Moussaoui should be killed, feds say
The U.S. government opened its case for the execution of al-Qaida operative Zacarias Moussaoui on Monday, charging that the French citizen withheld critical information that would have exposed the Sept. 11 plot.
“This man knew there was a ticking bomb in the United States,” prosecutor Robert Spencer told a federal jury. “He lied so his brothers could go forward with this,” he said. “He caused the deaths of nearly 3,000 people; he rejoiced in the death and destruction.”
Moussaoui, 37, is the only person charged in the United States in the 2001 attacks.
He pleaded guilty last year to six counts of conspiracy. The hearing is to allow a 12-member jury to determine whether he should be executed or spend the rest of his life in prison.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.
Abramoff’s team may ‘name names’
A defense lawyer for disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff threatened Monday to publicly disclose the names of Washington lawmakers and staffers under investigation in the sweeping federal corruption probe that ensnared Abramoff.
Attorney Abbe Lowell told U.S. District Judge Paul Huck that the defense could be forced to reveal the sensitive information at Abramoff’s sentencing hearing in Miami federal court later this month – unless it is postponed.
“We will name names,”Lowell said by telephone at a court hearing in Miami. “It seems to me that is not in the interest of law enforcement.”
Abramoff pleaded guilty Jan. 4 to charges that he and co-defendant Adam Kidan fraudulently obtained $60 million in loans to buy the SunCruz Casinos gambling cruise line in 2000 from Konstantino “Gus” Boulis.
Huck put off sentencing for Abramoff and Kidan from March 16 to March 29. But the judge refused to order a 90-day delay, as Abramoff and federal prosecutors requested.
PIERRE, S.D.
Governor signs abortion ban
Gov. Mike Rounds signed legislation Monday that would ban most abortions in South Dakota, a law he acknowledged would be tied up in court for years while the state challenges the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.
The bill would make it a crime for doctors to perform an abortion unless the procedure was necessary to save the woman’s life. It would make no exception for cases of rape or incest.
Planned Parenthood, which operates the state’s only abortion clinic, in Sioux Falls, immediately pledged to challenge the measure. The challenge could either be in court or by petition signatures to refer the measure to a statewide ballot in which voters would be asked to repeal the abortion ban.
BAKERSFIELD, Calif.
Bush strategist will give up seat
Rep. William M. Thomas, R-Calif., who played a key role in congressional passage of President Bush’s tax cuts and Medicare’s prescription-drug benefit, announced Monday that he would not seek re-election this November.
Thomas’ district, which includes a slice of northern Los Angeles County and most of Kern and San Luis Obispo counties, is expected to remain in Republican hands. But his departure, after 28 years on Capitol Hill, will leave Bush without a valuable political strategist in his efforts to make tax cuts permanent and enact further changes to Medicare.
Since 2001, Thomas has served as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees tax legislation and bills affecting Social Security, Medicare and trade policy.
Compiled from wire reports