whether the sentence should be carried out.
The defence plans to portray Moussaoui as a paranoid schizophrenic and highlight his tough upbringing to support pleas for life imprisonment.
But Spencer asked Moussaoui to diagnose his own condition.
"Are you crazy Mr Moussaoui?" he asked.
"Thank God, I am not," the defendant answered.
Asked by the prosecutor if he wanted to die, Moussaoui replied: "I want to fight."
Did he want to stay alive to kill Americans? "Any time, anywhere," Moussaoui answered.
Moussaoui lambasted US support for Israel, which he said was little more than a US colony and "the missing star in the American flag".
"You (Americans) are the head of the snake for me. If we want to destroy the Jewish State of Palestine, we have to destroy you first," Moussaoui told the court.
Moussaoui leafed through the Koran, finding chapter nine, which he said calls on Muslims to fight for supremacy for Allah.
Defence lawyer Gerald Zerkin asked Moussaoui why he hates the United States and Americans, apparently working from a list of questions that Moussaoui said he was prepared to answer.
"It is going to be long." he said.
"You are on a crusade, like George W Bush says. In Europe, they call New York 'little Israel'," he replied.
Moussaoui condemned the US for being the first country, in 1948, to recognise Israel, which he referred to as the "Jewish State of Palestine".
"There is no difference between the Jewish State of Palestine and Hawaii," declared Moussaoui.
Moussaoui was in detention during the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
But the jury agreed in an earlier part of the trial that he was eligible for the death penalty because his lies about the planned attacks contributed to the almost 3,000 deaths that day.
The first defense witness was a senior former prison officer, James Aiken, who said if he was jailed for life, Moussaoui would "rot" in isolation in the most secure US prison.
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