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Moussaoui judge okays cockpit tape

The recording from United Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania, will be played publicly for the first time for jurors.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The cockpit recording from the hijacked jetliner that passengers tried to retake on Sept. 11, 2001, will be played in public for the first time - at the sentencing trial of al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled Wednesday that the jury considering whether to execute Moussaoui could hear the recording from United Airlines Flight 93 and see a transcript of it.

The flight is best known for one passenger's rallying cry to other passengers, "Let's roll," which was overheard over a cell phone connection between a passenger and a family member on the ground.

This cockpit tape was played privately April 18, 2002, for the families of Flight 93 victims, but it has not been played in public. Family members told reporters afterward they heard "yelling and screaming" and muffled voices that were hard to identify.

"Listening to the tape confirmed for me that there was a heroic teamwork effort," said Alice Hoglan of Los Gatos, Calif., whose son, Mark Bingham, called from the air before the plane crashed into an empty field - the only one of four jets hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001, that did not kill anyone on the ground.

There has been debate over whether the hijackers intended to crash it into the U.S. Capitol or the White House. But last week the Moussaoui jury heard a government-approved summary of statements made during interrogation of the captured mastermind of Sept. 11, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who said it was to hit the Capitol.

Prosecutors asked the judge to order the tape and transcript kept sealed from the public after it is played in open court, but Brinkema did not decide that question immediately.

Saying the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered trial evidence made public, she said relatives of Flight 93 victims would have until Tuesday to advise her whether they object to general release of the material.

She said if no family members object, she will release the material to the public the day after it is submitted into evidence. No date was set for that.

The sentencing trial of Moussaoui resumes today. In the first phase, the jury unanimously found the 37-year-old Frenchman eligible for the death penalty on counts of conspiracy to commit international terrorism, to commit air piracy and to use weapons of mass destruction.

The second phase will examine aggravating and mitigating evidence about his crimes, and the jury will decide whether he deserves to be executed or imprisoned for life for his role in the Sept. 11 attacks.

In an order describing a closed hearing Wednesday morning, Brinkema said the government's policy reason for wanting to keep the tape and transcript sealed from general release was "to protect the National Traffic Safety Board against premature public speculation regarding the cause of any airline crash so it may "conduct a full and fair investigation.' "

Brinkema said even prosecutors admitted in court that that reason "is not implicated in this sentencing proceeding."

Much of what happened aboard Flight 93 is known because passengers used cell phones in flight to call their loved ones.

[Last modified April 6, 2006, 02:00:13]