Witness tampering cited in Moussaoui case

[Eugene]

Posted on Fri, Mar. 17, 2006
Witness tampering cited in Moussaoui case
MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN and LESLIE MILLER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Lawyers for two airlines being sued for damages by 9/11 victims prompted
a federal lawyer to coach witnesses in the trial of al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui
so the government's death penalty case would not undercut their defense, victims' lawyers allege.

The victims' lawyers, Robert Clifford and Gregory Joseph, claim that one of the airline lawyers
forwarded a transcript from the first day of the Moussaoui trial to Transportation Security
Administration lawyer Carla J. Martin.

In violation of an order by Moussaoui trial judge Leonie Brinkema, Martin forwarded that day's
transcript to seven federal aviation officials scheduled to testify later in the sentencing trial
of the 37-year-old Frenchman.

<snip>

The contacts between lawyers for United and American Airlines and Martin were detailed in a legal
brief filed on Moussaoui's behalf Thursday. That brief contained a March 15 letter from Clifford
and Joseph complaining about Martin's actions to U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who is
presiding over the civil damage case in New York.

<snip>

Full article: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14116728.htm

[Poll_Blind]

1. If they screw up the case against what might be the only real...

...terrorist we've caught related to 9/11 there's going to be hell to pay, from both sides.

PB

[Kagemusha]

2. Absolutely astounding.

I knew something was wrong but, I wondered if it was from higher up in the government, using Martin as a preferred route for access to the case. But no. This motive is totally plausible... and this is bad. Very, very bad. Near unbelievable. This will be a notorious case in legal annals for generations.

[hang a left]

3. Yeah they kill two birds with one stone.

Moussaoui never gets to take the stand. American and United don't have their defenses decimated. Unbelievable.

[Kagemusha]

4. But this doesn't accomplish purpose #1 at all.

No matter if the death penalty is taken off the table, Moussaoui has no less right to take the stand at his own sentencing hearing than before. Or am I reading this wrong.

[hang a left]

5. I think he automatically gets life.

This is the death penalty phase, I think. That was my impression.

[wordpix2]

26. that's correct ---he gets life, regardless

[Igel]

8. You're reading it wrong.

Life w/out parole and death penalty are the only two possible outcomes. One requires a trial; the other is default. If the prosecution bails or never brought the case, or if Brinkema dismisses the trial, it's life w/out parole.

In other news, the death penalty was a long-shot anyway. It requires that they prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he refused to divulge knowledge he had when provided with the opportunity, and that they further prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" that had they obtained this knowledge, the appropriate folks would have taken the steps necessary to prevent 9/11. LIHOP and MIHOP notwithstanding, each of those assertions would be difficult to prove.

[Peace Patriot]

6. They've screwed up every 9/11 and terrorist case and investigation!

Every one!

And there are some seriousness weirdnesses about this case. One of them is this: Remember FBI agent Colleen Rowley's foiled effort to get into Moussaoui's computer before 9/11? When they finally DID get into that computer--AFTER 9/11--one of the things they found there was NICHOLAS BERG's email account and password!

Nicholas Berg--whose supposed beheading on tape, after 10 days in U.S. custody in Iraq--was the cause celebre of the freepers after the first Abu Ghraib torture photos became public (May '04, six months before the election). They used his beheading to imply that Arabs/Muslims deserve to be tortured--or it's no big deal if they are--look what "they" are doing to nice young American businessmen!

According to Nicholas' father, the FBI had questioned Nicholas about his email account and password being in Moussaoui's computer (after 9/11), and they purportedly accepted his story that he met Moussaoui entirely by accident, on a bus, and lent Moussaoui his computer.

Despite all this, the Bush junta allowed Nicholas Berg to enter post-invasion Iraq, and wander around in Iraq, in the chaos of the Fallujah uprising, looking for business for his and his father's electronics company. In those wanderings, he gets picked up by the FBI and interrogated, and held in custody for 10 days. His frantic parents petitioned Donald Rumsfeld to release him.

They did. They dumped him on the street--where he supposedly was kidnapped by "terrorists" and then beheaded.

