Moussaoui's Lawyers Seeks Able Danger Info

Moussaoui's lawyers had subpoenaed Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., to testify for Moussaoui's defense, but Weldon asked the court to quash the subpoena. Declaring he didn't want to be used by a "thug" like Moussaoui, Weldon claimed congressional immunity from the subpoena.

Weldon has claimed the government knew more about the Sept. 11 hijackers before the 2001 attack than it has publicly admitted.

Specifically, he claims a secret military intelligence project known as Able Danger identified some of the hijackers well before they flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Weldon wrote in a book that he himself saw one of the unit's charts listing some Sept. 11 hijackers.

In court Tuesday, defense lawyer Edward MacMahon said he will oppose Weldon's efforts to quash the subpoena.

How much the government knew about the hijackers before the Sept. 11 attack will be a key issue at Moussaoui's sentencing. The 37-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan descent pleaded guilty in April to conspiring with al-Qaida to fly planes into U.S. buildings. But he denies any involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks and says he was training to fly a plane into the White House as part of a possible future attack.

To obtain the death penalty, the government must prove Moussaoui's actions directly led to deaths on Sept. 11. The government will argue Moussaoui could have prevented the terrorist attacks if he had not lied to authorities about his terrorist connections when arrested in August 2001.

The defense argues that the government knew more about the hijackers' plans than Moussaoui and was still unable to prevent the attacks.

It's curious that this article makes no mention of the ongoing Able Danger hearings, where some of the principals are being questioned about the program. Par for the course I guess.

Moussaoui's lawyers are taking a similar approach to efforts by the lawyers for the Albany duo who were captured in an FBI sting operation. They're trying and obtain information about national security intel gathering programs such as the NSA eavesdropping programs and Able Danger In the Albany case, the lawyers are seeking to obtain information on how their clients were picked by the FBI for the sting operation. Here, the lawyers are trying to get information that may ultimately reduce the sentencing.