Moussaoui defense reveals details of pre-9-11 knowledge

McLEAN, Va. -- U.S. agents knew in August 2001 that Zacarias Moussaoui was an acolyte of Osama bin Laden and had traveled to Afghanistan, but they still failed to aggressively investigate, Moussaoui's defense attorneys said in a closed hearing.

According to transcripts released Friday, the attorneys disclosed several details in the Jan. 5 hearing that go beyond and sometimes contradict what was disclosed in the Sept. 11 commission report, the government's most exhaustive study of the missed opportunities to foil the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The government's knowledge of Moussaoui and his terrorist connections will be a key issue at his March 6 death-penalty trial in federal court in Alexandria.

Moussaoui pleaded guilty in April to conspiring with al-Qaida to fly aircraft into U.S. targets. But Moussaoui claims he had nothing to do with Sept. 11 and instead was training for part of an aborted second wave of attacks.

To win the death penalty, prosecutors must prove that Moussaoui was directly involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. They plan to argue that the government could have thwarted the attacks if Moussaoui had not lied to the FBI after his August 2001 arrest for immigration violations.

The defense contends the government knew more about the terrorists' plans than Moussaoui and still was unable to prevent the attacks.

MacMahon's statement that the government knew before 9/11 that Moussaoui had traveled to bin Laden's home base differs from the report of the Sept. 11 commission. The authors wrote that it was not until two days after the attacks that British intelligence told the United States that Moussaoui had traveled to Afghanistan to attend an al-Qaida camp.

MacMahon also said during the hearing that the government explicitly barred one FBI agent in the summer of 2001 from interviewing Moussaoui or any member of Moussaoui's family for fear that such contact would alert al-Qaida to the government's investigation of two other al-Qaida terrorists.

Prosecutors did not respond to the defense statements during the hearing.