StC News
"9/11 to Now" students meet with Moussaoui prosecutor
Most students in Josh Thomas’ "9/11 to Now" class were three years old when 19 hijackers flew planes into symbols of American power, killing 2,972. The semester-long course—a requirement for graduation—focuses on the tragedy as a seminal event in U.S. history, one that has indelibly changed American government, policy and culture.
Last November Judge David Novak visited the class to discuss his involvement in the prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui, the man often referred to as the 20th hijacker. Moussaoui, who was apprehended by the FBI at Pan Am International Flight Academy in August 2001 on immigration issues, planned to fly a plane into the White House. Instead, he plead guilty to conspiring to kill U.S. citizens and is now serving six consecutive life sentences in a Federal Supermax Facility in Florence, Colo. Novak was the U.S. Attorney who prosecuted him.
Judge Novak gave the students a timeline of Moussaoui’s involvement with the 9/11 plot beginning with his radicalization while studying business in London up until his detention less than a month before the attacks. He presented several examples of the same evidence used in the courtroom, including 9/11 calls from people trapped inside the World Trade Center and those on board the doomed planes.
The students had the chance to ask questions. Many of them focused on tension between prosecuting an admitted terrorist and conducting the trial with due process to the law and the U.S. Constitution.
“One aspect of the '9/11 to now' course is to get students to see how much the world has changed as a result of the 9/11 attacks and allow them to interact with ideas and issues that are causing these great changes,” course leader Josh Thomas says. “Judge Novak’s presentation not only gave them the opportunity to speak with someone who has dealt with those issues and ideas firsthand, but also allowed them to speak with a legal scholar about the challenges of combating terrorism within the constraints of the U.S. Constitution. It was a really thought-provoking presentation.”
Dr. Andy Smith started "9/11 to Now" in the fall of 2010. Read more about the course in an article by the Richmond Times Dispatch.
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Last November Judge David Novak visited the class to discuss his involvement in the prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui, the man often referred to as the 20th hijacker. Moussaoui, who was apprehended by the FBI at Pan Am International Flight Academy in August 2001 on immigration issues, planned to fly a plane into the White House. Instead, he plead guilty to conspiring to kill U.S. citizens and is now serving six consecutive life sentences in a Federal Supermax Facility in Florence, Colo. Novak was the U.S. Attorney who prosecuted him.
Judge Novak gave the students a timeline of Moussaoui’s involvement with the 9/11 plot beginning with his radicalization while studying business in London up until his detention less than a month before the attacks. He presented several examples of the same evidence used in the courtroom, including 9/11 calls from people trapped inside the World Trade Center and those on board the doomed planes.
The students had the chance to ask questions. Many of them focused on tension between prosecuting an admitted terrorist and conducting the trial with due process to the law and the U.S. Constitution.
“One aspect of the '9/11 to now' course is to get students to see how much the world has changed as a result of the 9/11 attacks and allow them to interact with ideas and issues that are causing these great changes,” course leader Josh Thomas says. “Judge Novak’s presentation not only gave them the opportunity to speak with someone who has dealt with those issues and ideas firsthand, but also allowed them to speak with a legal scholar about the challenges of combating terrorism within the constraints of the U.S. Constitution. It was a really thought-provoking presentation.”
Dr. Andy Smith started "9/11 to Now" in the fall of 2010. Read more about the course in an article by the Richmond Times Dispatch.
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