I guess I am either numb to news there are terrorists or just too much of a news junky – but we all know the number of terrorists per plane on 9-11 did not appear to be a complete compliment, and that Moussaoui fit the description and had the information on his computer that easily led one to conclude he was part of the 9-11 plan. So why they surprise?

Al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui testified Monday that he and would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid were supposed to hijack a fifth airplane on Sept. 11, 2001, and fly it into the White House.Moussaoui’s testimony on his own behalf stunned the courtroom. His account was in stark contrast to his previous statements in which he said the White House attack was to come later if the United States refused to release a radical Egyptian sheik imprisoned on earlier terrorist convictions.

Personally, the only people this would stun are the news media who have concocted bizzare rationalizations around everything the Bush administration has done to fight the war on terrorism. From their denial that Saddam Hussein was a dangerous madman with WMD technology and ties to terrorism, to the idiotic claim Joe Wilson’s wife was outed to send Joe Wilson a message about his lies in debunking the entire case for the Iraq War by proving forged documents from Niger were fakes 6 months before they showed up, to the idea terrorists are not really a threat to the world the US is. The media and left have created such twisted logic to retain their irrational hate of all things Bush, only they would be surprised Al Qaeda exists in America.

Moussaoui told the court he knew the World Trade Center attack was coming and that he lied to investigators when arrested in August 2001 because he wanted it to happen.

That’s what a proper terrorist would do to save the mission. If they planned to die in the attack, lying about it if caught would seem to be a trivial act. Why is this surprising? Well, I guess if you thought people were not capable of lying in order to kill people, this might come as a surprise.

Moussaoui needed to admit to his cause in public if he was going to die a martyr. He had to make a statement that sent the message of Jihad. But the media seems to still hold out hope the administration is mistreating an innocent dupe – so they promulgate this silliness:

Moussaoui told the court he knew the attacks were coming some time after August 2001 and bought a radio so he could hear them unfold.

Specifically, he said he knew the World Trade Center was going to be attacked, but asserted he was not part of that plot and didn’t know the details.

Yeah, he only needed the radio to listen in, the flying lessons were nothing. Right.  If people want to be surprised and shocked, this is what they should be focused on:

Just before Moussaoui took the stand, the court heard testimony that two months before the attacks that a CIA deputy chief waited in vain for permission to tell the FBI about a “very high interest” al-Qaida operative who became one of the hijackers.

The official, a senior figure in the CIA’s Osama bin Laden unit, said he sought authorization on July 13, 2001, to send information to the FBI but got no response for 10 days, then asked again.

You know where they had to get permission?  I am not sure but I would guess the FIS Court.  We know the FBI would need to go to the FIS Court to get warrants for search and surveillance of Moussaoui, but what is also clear is the FIS Court would probably reject any probable cause that had at its core intelligence data.  Just like the FIS Court refusing NSA intel as the basis of a lead, so too would they refuse CIA leads.

And to this day the judges treat intelligence leads as meaningless to identifying possible terrorists here in the US.