Government tries to establish link between Moussaoui, hijacker

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Allowing a jury to hear cockpit recordings from a doomed jetliner could help establish a link between accused Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and one of the suicide hijackers, prosecutors say.

Trying to convince a reluctant judge that the recordings should be played at trial, prosecutors said Tuesday that the tapes would allow the government to link Moussaoui and suicide hijacker Ziad Jarrah.

The link is a phone number called by Moussaoui and also found on Jarrah's business card at the field in Pennsylvania where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed, prosecutors said. The business card discovery was not mentioned in Moussaoui's indictment, which establishes no direct connection between Moussaoui and the 19 hijackers.

"One of Jarrah's classmates at the Florida Flight Training Center can identify Jarrah's voice as being the pilot-hijacker," the government said. Prosecutors could then introduce Jarrah's business card.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema previously said she believed that playing the cockpit tape would be prejudicial to Moussaoui's defense, but she gave the government one more opportunity to convince her otherwise.