Washington Times reporter Kenneth R. Timmerman claims today that a key French counter-terrorism prosecutor has an extensive brief on September 11th suspect Zacarias Moussaoui, but has been ordered not to share it with U.S. investigators by the government of President Jacques Chirac (hat tip: Rantburg).
When I went to see him in Paris shortly after September 11, 2001, Judge Bruguiere was grinning from ear to ear. "You've heard about Moussaoui?" he said, meaning Moussaoui's arrest. Judge Bruguiere had a file on him that he couldn't wait to transmit to the U.S. prosecutors. One hint: He wasn't the 20th hijacker but was preparing a follow-on wave of attacks.
In the end, Judge Bruguiere was never able to transmit his file to the U.S. prosecutors in a form they could use to prosecute Moussaoui. The Moussaoui case — lacking that hard information — remains blocked to this day.
The French government of President Jacques Chirac, stepped in and ordered Judge Bruguiere to break off formal cooperation with the United States. Our one-time ally in the war on terror was about to demonstrate it had new priorities that would play themselves out dramatically during the Iraq crisis a year later.
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