Alexandria, Va. – A federal judge Tuesday permanently banned Zacarias Moussaoui from the remainder of the jury selection proceedings in his penalty trial after the self-admitted conspirator in the Sept, 11, 2001, terrorism attacks again lashed out at his lawyers and the judge and declared: “God curse you and America!”
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ordered Moussaoui removed from her courtroom to his cell in the federal courthouse here. He will be allowed to monitor the next three weeks of jury selection via television hookup.
In April, Moussaoui pleaded guilty to capital murder for participating in the Sept. 11 terrorist plot. He also claimed he was being recruited to fly an airplane into the White House at a later date. The question for jurors is whether he should be sentenced to death or life in prison with no parole.
The 37-year-old Moussaoui started the proceedings Tuesday much as he did Feb. 6, when some 500 potential jurors were brought into court in groups to begin filling out questionnaires in the trial. Each time, he disrupted the process, swore allegiance to al-Qaeda and was removed from the court.
The judge said the main reason for Tuesday’s hearing was to “determine how Mr. Moussaoui plans to behave.” He wasted no time showing her.
Speaking in Arabic and English, Moussaoui stood and called the proceedings his “organized death.” Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent, disavowed any allegiance to France, calling it a “nation of homosexual Crusaders.”
He said: “I tell you I am a Muslim. … I am not a frog.
“Today is my death, today is my death,” he repeated, angry that the judge has refused to excuse his defense lawyers and let him represent himself.
“If I don’t make sure that these people are not going to represent me, I know that I am dead, OK?” But even then, he said, he did not expect justice. “You own everything,” he told the judge and the lawyers seated around him.
“You are America – the defense, the judge, the attackers. These people are American. I’m al-Qaeda. I’m a sworn enemy of you. … Your own commander in chief says he wants to launch a revenge against terrorists.”
