Moussaoui, Zacarias (1968–)

Zacarias Moussaoui (aka Abu Khalid al Sahrawi; Shaqil) was the first person to be convicted in the United States on charges stemming from the September 11, 2001, attacks that destroyed New York City's World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., even though he was in prison in Minnesota when the attacks occurred. Moussaoui, a radical Muslim with ties to al Qaeda, is believed to have been a last-minute recruit who was supposed to fill in for another would-be hijacker on September 11. Moussaoui has claimed that he was actually supposed to take part in an attack on the White House slated to happen after September 11. Whatever the original plan, Moussaoui was never able to participate in any attack, because he was jailed in August 2001 for overstaying his visa.

Moussaoui was born in 1968 in St. Jean de Luz, France, the son of a Moroccan couple who married when Moussaoui's mother was 14 years old. His parents divorced when he was young, and Moussaoui's mother worked to support her four children, eventually buying a home in Narbonne. She raised her sons and daughters to share housework, a practice that was criticized by some of her more conservative relatives.

Moussaoui moved to London in the early 1990s. He received a master's degree in economics from Southbank University and fell in with radical Muslims, eventually becoming estranged from his immediate family. Nonetheless, he made several [Page 399]visits to France and was outspoken enough about his views to attract the attention of French authorities, who put him under surveillance. He traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan more than once, training at an al Qaeda camp in 1998. He occasionally attended the same mosque in Brixton, England, as Richard Colvin Reid, who in December 2001 attempted to blow up an airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes.

In fall 2000, Moussaoui contacted Airman Flight School in Norman, Oklahoma, inquiring about taking flight lessons. Around the same time, Ramzi bin al Shibh, a member of al Qaeda living in Germany, abandoned his efforts to get an entrance visa to the United States. These facts initially led investigators to conclude that Moussaoui was a replacement for bin al Shibh. Later, the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the United States reported that Moussaoui may have been trained as a potential replacement for Ziad Jarrah, a hijacker who seriously considered dropping out of the plot but eventually carried through with the attack.

Moussaoui entered the United States on a student visa in February 2001. From late February to late May 2001, Moussaoui took flight lessons at Airman on small planes. He was reportedly a dreadful pilot, and after being told that he would need more lessons, he quit the school. Moussaoui left Norman in August and moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he attended the Pan Am International Flight Academy. His behavior soon attracted attention. He paid thousands of dollars of fees in cash, he was extremely evasive, and he adamantly insisted that he be taught to fly a large passenger plane even though he had not mastered flying a small plane. Instructors became suspicious and contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Moussaoui was arrested on August 16, 2001, and held on immigration charges.

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