Moussaoui Motion Released to Public

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The judge who previously silenced Zacarias Moussaoui released one of his pleadings Wednesday, after concluding the accused Sept. 11 conspirator had avoided threats, racial slurs and calls to action.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema on Aug. 29 said Moussaoui's motions would be kept private until he met her conditions to eliminate the offensive language.

Moussaoui indicated he had received the message. "This motion must be publish," he wrote. "You have no false excuse to gagg me any longer."

The French citizen, 34, complained in the motion that he still has no access to the Internet site of court-appointed defense attorneys, who are assisting him at the judge's direction.

Brinkema did have to cross out several sentences of the handwritten motion with a black marker, saying she did so at the government's request.

The motion, filed with the court Tuesday and released Wednesday, still included language that would never be tolerated from an attorney.

Moussaoui, whose trial is scheduled for Jan. 6, said defense lawyer Frank Dunham Jr. was playing a "dirty trick" by refusing to pass on information and failing to investigate matters that could help his case.

He said Dunham was hoping that Brinkema would revoke his right to defend himself and allow the standby defense team to take over the case. Prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty if Moussaoui is convicted of conspiring with the Sept. 11 attackers to commit terrorism.

The judge granted Moussaoui access to the lawyers' Web site while barring him from visiting other Internet sites. Dunham and another defense lawyer, Edward MacMahon, said access has been delayed by logistical problems, caused by the defendant's isolation within the Alexandria Detention Center.

Moussaoui's motions have been filled with insults directed at the defense lawyers, curses aimed at the judge and calls for the elimination of Jews in Palestine. Prosecutors and the judge have expressed concern that Moussaoui, an admitted Al Qaeda loyalist, was sending coded messages to his supporters.

As in past motions, Moussaoui said Dunham, a public defender, was leading an effort to have him executed.

"Dunham still does not understand that suicide is forbidden in Islam and to give him my case is 'certain' death," Moussaoui wrote.

"I have more chance to live if I load bullet in 38 mm and play Russian rullet. After all the gun can jam, but Dunham will not miss the opportunity to send me to heaven."

Brinkema has not ruled on a motion by several news organizations requesting that Moussaoui's motions be public -- as they had been before the Aug. 29 order.

Lawyers for the organizations, which include The Associated Press, proposed that the government be allowed 10 days after a motion is filed to review it and withhold information deemed sensitive.