Victims' Kin Take Stand For Moussaoui

Relatives Of 9/11 Victims Testify To Spare Al Qaeda Conspirator's Life

(CBS/AP) 

"He's away from his family. He's lonely. He's complained about racism. He's in a new country, and he doesn't have any support group," Martin said, describing Moussaoui's embrace of radical Islam in the mid-1990s.

On cross examination, Martin acknowledged studies exist that find most al Qaeda terrorists come from stable families, middle-class backgrounds and have a college education.

Martin's testimony was allowed by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, but at the insistence of prosecutors, the judge barred any suggestion from Martin or others that Moussaoui had been brainwashed by al Qaeda.

While not specific to Moussaoui, defense lawyers introduced information from a 2003 CIA report that stated al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan "used brainwashing techniques to cement loyalty" among recruits.

Moussaoui said as he was led out of the courtroom at a recess, "Moussaoui fly over the cuckoo's nest," the latest Hollywood-inspired interjection mocking those who question his sanity.

Much of the mental-health testimony has revolved around Moussaoui's belief Bush will set him free. Prosecutors and defense lawyers differ on whether that belief is a schizophrenic delusion or a fundamentalist Muslim's article of faith.

A defense psychologist, Xavier Amador, acknowledged in his testimony that widely held religious beliefs are different than delusions, and that many Muslims place importance in dream interpretation.

Moussaoui's beliefs, though, differ from standard Muslim thought in several ways, Amador said. For example, Muslims typically ask a scholar or imam to interpret their dream. And they almost always use the phrase "inshallah," or God willing, to show humility to God's will, when discussing beliefs about the future.

Moussaoui's defense team contends his belief about Mr. Bush shows he has lost touch with reality. They hope evidence that Moussaoui suffers from mental illness will persuade a jury to spare his life.

Moussaoui is the only person charged in this country in the Sept. 11 attacks. The jury deciding his fate has already declared him eligible for the death penalty by determining that his actions caused at least one death that day.

Even though Moussaoui was in jail in Minnesota at the time of the attacks, the jury ruled that lies he told federal agents a month before the attacks kept authorities from identifying and stopping some of the hijackers.

They must decide whether to sentence him to death or to life in prison.

CBS News' Laura Haim reports that if Moussaoui is sentenced to death, it will set off a huge reaction in anti-death-penalty France, where Moussaoui lived.

Moussaoui has pleaded guilty to conspiring with al Qaeda to fly planes into U.S. buildings, but not on Sept. 11.