This has to be one of the most bizarre episodes in the entire Bush junta--replete with astounding and completely unbelievable coincidences--and I have always felt that it somehow holds the key to the entire story of the Bush junta and 9/11. It's got that smell, you know?

So it doesn't surprise me in the least that they are blowing this case, too. WHAT they are covering up, specifically, in relation to Moussaoui, Berg and other matters is the unknown. Was Nicholas Berg a Bush junta or Mossad operative? Was he in touch with the 9/11 perps? Or--a possibility--was he a good guy, working for some unknown party to STOP 9/11? Or a bad guy turned good guy? And what was he DOING in Iraq? On the face of it, anyone with any connection to 9/11 shouldn't have gotten into Iraq--but, of course, we can't trust anything the Bushites would do, let alone anything to do with security, for the Iraqis or for us. And why did they arrest him there? And who really killed him? Was he a compromised operative that they had to get rid of? Was he a potential whistleblower--who was offed, and then is death used opportunistically to counter the political fall-out from the Abu Ghraib photos? And, wouldn't it have been interesting if Nicholas Berg had been called to testy in the Moussaoui trial? What could he have told us, if he had been put under oath?

It is simply not believable that these two people--Moussaoui and Berg--were connected by accident, and that the very computer that Rowley wanted entry into (and was given a very rare denial to enter, just prior to 9/11), the computer that might well have blown the 9/11 conspiracy wide open in August 2001, before it could be accomplished, just happens to link them together.

Smells. Really smells.

[SpiralHawk]

7. Peeee U indeed. Your nose is astute, Peace Patriot

Great observations.

The Mousssaui-Berg connection does indeed stink.

Everything the BushCo Cabal is involved with, it seems, stinks.

[rman]

9. Tampering with witnesses is obviously deliberate,

which is more serious then "screwing up". This is not a matter of incompetence.

[hang a left]

10. There are so many coincidences, I can't keep them straight.

I forgot all about the Berg connection to Moussaoi. It sure looks like this one was thrown.

[Kber]

11. As long as I have my tin foil hat on

it's interesting that it was the Prosecution that "discovered" the witness tampering and revealed it to the judge voluntarily without any external prompting.

Just saying.

[hang a left]

18. Yeah you are absolutely right.

Prosecutor throws own lawyer under the bus. She probably has a nice little retirement account in the Caymans waiting for her.

[sattahipdeep]

22. Remember (Carla Martin) is the gatekeeper of classified secrets

Martin, who is 51 and has 16 years' experience, has spent virtually
no time litigating cases, according to people familiar with her work.

Her career has involved sitting in on cases argued by other
attorneys, essentially as a gatekeeper of classified secrets, they said.

When prosecutors wanted an aviation-related document declassified
in the Moussaoui case, they turned to Martin. Her role was sharply
defined: She was to locate the proper bureaucrat, who would then
approach an agency such as the CIA. It was up to that agency to
decide whether the document could be introduced in open court.

http://freeinternetpress.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6228

[gratuitous]

12. And even if this is tinfoil hat conspiracy theory stuff . . .

I have no idea how to evaluate all the tangled threads involved in Bush administration duplicity, but the story they're now selling is that corporate interests are dictating how the Justice Department pursues criminal prosecution.

Whatever connections there may or may not be between Nicholas Berg and Zacarias Moussaoui, what does it say about this corrupt administration that it jeopardizes its criminal prosecution at the behest of the airlines?

[sendero]

20. What disturbs me about your post is..

... that it is all too believable.

[sattahipdeep]

21. Where's Gary Webb when you need him...

Oh, that's right...They killed him too.

It's got that smell, you know.

[daleo]

23. That was a great refresher course

That whole thing definitely made you wonder.

[wordpix2]

27. wow, PPatriot, I didn't know this story, this is blowing my mind!

This part of the story (below) is totally implausible and ridiculous---who among us accidentally meets someone on a bus and lends our own computer to that stranger, giving him our password, no less? TOTAL bullshit. So I agree this is just ANOTHER dot that smells to high heaven and there are a lot of questions surrounding Berg and his ties to Massaoui and possibly, the Bush cabal.

snip: According to Nicholas' father, the FBI had questioned Nicholas about his email account and password being in Moussaoui's computer (after 9/11), and they purportedly accepted his story that he met Moussaoui entirely by accident, on a bus, and lent Moussaoui his computer.

