Part #545 in Dave Emory’s “For the Record” series
Tuesday, April 18th, 5pm - 6pm CST

(wfmu live stream/ archived program)

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (CNN)
From Phil Hirschkorn
April 18th, 2006

About a dozen relatives of September 11 attack victims were expected to begin testifying Tuesday as part of the defense effort to spare al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui’s life.

Most of the family members lost loved ones in the attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

One of the family members expected to appear for the defense is Alice Hoagland. She’s the mother of Mark Bingham, 31, a passenger on United Flight 93, the hijacked plane that crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Hoagland, who was in court observing the trial Monday, said in a recent interview with CNN that she hopes that the United States would show Moussaoui more mercy than his confederates showed September 11 victims.

Prosecutors have already called about 30 relatives of Trade Center victims to describe the impact of their losses in the second part of Moussaoui’s death penalty trial.

Jurors have already determined that Moussaoui is eligible for the death penalty, and now must decide whether that penalty should be imposed.

Defense attorneys also want the jury to hear from convicted “shoe bomber” Richard Reid.

Though Reid will not appear as a live witness, defense attorneys want to read into the record a written summary of what Reid would say if called as a witness.

Defense attorneys expect Reid to disavow any role in the conspiracy to hijack and crash planes into prominent American buildings.

Moussaoui, during two turns on the witness stand, said that al Qaeda tapped his “buddy” Reid to be part of his hijacking crew that would have commandeered a fifth jet liner on September 11, 2001, which Moussaoui said he intended to fly into the White House.

Moussaoui said he and Reid never discussed this plot, and Reid may have not known about it, because al Qaeda kept operational information compartmentalized on a “need to know basis.”

(more…)

(AP) ALEXANDRIA, Va.
April 18th, 2006

A defense psychologist said Tuesday his conclusion that Zacarias Moussaoui is a paranoid schizophrenic is based on observations of the actions and writings of the confessed terrorist conspirator described earlier as convinced President Bush will set him free.

Psychologist Xavier Amador said the clincher in making his diagnosis was an April 2005 encounter with Moussaoui in which the defendant in the nation’s only Sept. 11, 2001 prosecution repeatedly spit water on him - and appeared to be talking to himself.

Amador said the visit lasted for about an hour, and that Moussaoui spent much of the time telling Amador to go away. Amador observed Moussaoui talking to himself in a manner that did not appear to be prayer, the witness said.

When Amador refused to go away, he said, Moussaoui spit water at him more than a dozen times and then finally resigned himself to Amador’s presence.

Moussaoui then complained that jail guards used excessive force in taking him from his Alexandria jail cell to a deposition at the federal courthouse. And he told Amador that Bush would release him from prison.

Amador testified that he had become convinced Moussaoui was suffering from a delusional thought disorder before the incident but that this particular encounter reinforced his belief.

Government experts have reached conclusions that diverge from Amador’s statements, and are expected to testify later this week in rebuttal.

While prosecutors’ experts have been able to examine Moussaoui, he refused to cooperate with Amador or any other defense expert.

Amador based his diagnosis, revealed during testimony Monday, largely on conclusions of other mental-health professionals and an analysis of Moussaoui’s actions and writings over a period of years. These included the numerous rambling, often insulting, legal motions that Moussaoui filed during an 18-month period in which he represented himself.

Moussaoui’s defense lawyers, who are at odds with their client, say he is delusional and cite his testimony last week about a dream that Bush will free him prison before his lifetime sentence expires.

Jurors must decide whether Moussaoui should be executed or serve life in prison without parole, their only options since Moussaoui has already pleaded guilty to conspiring with al Qaeda to fly planes into U.S. buildings.

One of Moussaoui’s jail guards offered a few more details of Moussaoui’s dream during testimony Monday. Deputy Vikas Ohri said Moussaoui has told him that after Bush frees him, he will “fly to London, write a book, make some money and go back to the mountains of Afghanistan and be al-Qaida.”

He said he has also seen Moussaoui standing in front of a wall talking to himself. He asked Moussaoui about it once, and Moussaoui said he was practicing for court.

Moussaoui is the only person charged in this country in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks. The jury deciding his fate has already declared him eligible for the death penalty by determining that his actions caused at least one death on 9/11.

Even though Moussaoui was in jail in Minnesota at the time of the attacks, the jury ruled that lies he told federal agents a month before the attacks kept authorities from identifying and stopping some of the hijackers.

(source)

By: Benjamin Fulford
former Asia Pacific Bureau chief for Forbes

Has America lost its freedom of the press? There seems to be no other explanation for the otherwise incomprehensible failure of the American media to report on vast array of evidence pointing to the events of 911 as being part of a U.S. government conspiracy.

People are being murdered, newspaper and TV archives are being sanitized and government announcements are being retroactively rewritten. A growing group of academics, government officials, military veterans and other concerned citizens are fighting back using the internet and other non-traditional media. These people include a former German Defense Minister, a former member of the Bush Cabinet, authors like Gore Vidal and Hunter S. Thomson (who died recently under suspicious circumstances), prominent academics, former intelligence officials and many others. They have succeeded to the point where 63% of Canadians and 50% of New Yorkers now believe the U.S. government was complicit in the 911 attacks.

Despite this change in public opinion, the American people need the help of the international community, especially the international press. As former Vice President Al Gore said in a recent speech “I believe that American democracy is in grave danger.” Gore claims the Bush administration “has made it a practice to try and control and intimidate news organizations: from PBS to CBS to Newsweek.” Hundreds of American journalists are being followed on a daily basis, their phones are being tapped and they are being threatened with jail. The only truly free medium left is the internet, according to Gore and its liberty is also under threat.

The assault on freedom of the press in America means that all the checks and balances that once kept American democracy vibrant are now virtually gone.

(more…)

Victims’ Families Angered Over Silence From Media

by Christopher Bollyn
American Free Press
April 17th, 2006

While the media plays up the significance of the government show trial of the seemingly deranged “20th hijacker” Zacharias Moussaoui, not one 9-11 victim’s lawsuit has been allowed to be heard in a trial by jury. Why have the 9-11 victims’ families not been given the same right to have their cases heard in an open trial?

Ellen Mariani, who lost her husband Neil on United Air Lines (UAL) Flight 175, filed the first 9-11 wrongful death lawsuit against UAL on Dec. 20, 2001. Mariani was interviewed on national television in May 2002 by Bill O’Reilly of Fox News, who repeatedly questioned her about why she had chosen to pursue litigation instead of accepting the government fund.

“I want justice,” Mariani said. “I want accountability. Who is responsible? I want the truth.”

(more…)