Moussaoui’s 9/11 plot began at top UK library

The only man convicted in connection with the 9/11 terrorist attacks began plotting the downfall of western society from the austere surroundings of the British Library.

Newly released court documents reveal the most detailed account yet of the life of Zacarias Moussaoui, who was once dubbed the “20th hijacker”, during his nine years in London. They show how Moussaoui, who is serving a life sentence in an American maximum security jail, was able to exploit the British education and social security systems despite warnings from foreign intelligence agencies about the danger he posed.

The documents are among more than 1,200 exhibits submitted as evidence at Moussaoui’s trial at a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, and published on the internet last week. They reveal:

1. How Moussaoui used his studies at South Bank University in London to obtain a five-year reading pass at the British Library.

2. Handwritten notes in which Moussaoui curses the Queen and describes her as the “Little Bitch of Buckingham”.

3. How the Muslim extremist was supported by a church-backed housing body when he first arrived destitute in the capital from France.

4. E-mails to US flight schools in which Moussaoui says his “dream” is to fly a “Big Bird” 747 jet from Heathrow.

5. Details of how he insisted on paying in cash at a travel agent in Victoria as he hurriedly booked flights from London to America, where he attended aviation academies.

The evidence, some of which has been declassified for the first time, also confirms that Ramzi Binalshibh, one of the key planners of the 9/11 atrocity, flew to London from Germany in December 2000 to meet Moussaoui.

Another document, written by an FBI agent before the attacks on New York and Washington, accuses Omar Bakri Mohammed, the radical preacher now barred from Britain, of sending his Al-Muhajiroun supporters to flight training schools in America. Moussaoui, 38, narrowly escaped the death penalty in May after pleading guilty to six conspiracy charges over the 9/11 attacks.

The US authorities had initially suspected him of being the 20th hijacker who should have been on United Airlines flight 93, had he not been arrested in August 2001. That suspicion was dropped but Moussaoui was still convicted as he knew of the plot and kept quiet. Sunday Times, London