[LiberalHeart]

13. Jaw, meet floor....

This story makes me more furious than I've been in a long while. It's the ultimate example of government and business working hand-in-glove, the "little people" be damned (not to mention justice) -- IF this is true. And my bet is it *is* true.

[Just Me]

14. I'm with ya'

:wow: a federal prosecutor risks a criminal case to protect defense asserted by airline corps :wow:

[LiberalHeart]

15. I wish your comment could have been...

...the headline on this thread. Would have brought more eyes to it. I wanted to nominate it, but don't know how. I'm thinking people will see this as just the old story about Carla's email, and not know there's been this new development. But I understand a poster has to use the source's headline. Darn.

[hang a left]

16. On the original post

at the bottom there is a recommend button. Click on it, and then confirm your vote.

[msanthrope]

17. Bingo--that's exactly what went on. n/t

[sattahipdeep]

19. But is Carla Martin A disbeliever an evildoer?

Martin's attorney, Roscoe C. Howard Jr., released a statement Thursday
claiming his client, who was placed on paid administrative leave from
her job Thursday and could face civil or criminal charges, has been
"viciously vilified by assertions from the prosecution." What prosecutors
have told the judge she did, the statement said, is not "the whole truth."
Howard said Martin is preparing her response, which "will show a very
different, full picture of her intentions, her conduct and her tireless
dedication to a fair trial."

That may well be, but even Carla Martin's e-mails to prep witnesses---which
were intended to bolster the government's case---ended up pointing out a
serious flaw in it. As part of their case, prosecutors are arguing that if
Moussaoui had come clean about the plot, enhanced airport screening could
have detected the short-bladed knives that the hijackers carried on board.

But as Martin herself wrote in one of her e-mails, "There is no way anyone
could say that the carriers could have prevented all short-bladed knives from going through."

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1174270,00.html

:hi: Just Me

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2146415#2172976?az=view_all&address=102x2146415

[DeepModem Mom]

24. Lawyers question TSA atty's contacts in 9/11 suit (ties to airlines?)

CNN: Lawyers question TSA attorney's contacts in 9/11 suit
Counsel for victims' families alleges Martin had ties to airlines
By Phil Hirschkorn
CNN
Friday, March 17, 2006


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The government lawyer blamed for damaging prosecutors' case against Zacarias Moussaoui might be a factor in another September 11 case, attorneys for victims' families say.

E-mails used to show that Carla Martin had coached government witnesses in the Moussaoui trial also expose an "incestuous and inappropriate relationship" between the Transportation Security Administration and airlines, say attorneys for families of some victims.

Martin, a TSA lawyer, is among dozens of government attorneys who helped prosecutors prepare government employees to testify and assembled documents to be introduced as evidence in the Moussaoui case.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema found that Martin violated a court order instructing witnesses to avoid following court proceedings or discussing them with each other until they had testified....

***

In the civil case, the plaintiffs' attorneys contend the e-mail chain released this week in the Moussaoui trial shows Martin had a chummy relationship with attorneys from American and United airlines and suggests witnesses in the civil case may also have been subjected to improper coaching....


http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/03/17/moussaoui.trial/index.html

[sattahipdeep]

25. But U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein declined referring

the complaints to the court of appeals or Brinkema. :eyes:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/03/18/MNGU7HQGNC1.DTL
....
But U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema added another restriction Friday: Any
such witness may only testify that aviation officials "could" have prevented the
Sept. 11 terror attacks had Moussaoui cooperated with the FBI. She said they
would not be allowed to back the prosecution's contention that the al Qaeda
hijackers "would" have been stopped at the airport.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/03/18/MNGU7HQGNC1.DTL
....
Carla Martin's e-mails to prep witnesses---which were intended to bolster the
government's case---ended up pointing out a serious flaw in it.

....
Martin herself wrote in one of her e-mails, "There is no way anyone could say
that the carriers could have prevented all short-bladed knives from going through."
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1174270,00.html