Outbursts Get Moussaoui Repeatedly Ejected From Court

Despite numerous outbursts by Zacarias Moussaoui, proclaiming “I am Al Qaeda,” a federal judge pushed forward Monday with the lengthy process of selecting a jury to determine whether the only man to be tried in the Sept. 11 conspiracy should live or die.

U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema started the process by asking about 500 potential jurors to begin filling out lengthy questionnaires on a broad number of issues -- such as their attitudes toward Muslims, the Sept. 11 hijackers, and even whether they believed it was safe to fly.

One after the other, groups of northern Virginia residents entered the courtroom, and the 37-year-old defendant in a green jumpsuit with the word “prisoner” on his back repeatedly interrupted the proceedings. Each time, the judge ordered Moussaoui removed.

“This trial is a circus,” he proclaimed.

“I want to be heard!” he shouted.

“These people do not represent me,” he said, referring dismissively to the team of defense lawyers sitting nearby.

Moussaoui insisted that he would testify on his own behalf when the trial got underway with the seating of a jury March 6. “For four years I have waited,” he said. “I will tell them the truth I know. I will take the stand.”

The jury is being impaneled for the sentencing phase of the trial. Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent, pleaded guilty in April to six criminal charges for his role in the Sept. 11 conspiracy.

Moussaoui did not deny that he was an Al Qaeda operative and a soldier to Osama bin Laden. But he denied he was sent to the U.S. to board one of the four hijacked airplanes, and insisted he was being groomed to fly a fifth aircraft into the White House.

He was arrested in August 2001, a month before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and jailed on immigration charges in Minnesota after his efforts to obtain flight training had aroused suspicions.

Federal prosecutors plan to focus the case for his execution on their contention that if he had cooperated with FBI agents after his arrest and told them about the plot, the government might have been able to prevent the loss of nearly 3,000 lives on Sept. 11.

But defense lawyers hope to persuade the jury that the government missed numerous chances to learn about the impending attacks, citing their decision not to open up Moussaoui’s laptop computer and an earlier FBI memo voicing concern about Middle Eastern immigrants taking flight lessons in Phoenix.

Even with Moussaoui’s many outbursts Monday, Brinkema pressed on. Each time she ordered him removed he was escorted from the courtroom. As each new group of potential jurors was ushered into court, Moussaoui was allowed to return.

“I am not resisting,” he told federal marshals at one point, raising his hands in the air.

The judge told potential jurors, “A death penalty case is an awesome responsibility.”

If they do not send Moussaoui to the federal execution chamber in Terre Haute, Ind., then he will be dispatched to prison with no chance of parole.

The questionnaires are designed to help prosecutors and defense lawyers streamline the selection process when the jury candidates begin returning to the courthouse Feb. 15 for individual questioning by the judge.