Victims' kin skeptical of latest testimony

Relatives of several 9/11 victims who watched Zacarias Moussaoui's trial yesterday via a closed-circuit feed at the federal courthouse in Boston were skeptical of the Al Qaeda member's assertion that he was supposed to team up with shoe bomber Richard Reid on Sept. 11, 2001, and fly a plane into the White House.

''He has taken pride in toying with American minds," said Christie Coombs of Abington, whose husband, Jeff, was killed on American Airlines Flight 11.

Cindy McGinty of Foxborough, who lost her husband, Michael, 42, a senior vice president at Marsh Inc. of Boston, who was attending a meeting in one of the World Trade Center towers, said Moussaoui seemed very controlled but gave contradicting testimony that made it impossible to know the truth.

''It's disturbing and confusing at best," said McGinty, a mother of two boys. ''I want to know why this happened to Mike, but I realize I'm not going to get any answers."

Rita DiGiovanni of Lincoln lost her nephew, Matthew Sellitto, 23, of New Vernon, N.J., who was working in one of the towers.

''I don't see any reason why he cares about telling the truth," she said. ''He made it clear his allegiance is to Al Qaeda and not to our justice system."

SHELLEY MURPHY