Moussaoui Jury Won't Hear From Shoe Bomber

Zacarias Moussaoui said Richard Reid, above, was to be on his hijacking crew. (Plymouth County Jail - AP)

"Shoe bomber" Richard Reid will not testify at the death-penalty trial of al-Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, according to an order issued yesterday by a federal judge in Alexandria.

Attorneys for Moussaoui had tried to call Reid to the stand to discredit Moussaoui's story that he was planning to fly a fifth hijacked airplane into the White House on Sept. 11, 2001. Moussaoui testified that his crew was to include Reid, who is serving a life term for a separate attack in which he tried to blow up a transatlantic flight with a bomb hidden in his shoe.

But U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema yesterday vacated her earlier order that required the federal government to produce the so-called shoe bomber, sources familiar with the Moussaoui case said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because although Brinkema's order was posted on the court's Web site, the specifics of it remain under court seal.

Sources said prosecutors and defense attorneys are trying to work out an agreement to tell the jury what Reid would say, partly because of the security concerns and expense of moving him to Alexandria.

Moussaoui, 37, pleaded guilty last year to conspiring with al-Qaeda and is the only person convicted in the United States on charges stemming from the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A federal jury is considering whether he should be executed. Testimony will resume Monday. Moussaoui's attorneys have told jurors that Moussaoui was lying when he testified about his planned attack on the White House.

On Thursday, Moussaoui testified that he and Reid met at a mosque in London in the 1990s and were close friends. They have both professed their allegiance to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.