Moussaoui jurors hear Sept. 11 tapes

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- In the final minutes of doomed United Air Lines Flight 93, Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers try to shake off passengers clamoring for control of the plane over Pennsylvania. Amid groans and sounds of a struggle, a voice says, "I am injured." A hijacker asks, "Shall we finish it off?"\nMoments later, the plane hurtles out of control to the ground, according to a cockpit voice recording played for a jury Wednesday by federal prosecutors seeking the execution of Zacarias Moussaoui.\nCulminating their case, the prosecutors figuratively placed the jury aboard the flight for its last heart-wrenching moments, using a computerized simulation of the plane's flight path based on information from the flight data recorder.\nHamilton Peterson, whose parents were on Flight 93, earlier heard an enhanced audio version that was played for family members only. He said he believes the recording provides evidence that passengers attacked and killed a hijacker guarding the cockpit door.\nThe audio played in the courtroom made it impossible to confirm that interpretation. The Sept. 11 Commission concluded there was a struggle for control but reached no conclusion about whether passengers killed a hijacker.\nMuch of what was heard was open to interpretation. In the last minute, voices could be heard in English saying "push up" and "pull down," as flight data showed the steering yoke moving wildly. Some interpreted that as a struggle for control in the cockpit between passengers and hijackers.\nMore than four minutes before that, the hijackers had been swinging the plane wildly in an effort to throw the rebelling passengers off balance.\nAt 10 a.m., a hijacker asks in Arabic "Shall we finish it off?" The response comes back: "No, not yet."\nThen a voice is heard in English: "In the cockpit! If we don't, we die!"\nAt 10:01 a.m., a hijacker asks again: "Shall we put it down? The response: "Yes, put it down."\nAt 10:02 a.m., a hijacker says, "Give it to me. Give it to me." \nAt 10:03 a.m., the recording ends, and the simulation shows the plane flying nose down, then rolling over belly up and hitting the ground nose first.\nThe Flight 93 cockpit voice recording is the only such tape that investigators were able to hear from any of the four airplanes hijacked Sept. 11.\nThe government later Wednesday rested its case after the judge rejected prosecutors' request to display a running presentation of the names and photos of all of the nearly 3,000 victims of Sept. 11. Prosecutors were instead allowed to show one large poster with the pictures of all but 92 of the victims, and three victim-impact witnesses gave testimony following the playing of the Flight 93 tape.\nThe judge sent the jury home for the day. Just after that, Moussaoui shouted, "God curse you all!"\nHis defense will commence its case Thursday.\nDuring the government's playing of the recording, a voice is heard from the cockpit, possibly that of a flight crew member, saying, "Please don't hurt me. Oh God!" A few seconds later, somebody says, three times, "I don't want to die."\nThen, amid sounds of a struggle, a hijacker asks, "There is something, a fight?" The response is, "Yeah."\nThe last words heard as the plane nears the ground were repeated four times in Arabic: "Allah is the greatest." Then, just the sound of roaring static can be heard. \nThe hijackers alternated between Arabic and English.\nAs the tape proceeded, it was clear that passengers were gaining the upper hand.\nThe voice of a hijacker, presumably inside the cockpit, says, "They want to get in." The voice continues, "Hold from within." At 10 a.m., there is a voice that says, "I am injured."\nSounds of a struggle can be heard. At that point, the plane appears to go out of control. There are sounds of the hijackers trying to shake off the passengers. The plane pitches back and forth.\nMoussaoui, who has admitted to being a terrorist conspirator and al-Qaida sympathizer, is the only person charged in the United States in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks. The jury deciding his fate has already declared him eligible for the death penalty by determining that his actions caused at least one death on 9-11.\n-- Associated Press writers Michael J. Sniffen and Pete Yost contributed to this report.