9/11 Plaintiffs Ask for Time to Assess “20th hijacker” Zacarias Moussaoui Claims of Saudi Involvement.

By Daniel Fisher Forbes.com  November 6th 2014. Lawyers representing victims of the 9/11 attacks asked a New York court to delay a deadline in their litigation so they can assess claims by Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called “20th hijacker,” that a member of the Saudi royal family helped him in his failed effort to participate in the terror plot.

Moussaoui, in a handwritten letter to U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels in New York, said “I want to meet you and testify” about the involvement of the Saudi Bin Laden Group and other Saudi figures including members of the ruling al Saud family and the late Khalid bin Mahfouz, who founded the Bank of Credit and Commerce International and was widely accused of funding al Qaeda. (Forbe.com story continued after graphic).

See links between Moussaoui, blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and al-Midhar &  al-Hazmi, tw0 of the Saudi 9/11 hijackers reported on in “Triple Cross” pp. 27-28:

 

 

 

Jerry Goldman, an attorney for 9/11 victims, said he and other members of the plaintiffs’ team traveled two weeks ago to ADX Florence, the “Supermax” prison in Colorado where Moussaoui is serving life without parole. Goldman said the Justice Dept. is reviewing the transcript of their meeting and until the government is done, he can’t discuss what was said — for obvious reasons. Radical lawyer Lynne Stewart was sentenced to 10 years in prison for relaying conversations with her client, the blind cleric Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, to compatriots overseas without government clearance.

The case against the Saudi government, by victims and insurance companies that paid claims in the attack, was revived after the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s dismissal. The plaintiffs filed an amended complaint in September, which the Saudis again asked to dismiss, and a plaintiff response is due next week.

“We asked the court for an extension because the DOJ wants to review certain documents,” Goldman said, including the transcript of the Moussaoui interview. “We believe the material is relevant to the proceedings of the court.”

Moussaoui  first contacted lawyers about testifying in civil lawsuits after seeing the verdict in the Arab Bank case last month on TV, according to this report by Allison Frankel at Reuters.

“I want to testify against financial institutions such asArab Bank , Saudi American Bank, the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia” and several individuals, Moussaoui wrote in a note to the New York court in that case, “for their support and financing of Usama bin Laden and Al Qaeda from the time of the Eastern Africa embassy bombing, U.S.S. Cole bombing and 9/11.”

Whether Moussaoui’s testimony will help the plaintiffs is unknown. Moussaoui was arrested before the 9/11 attacks in August 2001 on immigration charges after officials became suspicious about his attending a flight-training school in Minnesota. While he had contacts with the other 9/11 hijackers, his credibility would be challenged by his changing claims of involvement in the plot. He ultimately pleaded guilty to involvement even as 9/11 planner Khalid Sheik Mohammed claimed he wasn’t part of the team.

Lawyers for insurance companies and individual plaintiffs argue Saudi Arabia provided direct logistical and financial support to the 9/11 terrorists, 15 of whom were Saudi citizens, through charities it controlled and undercover operatives working in the U.S. To bolster the argument that this case involves U.S. plaintiffs suing over torts committed on U.S. soil, lawyers detail a series of suspicious contacts between Saudi agents and Al Qaeda including Omar Bayoumi, who allegedly held a do-nothing job with a a Saudi aviation firm called Dallah Avco and helped support 9/11 hijackers in San Diego.