ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui tried to enlist an Oklahoma roommate in holy war even as he pressed ahead with his own terrorist training, according to court testimony in his death-penalty trial Tuesday.
Prosecutors showed the jury a videotaped deposition by Hussein al-Attas to try to build their case that Moussaoui was a serious terrorist threat.
Al-Attas said in his deposition that Moussaoui talked about holy war every day when they roomed together, taught him martial arts and proposed sending him to Pakistan to learn the Islamic militant justification for jihad.
"Your obligation, like any other Muslim, is to be ready for jihad," he quoted Moussaoui as telling him. Al-Attas also said Moussaoui told him: "This is the only way for me to get to paradise."
Both were arrested in Minnesota on Aug. 16, 2001, after Moussaoui's efforts to obtain flight training aroused suspicion. Unlike Moussaoui, al-Attas made bail and was re-arrested on Sept. 11, 2001, after the attacks.
Al-Attas testified he believed that Moussaoui wanted him to fight holy war in Chechnya, but that Moussaoui never asked him outright.
Al-Attas is a Saudi-born Yemeni citizen who was attending OU when he roomed with Moussaoui for more than a month in the summer of 2001. Moussaoui was taking flight training in Norman.
When federal agents arrested Moussaoui in Minnesota in August 2001, where he wanted to advance his training by learning to fly a commercial airliner, al-Attas was with him. Al-Attas spent more than a year in jail for making false statements to 9/11 investigators.
He was given immunity for his testimony against Moussaoui.
Al-Attas described Moussaoui as a rude man whose presence at the mosque in Norman irritated other Muslims. Moussaoui would question the mosque's imam about the proper way to pray and lectured others at the mosque, telling them they should leave the United States.
On Monday, FBI Agent Harry Samit testified that his belief that Moussaoui was a radical Islamic extremist bent on terrorism was based in part on al-Attas' statements.
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