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Backs off guilty { July 26 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63712-2002Jul25.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63712-2002Jul25.html
Moussaoui Backs Off On Plea
Defendant Denies Terror Attack Role
By Tom Jackman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 26, 2002; Page A01
Zacarias Moussaoui reversed course again yesterday, stepping back from the precipice of admitting a role in the Sept. 11 attacks, rescinding his guilty plea and claiming that, although he is a member of al Qaeda, he had no advance knowledge of the hijackings.
Moussaoui, acting as his own attorney, was about to plead guilty to four of the six charges against him but balked when U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema explained that he would have to admit he was part of the Sept. 11 conspiracy.
"By my obligation toward my creator, Allah, to save my life and to defend my life, I have to withdraw my guilty plea," Moussaoui said.
With that, the case of Moussaoui, the only person charged in the United States with a role in the Sept. 11 attacks, resumes its progress toward trial, with no more hearings scheduled before jury selection Sept. 30.
"I think he found out what the repercussions of a guilty plea are -- what facts he had to swallow," said Federal Public Defender Frank W. Dunham Jr., the lead lawyer who was fired by Moussaoui last month but remains as standby counsel. "I don't think he understood that he had to admit 9/11 to plead guilty."
Yesterday's hearing in Alexandria was necessary because at a routine arraignment last week, Moussaoui said he wanted to plead guilty "to save my life" from prosecutors seeking the death penalty. Moussaoui's logic, expressed again in court yesterday, was that he wanted to leap directly to the penalty phase of the trial and tell a jury what he had done.
"I want the people to hear what I have to say," Moussaoui said yesterday. "What are my responsibility, what I came to the United States for, what I did in the United States. And if 12 people of America find that I have to be killed for what I did -- but only for what I did, not for what they claim -- okay."
But first, Moussaoui had to demonstrate that he understood the charges against him. The 34-year-old French citizen could not make it past the first count of the indictment.
When Brinkema tried to explain the charge -- conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism -- he said: "I can plead guilty on this, but it doesn't still put me on the plane. . . . You are pushing me to endorse the theory of the government. . . . They allege that I provide guest house. That is possible for me to accept this. It is alleged that I provide training. It's possible to me to accept this. But certain of them are not possible."
Brinkema continued, saying that the essence of the first count was that he conspired with members of al Qaeda to maim and kill people Sept. 11. She asked whether he understood. He responded, "Yes, I did provide guest house, but I did not know about September 11."
The judge said: "If you're standing in court today and saying, 'I am a member of al Qaeda and provided a guest house, but I never intended or I never agreed to kill or maim persons in the United States,' then you're not agreeing to this particular conspiracy. . . . I don't believe that you are prepared to enter guilty pleas to any of these counts, because you're not admitting to, or not prepared to admit, it seems to me, to the essence of the conspiracy."
A slightly flustered Moussaoui asked for a recess.
Fourteen minutes later, Moussaoui returned and said: "I cannot do this. My own point is to be able to put forward to the American people my role when I came to the United States, what I did and what I didn't do. And that's why I make this move. . . . I have to withdraw my guilty plea."
After the hearing, Edward B. MacMahon Jr., one of Moussaoui's court-appointed standby attorneys, said Moussaoui "showed no understanding whatsoever of what he needed to do to enter a guilty plea."
He pointed out that Moussaoui has consistently denied any role in the attacks. "He always said he's had nothing to do with 9/11," MacMahon said.
Before the hearing adjourned, Brinkema advised Moussaoui that his attempted plea could not be used in any way in the trial, though his public admissions of being a member of al Qaeda probably could be used.
Northwestern University law professor Steven Lubet said, "Those statements are certainly sufficient to convict him of conspiracy." He said the legal definition of conspiracy is broad, and "his statements in open court about his partial involvement are probably adequate to hold him responsible. His concept of responsibility and the law's concept are different."
Moussaoui's mother, Aicha el-Wafi, was in the courtroom, having traveled from her home in France. "When I heard last week he had decided to plead guilty, I was really, really scared," she said afterward. "That's why I came back, and I'm happy with his decision."
She said that 11 months of detention in the Alexandria city jail had made her son "no longer able to think rationally. My son has changed since he's been detained, and also all the world has changed a lot since September 11. But Zacarias, my son, is not able to realize how much the world has changed since September 11."
Before the hearing, Brinkema had sent Moussaoui a letter explaining how a guilty plea typically occurs and what admissions the government would want him to make. Normally, a judge must first determine that the defendant understands the charges -- the point at which Moussaoui's hearing ended yesterday -- and has knowingly and willingly decided to waive a trial and plead guilty. Then the defendant must make some admissions to the crimes charged so that the judge can find there is a factual basis to believe the defendant really broke the law.
To ease this process, Brinkema provided Moussaoui with a copy of what the government wanted him to admit. Moussaoui seemed resistant from the start and said he wanted to go through the six-count indictment and "state where are the factual basis for my guilt." He also said he wanted to plead guilty only to the first four counts of the indictment -- the ones that would make him eligible for capital punishment -- and would go to trial on the remaining two counts.
Brinkema asked Moussaoui whether he had received the government's proposed facts of the case. Moussaoui said he had, adding: "I have to say that if I were to agree on these facts, I will not only plead guilty, but I will plead guilty for the death penalty directly. There will be no need for a sentencing phase."
Moussaoui said he still wanted to testify before a grand jury, and if not, then to a trial jury, to tell the world "what I know about what you call al Qaeda. . . . I can provide information to the grand jury relevant to an ongoing conspiracy."
He said his information would reveal that the U.S. government "knew about the activity of the people who were preparing September 11." Moussaoui has repeatedly propounded this theory in his motions in recent weeks, saying that the United States allowed the attacks in order to retaliate against and destroy Afghanistan.
When it came to his role in the attacks, Moussaoui was less forthcoming. "It is not proper to say that, yes, [I was] on the plane," he said. "I cannot plead guilty for something I don't know or is not alleged or -- that's impossible."
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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