Plea of innocent for Moussaoui, only defendant in Sept. 11 terror attacks

By LARRY MARGASAK
Associated Press Writer

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Zacarias Moussaoui declined "in the name of Allah" to enter a plea Wednesday to charges he conspired to murder thousands on Sept. 11. The judge set an October trial for the only man charged in the suicide hijackings despite defense concerns it would be too close to the anniversary.

Defense lawyers also objected to the trial site, a few miles from where one of the jetliners crashed into the Pentagon.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema entered an innocent plea on Moussaoui's behalf after the only man charged in the suicide hijackings strode to the courtroom lectern to make a brief statement without pleading.

"In the name of Allah, I do not have anything to plead. I enter no plea. Thank you very much," the balding, bearded Moussaoui told the judge.

Brinkema said she took that to mean he was pleading innocent to the charges. Moussaoui remained silent, but one of his lawyers, Frank Dunham, answered, "Yes."

Guarded by U.S. marshals and dressed in a dark green jumpsuit with the word "prisoner" on the back, Moussaoui remained silent for most of his arraignment.

He did not speak to his court-appointed attorneys. And when an official intoned "all rise" at the arraignment's conclusion, Moussaoui didn't get up until prompted by a marshal to leave.

Moussaoui, 33, a French citizen of Moroccan descent, is charged with conspiring to help the hijackers and Osama bin Laden's terrorist network plot the September attacks. He was charged with six conspiracy charges, including four that carry a maximum penalty of death.

Brinkema set a trial date of Oct. 14, with jury selection to begin Sept. 30. She rejected defense arguments the dates were too close to the one-year anniversary and the publicity it would generate.

Brinkema said she was confident both sides could find an excellent jury in northern Virginia.

"It was surprising to me how few people from the northern Virginia pool knew anybody" killed or injured in the airliner attacks, she said.

With a wrinkled brown piece of paper in front of him, Moussaoui spent much of the hearing seated with one hand lightly resting on his chin as his lawyers sought unsuccessfully to get a trial date in early 2003.

"The need to be further away from Sept. 11 is obvious," said defense lawyer Gerald Zerkin.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Spencer countered that publicity about the attacks "is going to have to be dealt with by the court" no matter when the trial begins.

Zerkin also argued that the court-appointed defense attorneys are facing a vast indictment that is international in scope, lists events in several European countries and may bring witnesses from abroad.

He said the defense team will need time to gain security clearances, find interpreters for Arabic documents and bone up on the history of bin Laden's al-Qaida network and the principles of Islam.

"We simply cannot prepare a case in that amount of time," Zerkin argued.

Brinkema, however, accepted the government's suggested trial date, saying publicity from the one-year anniversary should wane by mid-October.

Federal marshals brought Moussaoui to the courthouse nearly four hours before the scheduled arraignment and at least a dozen were inside the seventh-floor courtroom. Two marshals stood behind Moussaoui during the proceeding.

An X-ray machine and metal detector were set up outside the courtroom in addition to the security machines at the courthouse entrance.

Moussaoui's mother, Aicha el-Wafi, came to the United States from France last week and said her son told her he could prove his innocence. She didn't appear in the courtroom Wednesday.

Her lawyer, Francois Roux, said she didn't attend because she thought it might upset her son to see her – for the first time in several years – in a courtroom setting. "We don't forget that Zacarias Moussaoui is presumed innocent and has rights," Roux said outside the courthouse.

Although Moussaoui has been in federal custody on immigration charges since August, when he aroused suspicions at a Minnesota flight school, the indictment says he conspired with the Sept. 11 hijackers to kill and maim victims in the United States.

Moussaoui also took flight raining classes in Norman, Okla.

While accusing him of links to bin Laden's network, the indictment doesn't explain his role in the attacks.

Nonetheless, Attorney General John Ashcroft called Moussaoui an active participant with the 19 hijackers who crashed four jetliners in New York, Washington and western Pennsylvania, killing more than 3,000 people.

The indictment accuses Moussaoui of pursuing some of their same activities by taking flight training in the United States, inquiring about crop dusting and purchasing flight deck training videos.

Moussaoui received money in July and August from Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, an alleged member of a German terrorist cell who was a roommate of Mohammed Atta, the suspected ringleader in the attacks, the indictment charges. The FBI contends Bin al-Shibh may have been planning to be the 20th hijacker.

The indictment alleges that Moussaoui attended an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan.

AP-WS-01-02-02 1649EST