Moussaoui says he was supposed to attack White House on 9/11

Zacarias Moussaoui, the lone al-Qaida plotter linked with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on trial, testified on Monday that he and another al-Qaida conspirator were supposed to attack the White House that day with a fifth hijacked plane.

Moussaoui also admitted at a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., that he knew about al-Qaida's plot to hijack planes and crash into the World Trade Center in New York.

"I had knowledge that the two towers would be hit, but I did not have the details," Moussaoui told jurors.

When he pleaded guilty in April last year, Moussaoui admitted that he was part of al-Qaida's conspiracy to hijack planes to attack U.S. targets, but said his planned attack on the White House was to occur after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Would-be bomber Richard Reid was to be one of his team members for the attack, he said.

Reid attempted to explode a bomb hidden in his shoe on board an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami in December 2001, but he was subdued by passengers. Reid has been sentenced for life in prison.

Moussaoui also dismissed the idea that he was intended to be the 20th hijacker on Sept. 11. Only four hijackers were aboard United Flight 93, which crashed in a Pennsylvania field, whereas there were five on aboard each of the three other hijacked planes that crashed into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, killing nearly 3,000 people.

Prosecutors have argued that Moussaoui deserves the capital punishment, saying that if he had not lied after his arrest, authorities could have uncovered and prevented the Sept. 11 conspiracy.

Source: Xinhua