The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person facing American charges in the Sept. 11 hijackings, jarred a federal courtroom Monday by telling a judge he wants to fire his court-appointed lawyers and praying for the destruction of the United States and Israel.

In a calm but fervent 50-minute statement at the lawyers’ lectern, Moussaoui, 33, quoted extensively from the Koran in English and Arabic as he explained that he wants to represent himself and hire a Muslim attorney as his legal consultant. He faces the death penalty if convicted on charges that he conspired with Osama bin Laden and the 19 hijackers to carry out the terrorist attacks.

The French citizen told U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema that his lawyers "have no understanding of terrorism, Muslim, mujahideen." He also accused Brinkema and his lawyers of being part of a government plot to "get this matter over as quickly as possible … (because) the U.S. commander in chief wants me to be over quickly."

Then he called for the return of parts of the world to Muslim rule, including Spain, Kashmir and Chechnya. "I pray … for the destruction of the Jewish people and state and the liberation of Palestine … I pray to Allah the powerful for the return of the Islamic emirates of Afghanistan and the destruction of the United States," he said.

"America, America I am ready to fight in your Don King fight … even both hands tied behind the back in court."

Moussaoui said he wants to use more than $30,000 that he had when he was arrested to hire a Muslim lawyer to advise him. The government has frozen those assets, Dunham said, and the money would fall far short of the hundreds of thousands of dollars normally necessary to mount a full-scale capital defense — especially one with foreign witnesses.

Government officials allege Moussaoui was training to be the 20th hijacker — aboard the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania — until employees at a Minnesota flight school called the FBI in August because they were suspicious of his behavior. He was in INS custody at the time of the attacks.