The United States is responsible for the suffering of Muslims in Chechnya, Palestine and elsewhere, Zacarias Moussaoui said in testifying at his sentencing trial. Speaking to the jury who will decide whether to apply the death penalty in his case, Moussaoui said, "I wish there would be more pain" for Americans.
Defense attorneys for Moussaoui, a confessed al-Qaida conspirator, are attempting to save him from the death penalty as they open their case in phase two of his sentencing trial. When Moussaoui chose to take the stand in phase one, he seemed to want to goad the jury into making him eligible for the death penalty.
Moussaoui spoke at length in his new testimony, saying his lawyers are incompetent, and that the suffering families of those who died in the al-Qaida attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, did not move him with their testimony. He also said that he would undertake such attacks again, if he had the chance.
Michele Norris talks with NPR's Larry Abramson at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Va.
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