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'Shoebomber' won't testify in Moussaoui trialFrom Phil Hirschkorn and Kevin Bohn ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (CNN) -- Richard Reid, the man who tried to bring down a commercial airliner in 2001 with a bomb concealed in his shoe, will not testify at the death penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, the judge in the case decided on Friday. Defense attorneys trying to save Moussaoui's life had wanted Reid to testify to impeach Moussaoui's own testimony that he and Reid were to head a crew of al Qaeda terrorists planning to hijack a fifth passenger jet as part of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But after receiving a letter from Moussaoui's defense team and a court filing from Reid's attorneys, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema on Friday vacated an earlier order for Reid's testimony. The reasons for the change remain unclear, because both of those documents were sealed. However, Reid could provide information as a written stipulation for the jury when the defense resumes its case next week. Reid, 33, is serving a life sentence at a super-maximum security federal prison in Florence, Colorado, after pleading guilty to terrorism charges stemming from his failed attempt to detonate explosives hidden in his sneakers on a December 2001 American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami. Alert passengers thwarted Reid, and the plane landed safely in Boston. During two separate turns on the witness stand, Moussaoui claimed that on 9/11, plans called for him to pilot a fifth plane into the White House -- plans that were thwarted when he was arrested a month before the attacks for overstaying his visa. Moussaoui said that although he and Reid never discussed the hijacking conspiracy together, al Qaeda military leader Mohammed Atef, now dead, told him Reid would work with him on the operation. Moussaoui said he last saw Reid a few weeks before coming to the United States in early 2001. Reid and Moussaoui attempted to correspond with each other after both were jailed in the United States, but those letters were intercepted and have not been publicly revealed. Moussaoui met Reid at a mosque in the Brixton section of London, known in the 1990s as a fertile ground for Islamic radicals. The men also spent time together at an al Qaeda terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. "He was my buddy," Moussaoui testified, adding that he left Reid all his money and belongings in a will. Captured al Qaeda leaders, such as 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaiykh Mohammed, have said in statements to interrogators that Moussaoui was tapped for a potential second wave of attacks, but not the original plot. A summary of Mohammed's statements was read to the Moussaoui jury. Moussaoui, 37, a French citizen, is the first person tried in the United States for the 9/11 attacks, which claimed nearly 3,000 lives. Though he was in custody at the time of the attacks, prosecutors have argued that if Moussaoui had revealed details of the conspiracy, FBI agents could have identified 11 of the 19 hijackers, and aviation security officials could have taken steps to thwart the attacks. In the first phase of the trial, the jury decided that Moussaoui's lies to federal agents following his arrest directly contributed to deaths on 9/11, making him eligible for the death penalty. In the second phase, jurors will decide whether to actually sentence him to death. Moussaoui told the jury Thursday he had no remorse for the victims and had hoped similar attacks could happen "every day." At his sentencing hearing in January 2003, after the judge told him the American flag in the courtroom would fly long after he was forgotten, Reid rose to his feet. "That flag will be brought down on the day of judgment," said Reid, as he was being restrained and hauled from the courtroom. 
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