TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Ex-Flight Instructor Gets $5 Million For Moussaoui Tip

ADVERTISEMENT

The Associated Press

Published: January 25, 2008

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration paid a $5 million reward to a former Minnesota flight instructor who provided authorities with information that led to the arrest and conviction of Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui.

The recipient, Clarence Prevost, was honored Thursday at a closed-door ceremony at the State Department, although the payout was secretly authorized last fall by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the Justice Department, U.S. officials said.

The reward from the State Department's "Rewards for Justice" program is the first and only one to date to a U.S. citizen related to the Sept. 11 attacks, the officials said.

It is also unusual because Moussaoui, who was imprisoned at the time of the attacks, was never named as a wanted suspect by the program. The program mainly seeks information about perpetrators or planners of terrorist acts against U.S. interests and citizens abroad.
State Department officials would not identify the recipient, citing privacy and security concerns.

Two administration officials, however, said the reward was sent to Prevost, a key witness at Moussaoui's trial who has previously spoken out about his involvement in the case. Prevost, 69, is a former Navy pilot who later flew for Northwest Airlines and goes by his nickname "Clancy." He was Moussaoui's flight instructor at the Pan Am International Flight Academy outside Minneapolis.

He was one of several people who worked at the flight school that Moussaoui attended in August 2001 and who alerted the FBI to his suspicious desire to pilot jumbo jets.

They said they thought it was strange Moussaoui wanted to learn to fly a Boeing 747 despite the fact that he had little flying background. They then phoned the FBI about Moussaoui and agents soon after arrested him.

Minneapolis FBI agents were unable to persuade their superiors in Washington to seek a national security warrant to search Moussaoui's belongings and laptop computer.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT