The Washington Post reports that Zacarias Moussaoui has notified the government that he intends to plead guilty to his alleged role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker and the only person charged in the United States in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, tried to plead guilty in 2002, but rescinded his plea a week later:
Moussaoui is charged with conspiring with al Qaeda in the Sept. 11 attacks. When he tried to plead guilty three years ago, he declared his allegiance to Osama bin Laden and said he had detailed knowledge of the Sept. 11 plot. But after Brinkema gave him a week to think about it, Moussaoui withdrew his plea and claimed that although he is an al Qaeda member, he had no advance knowledge of the hijackings.
Also in 2002, Moussaoui fired his attorneys and began representing himself. In his motions, Moussaoui insulted those lawyers, who were appointed standby counsel; taunted the Justice Department; and called Brinkema everything from a "death judge" to a would-be Nazi SS officer. Brinkema later restored Moussaoui's attorneys to the case, and they are now arguing that he is mentally incompetent to enter a plea, sources said.
U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema is scheduled to meet with Moussaoui this week to determine if he has the mental capacity to enter a plea. According to the Post legal experts say there is a good chance the judge could find him competent to enter a plea. The legal standard, they said, is whether a defendant understands the charges against him as well as the consequences of a plea and can assist in his own defense.
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