Maneuvering begins over government secrets in first Sept. 11 terrorism trial

By ANNE GEARAN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Zacarias Moussaoui's lawyers do not have the security clearances they will need just to look at much of the evidence the government is gathering against their client, the only person charged so far in the Sept. 11 attacks.

The lawyers began feeling their way Wednesday through the complicated legal give-and-take with prosecutors about who gets to see the material and how much of it becomes public.

A federal judge set a mid-October trial date for Moussaoui, who faces a possible death penalty if convicted of conspiring with Osama bin Laden to carry out the jetliner attacks at the Pentagon, New York's World Trade Center and in the Pennsylvania countryside.

Before then, defense lawyers and prosecutors must meet a series of deadlines to negotiate the way secrets will be handled at trial. It is the government's turn first, with a June 1 deadline to give the defense classified information they intend to use at trial.

A six-count indictment claims Moussaoui was part of a terrorist ring, and hints that the government has evidence of his movements, contacts and financial dealings.

Some of that information may have come from secret surveillance, some from captured or intercepted communications, some perhaps even from informants. The government's goal will be to win a conviction while revealing the least amount of information possible, said Washington defense attorney G. Allen Dale.

"They will divulge what they are absolutely required to divulge and nothing more than that," Dale said.

At a brief court hearing Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema refused to give defense lawyers more time to prepare their case. The lawyers argued that their access to classified documents could be a time-consuming complication.

The judge replied that the government could quickly grant the necessary clearances.

A federal law governs how prosecutors and defense lawyers handle classified material at trial. The Classified Information Procedures Act also governs access to the material by lawyers, investigators or others working on a case, and provides for court hearings to fight about the particulars.

The law usually comes into play in espionage cases such as the Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen spy cases prosecuted in the same Alexandria, Va., courthouse where Moussaoui's trial is scheduled.

In those cases, the government's reluctance to divulge secrets was a major reason that the spies were able to negotiate plea bargains before trial, and avoid death sentences.

Dale and other lawyers predict the same logic may not apply in Moussaoui's case. If he is part of an anti-American terrorist cell, Moussaoui may prefer martyrdom to a life prison term. Or the government may refuse to consider a plea deal at all, lawyers said.

The government has until March 29 to say whether it will seek the death penalty.

Also Wednesday, Moussaoui's lawyers said they are concerned about finding impartial jurors next fall just after the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

They could not persuade the judge to delay the trial until early 2003. She said she will begin picking a jury on Sept. 30, less than three weeks after what Moussaoui's lawyers predicted would be a deluge of news coverage and commemoration of the one-year anniversary.

Brinkema predicted than an "excellent jury" could be assembled from around the suburban Virginia courthouse where she presides, despite the fact that the Pentagon is only a few miles away.

"I think we will have no trouble," Brinkema said.

Brinkema said that the subject of the Sept. 11 attacks came up during jury selection in a recent, unrelated kidnapping case.

"It was surprising to me how few people from the northern Virginia (jury) pool knew someone" who was a victim of the attacks, Brinkema said.

Defense lawyers have not said whether they will ask that the trial be moved out of northern Virginia.

Defense lawyers for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh successfully argued that his trial should not be held in a city where so many had connections to victims.

The jetliner crash at the Pentagon killed 189 – 125 in the Arlington, Va., building and many local people aboard the plane – and injured 110 more.

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