Moussaoui
Roommate Pleads Guilty on False Statement Charges
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(US) Zacarias Moussaoui and Hussein Al-Attas shared an apartment in Norman,
Oklahoma
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NEW
YORK, July 23 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A Saudi student who
briefly shared a room with Zacarias Moussaoui, the only man indicted
in connection with the September 11 attacks, admitted Monday, July 22,
to making multiple false statements to investigators.
Hussein
al-Attas told a U.S. district court in Manhattan that he lied to FBI
agents when he denied hearing Moussaoui talk of his support for jihad,
or Islamic "holy war." The term jihad is not defined in the
complaint, but is often incorrectly defined by Western officials as
“holy war.”
Al-Attas
said he also tried to prevent law enforcement authorities from
learning about some of Moussaoui's classmates at a flight school in
Oklahoma. "I did not want to say anything that would cause
problems for anyone else," he said.
Listing
a total of seven false statements, al-Attas said he also lied about
plans to travel to New York with Moussaoui in August 2001, a planned
trip to Pakistan to speak to religious scholars and "others who
believe that our religion favors participation in jihad," lying
about plans to attend classes at the University of Oklahoma, his visit
to a firing range to practice firing a handgun at a target and about
not knowing that his former roommate used an alias: Shaqil.
"When
the agents asked if I [also] knew his real name, I lied and said I did
not," said al-Attas.
Moussaoui,
who was arrested in August on immigration violations, was indicted in
December on six counts of conspiracy to commit acts of international
terrorism, to hijack an airliner, to destroy an aircraft and to use
arms of mass destruction.
Al-Attas,
who had briefly roomed with Moussaoui in Oklahoma, was arrested on
Sept. 17, and has been held in solitary confinement in New York for
the past 10 months.
Al-Attas,
born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to Yemeni parents, says that he does not
share Moussaoui's beliefs and has denied any link to the September 11
attacks on New York and Washington. He has not been charged with
having any advance knowledge of the attacks.
Al-Attas
admitted providing false statements as part of an agreement, in which
he has consented to be held as a material witness in the government's
conspiracy case against Moussaoui in Alexandria, Virginia. Al-Attas'
lawyer said he would testify if requested.
"He
is a fairly naive man who was trying to help the wrong person at the
wrong time," said defense lawyer Alexander Eisemann, who
described his client as a "very helpful and perhaps naive person,
who helped many people," reports news agencies.
Moussaoui's
trial is due to begin in mid-October.
The
Saudi engineering student had driven Moussaoui, whom he had met in a
Norman, Oklahoma, mosque, from Oklahoma to a flight school in
Minnesota, where the latter's obsession with flying jumbo jets aroused
the suspicion of instructors and eventually led to the pair's arrest.
Eisemann
said Moussaoui asked al-Attas to go with him to New York, Colorado and
possibly Los Angeles, saying said the two decided just to visit New
York and return to Oklahoma, reports news agencies.
U.S.
District Judge Michael Mukasey set a Sept. 4 sentencing hearing for al
Attas. Prosecutors said in plea agreement papers that the federal
sentencing guidelines recommend zero to six months prison time.
Al-Attas has been in custody since Sept. 11, reports news agencies.
Moussaoui
attempted last week to plead guilty to conspiracy charges in a U.S.
federal court, pledging his allegiance to Osama bin Laden and
admitting he was an al-Qaeda operative.
His
comments stunned Judge Leonie Brinkema, who refused to accept
Moussaoui's plea and ordered that another hearing be held on July 25.
Moussaoui faces the death penalty on
four of the federal charges: conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism
transcending national boundaries, conspiracy to commit aircraft
piracy, conspiracy to destroy aircraft and conspiracy to use weapons
of mass destruction.
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