Moussaoui's Testimony Stuns Court

After initially denying any direct role in the 9/11 attacks, al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui testified Monday that he and would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid were supposed to hijack a fifth airplane on Sept. 11, 2001, and fly it into the White House.

Moussaoui's testimony on his own behalf riveted the courtroom as he disclosed details he had never revealed before, CBS News correspondent Jim Stewart reports. It was in stark contrast to Moussaoui's previous statements, in which he said the White House attack was to come later if the United States refused to release a radical Egyptian sheik imprisoned on earlier terrorist convictions.

On Dec. 22, 2001, Reid was subdued by passengers when he attempted to detonate a bomb in his shoe aboard American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami. There were 197 people on board. The plane was diverted to Boston, where it landed safely.

Moussaoui also said he lied to investigators when arrested in August 2001 because he wanted to let the attacks of Sept. 11 go forward.

"That's correct," Moussaoui said.

Spencer: "You lied so the plan could go forward?"

Moussaoui: "That's correct."

The exchange was key to the government's case that the attacks might have been averted if Moussaoui had been more cooperative following his arrest.

He said he kept telling the FBI and INS agents who arrested him that he was desperate to get back to his flight simulator training, CBS News' Stephanie Lambidakis reports. The statement was key to the government's case that the attacks might have been averted if Moussaoui had been more cooperative following his arrest.

Under cross-examination from lead prosecutor Robert Spencer, Moussaoui admitted in "a chilling, but matter-of-fact way" that he knew the attacks were coming some time after August 2001, Lambidakis reports — and bought a radio while in jail in Minnesota so he could hear them unfold. At first, he only heard about a "fire," but after watching the news coverage on a television, Moussaoui saw the towers engulfed in flames.

Specifically, he said he knew the World Trade Center was "definitely" going to be attacked, with planes used as missiles, but asserted he was not part of the plot and didn't know the details. He said he knew the towers would be targeted, along with other places because "we don't do one operation. We do multiple strikes," Lambidakis reports.

"I had knowledge that the Twin Towers would be hit," Moussaoui said. "I didn't know the details of this."

"Moussaoui delivered where government witnesses had failed," said CBS News Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen. "He linked himself to the 9/11 plot and offered a chilling account of his pre-9/11 knowledge of what would happen. That's critical for prosecutors because they have to convince the judge and the jury that Moussaoui knew enough about the plot to have helped foil it if he had told the truth when arrested in August 2001."

On the stand, Moussaoui said he declined to become a suicide pilot in some future attack when asked by a senior al Qaeda official in 1999.

Nineteen men pulled off the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York in Washington in the worst act of terrorism ever on U.S. soil.

Asked by his lawyer why he signed his guilty plea in April as "the 20th hijacker," Moussaoui replied: "Because everybody used to refer to me as the 20th hijacker and it was a bit of fun."

Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son Christian died at the World Trade Center, said "at least there would have been a chance" to head off the attacks if Moussaoui had told investigators in August 2001 what she heard him admit in court Monday.

"I was convinced that this man was only a heartbeat away from taking the controls of a plane," she said.

Moussaoui testified calmly in his death penalty trial — but against his lawyers' wishes. As he spoke, family members of 9/11 victims were seen crying in the courtroom, Stewart reports.

Before Moussaoui took the stand, his lawyers made a last attempt to stop him from testifying, but failed. Defense attorney Gerald Zerkin argued that his client would not be a competent witness because he has contempt for the court, only recognizes Islamic law and therefore "the affirmation he undertakes would be meaningless."

Reid, a self-proclaimed member of al Qaeda who has pledged support to Osama bin Laden, pleaded guilty in October 2002 to trying to blow up Flight 63 and was sentenced to life in prison.

Moussaoui testified that at one point he was excluded from pre-hijacking operations because he had gotten in trouble with his al Qaeda superiors on a 2000 trip to Malaysia. He said it was only after he was called back to Afghanistan and talked with Osama bin Laden that he was approved again for the operation.

"My position was, like you say, under review."

Asked by Zerkin if he was supposed to be one of the men who would pilot a plane on 9/11, he said no, adding: "I'm sorry, I don't know about the number of planes but I was not the fifth (pilot) hijacker."

The 19 terrorists on Sept. 11 hijacked and crashed four airliners, killing nearly 3,000 people in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and on the planes.

About his guilty plea, he said: "I took a pen. I signed it."

He said talked with an al Qaeda official in 1999 about why a 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center failed to bring the towers down. He said "was asked in the same period for the first time if I want to be a suicide pilot and I declined."

But after having two dreams and meeting with Osama bin Laden, Moussaoui said he agreed to undertake a suicide mission, Lambidakis reports. He said he was taking flight training for a separate, future attack on the White House, when he was arrested in August 2001 on immigration charges.

Either by photo, name or alias, Moussaoui also identified more than a dozen hijackers and al Qaeda figures, including the alleged mastermind, Khalid Sheik Mohammad, whom he said he communicated with via e-mail. Moussaoui told the court he used "cover language," including the words "bottle of champagne," to relay to Mohammed that he planned to complete flight training by August 20, 2001.

He told the court it was "difficult to say" whether he was involved in the planning for 9/11. At some point, he said, he received training on what to do if at the controls of a hijacked plane if a fighter aircraft approached.

Moussaoui's testimony also offered insight into the life of terror training camps. He said he was a driver who saw all the VIPs, the comings-and-goings in Afghanistan, Lamidakis reports.

Cohen says the defense may be over in a few days and jurors may start deliberating as early as Wednesday.

To win the death penalty, prosecutors must first prove that Moussaoui's actions, specifically, his lies, were directly responsible for at least one death on Sept. 11.

"Moussaoui's lawyers are going to get into evidence information from his Al Qaeda superiors, leaders of the terror movement who were captured years ago by the United States and who apparently told their captors that Moussaoui was a small fry, someone who wasn't in the loop of the 9-11 terror plot," says Cohen. "If jurors believe that evidence it'll clearly help Moussaoui."

If the prosecutors fail, Moussaoui would get life in prison.