"Administration pays witness $5 million in secret ceremony"

Administration pays witness $5 million in secret ceremony

The trial of terrorism suspect Zaccharias Moussaoui, the alleged "20th hijacker," was marred by administration misconduct, the trial being halted after a prosecution attorney was accused of witness tampering. More recently, the CIA admitted destroying evidence requested by Moussaoui's attorneys. Then, this week, we learned that a prosecution witness received a whopping $5 million reward from the State Department, paid at a secret ceremony. Witnesses who were not called to testify in the trial received lesser rewards: nothing. Rightly or wrongly, the action has an unseemly implication, that testimony was purchased. That, in turn, has disturbing implications for the future of the justice system and national security.

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