Fighting terror

Suspect plotted to attack after 9/11

Zacarias Moussaoui says he was not a participant in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror plot but instead was to take part in another al-Qaida operation outside the United States that was to follow the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, according to court documents unsealed Tuesday.

Moussaoui's contention, outlined in briefs filed by his standby attorneys before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, reveals for the first time what his defense says was his role in al-Qaida.

The briefs were unsealed the same day as the appellate court opened to the public part of a key hearing on whether Moussaoui can have access to a captured al-Qaida operative.

Tuesday's filing did not say where or when the followup attack would have taken place or why it didn't take place. But the defense attorneys said in the briefs that they plan to introduce evidence that Moussaoui had "made plans for activities after" the Sept. 11 suicide attacks, showing that "he contemplated living past that date."

CHICAGO - A national bioterrorism drill mirrored real life Tuesday as coughing, sneezing patients trooped into Chicago-area emergency rooms acting out symptoms of a mysterious SARS-like illness.

Mock patients were fitted with surgical masks and whisked away as part of the five-day drill that began Monday in Seattle with the simulated detonation of a radioactive "dirty bomb."

The drill, aimed at testing the readiness of local, state and federal authorities, is the nation's first large-scale counterterrorism exercise since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

DENPASAR, Indonesia - Bali police Chief I Made Mangku Pastika, former head of the Bali bombing investigation, said Tuesday that as many as 30 terrorists who learned how to make bombs in Afghan training camps remain on the loose in Indonesia.

The terrorists, including at least three wanted for helping to make the bombs that killed 202 people in Bali in October, pose a continuing threat to the country, he said.

PAKISTANIS FREED: Three Pakistanis have been released from the U.S. military prison for terrorist suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and returned to Pakistan, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday.

PEACEKEEPERS WOUNDED: Two Norwegian peacekeepers were shot and wounded Tuesday north of Kabul, Afghanistan, by a renegade Afghan soldier, an Afghan commander said.

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