Jury Selection for 9/11 Plotter

Two Muslim immigrants were qualified as potential jurors. So was a career Navy veteran once assigned to the Pentagon who almost lost a friend on Sept. 11. So was a young woman seeking to become an FBI agent, who believes Zacarias Moussaoui may still be conspiring to attack the United States.

One by one Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema asked a diverse group of prospective jurors whether they could put aside their anger over the 2001 terrorist attacks and fairly decide if the only man in this country who has admitted to being a Sept. 11 conspirator should be put to death.

The jury pool was drawn from northern Virginia, including nearby Arlington, where 189 people were killed when one of four hijacked aircraft was flown into the Pentagon. But Brinkema has said she is convinced she can find an impartial panel of 12 jurors and six alternates.

With the penalty phase of Moussaoui’s trial to begin March 6, Brinkema began individual questioning of about 500 potential jurors -- identified only by number -- asking about their feelings on a variety of issues such as terrorism, airport security and the Islamic faith.

By the end of the day, the judge had qualified 15 of the 24 potential jurors she had questioned and asked them to return later for additional scrutiny.

In April, Moussaoui pleaded guilty to capital murder and confessed that he collaborated with the Sept. 11 terrorists. But he said his mission was to fly a separate plane into the White House.

Jurors must decide two key issues: whether Moussaoui’s refusal to warn the government that the attacks were coming makes him eligible for the death penalty and, if so, whether he should be executed or spend the rest of his life in prison with no parole.

The judge lifted her ruling of the previous day banning Moussaoui from the courtroom for interrupting the proceedings. Lawyers said the 37-year-old defendant wrote the judge a note promising to behave, and on Wednesday he sat quietly in the courtroom.

At one point he told the judge he did not want to miss his early-afternoon prayer time, and as it turned out, the proceedings recessed in time for him to pray. When he was escorted out by federal marshals for the lunch break, he could be heard rasping under his breath, “God curse America.”

Defense lawyers objected when Brinkema qualified some potential jurors and told them to return early next month for final selection. Defense lawyer Gerald Zerkin complained about the Navy veteran because, the attorney said, “he knows someone who was at the crime scene.”

But the judge said “just because they knew people who worked at the Pentagon” was not reason alone to excuse them from the final jury panel.

The veteran, an elderly man with 30 years active and reserve duty, said he had once worked at the Pentagon and had a friend who was working there when the plane hit. “I remember him telling me it was very loud and surprising,” he said. “He ran faster than he ever had in his life.”

The judge also qualified as potential jurors a Muslim woman from Pakistan and a Muslim man born in Kabul, Afghanistan.

She also qualified a woman who worked as a secretary for the CIA in the 1960s and later worked for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Afghanistan.

A teacher who wants to be an FBI agent said she thought Moussaoui “may be in a conspiracy even now with people outside the country to harm the United States.” She was qualified.

So was a man who said he thought the FBI missed several opportunities to stop the attack.