BOSTON, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- A French citizen of Moroccan descent is expected to become the first person to be indicted on charges stemming from the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the Boston Globe reported Wednesday.
Zacarias Moussaoui, 33, has been held as a material witness since shortly after the suicide hijackings.
The Globe said Moussaoui would probably be indicted on charges he took part in the conspiracy that led to the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.
Moussaoui apparently avoided the fate of the 19 hijackers only because he had been arrested Aug. 17 on immigration charges in Minnesota, according to law enforcement officials.
They described Moussaoui as the least able and discreet of the hijackers who trained as pilots.
He reportedly performed badly in training and aroused suspicion in Minnesota when he told a flight instructor he wanted to learn how to fly a commercial airliner but was not interested in landing or taking off.
Officials close to the FBI task force that is heading the attack investigation said it was unclear when the grand jury sitting in New York would be asked to indict Moussaoui, the Globe said.
Some officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, have described Moussaoui as ''the 20th hijacker.'' So far Moussaoui reportedly has refused to cooperate with investigators.
The officials said German authorities have told the FBI that Moussaoui received $15,000 in two Western Union transfers from Germany in August, when he had signed up for an $8,000 course at a flight school in Minnesota.
The German authorities also told the FBI that they know that Moussaoui had at least one conversation, and possibly more, with the man who rented an apartment in Hamburg that became a gathering spot for Islamic extremists.
The FBI believes Moussaoui was supposed to be part of the hijacking team that commandeered United Air Lines Flight 93 out of Newark Airport. That plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania after passengers apparently attacked the hijackers.
