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Judge denies Moussaoui request for help from Muslim attorney

Zacarias Moussaoui

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (CNN) -- Responding to a flurry of motions filed by accused terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui, a federal judge denied his requests for legal assistance from a Muslim attorney from Texas and was sharply critical of Moussaoui's handling of his own defense.

"It is painfully obvious that the defendant does not comprehend significant aspects of federal criminal law," wrote U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema.

Brinkema issued seven orders on Thursday responding in part to several dozen motions Moussaoui has filed in the month since Brinkema ruled that Moussaoui was mentally competent to represent himself in court.

In the most significant order, Brinkema denied Moussaoui's repetitive motions to dismiss the federal public defenders she has appointed to represent him. For the past month, two of them have remained as "standby counsel" to assist him in trial preparation, such as filing motions, locating witnesses and experts and providing supplies.

"The quantity and quality of the defendant's pleadings strongly reinforce our conclusion that standby counsel must remain on this case," Brinkema wrote.

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Moussaoui, 34, a French national of Moroccan descent, has urged Brinkema to remove his three original Virginia-based court-appointed defenders -- Frank Dunham, Edward MacMahon and Gerald Zerkin -- because he does not trust them and fears they were allied with the government to bring about his execution.

Brinkema had removed MacMahon from the case but kept Dunham and Zerkin on board in reduced roles, against Moussaoui's wishes, until proper replacements were found to assist him.

Brinkema appointed a new lawyer, Alan Yamamoto, to become his lead stand-by counsel. But in four weeks, Moussaoui has refused to meet with Yamamoto at the Alexandria Detention Center, where he is incarcerated.

Moussaoui is the first person publicly indicted in the United States in connection with the September 11 terrorist attacks. He is accused of conspiring to join the 19 men who hijacked four commercial airliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in rural Pennsylvania, killing more than 3,000 people. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Brinkema said stand-by counsel is warranted because of the complexity of the charges, Moussaoui's exposure to the death penalty if convicted, the extensive amount of secret evidence which Moussaoui is not allowed to review and his strict conditions of confinement, which prohibit communication with anyone besides his lawyers and family.

The judge noted that Moussaoui's motions are often inappropriate and reveal he doesn't understand certain legal fundamentals -- for example, that grand jury proceedings are secret, or that a "no contest" plea is akin to a guilty plea.

"Unfortunately, it is now obvious that no attorney appointed by the court will satisfy the defendant," Brinkema wrote. "It is also clear that no law firm with the resources and experience equivalent to those of the Federal Public Defender is willing to enter the case," she said.

Dunham has assigned more than 10 staff members to the case. The evidence to date includes hundreds of document-bearing CD-ROMs, audio cassettes and videotapes.

In her order, Brinkema decided to keep Dunham, Zerkin and Yamamoto on the case and to reappoint MacMahon.

"The defendant's continued unreasonable refusal to interact with stand-by counsel is only hurting his defense," she wrote.

Moussaoui wants to work with Houston-based attorney Charles Freeman, a Muslim who has met him five times in jail.

"He wants me to give him legal advice. I have no problem doing that," Freeman said in an interview with CNN affiliate KTRK-TV.

"He should have access to a lawyer that he trusts," Freeman said, adding that he is willing to work for Moussaoui for free. "He's really a novice when it comes to procedure."

Brinkema received a letter on Tuesday from Freeman describing himself as an "out-of-court advisory counsel" for Moussaoui, but he continued to refuse to register a formal appearance with the court or to team up with a licensed Virginia lawyer, as required by state law.

"Because Mr. Freeman has consistently declined to comply," Brinkema wrote, "the defendant's motions requesting that Mr. Freeman be permitted to provide him with out-of-court legal assistance ... are denied."

Although the court's deadline for pretrial criminal motions was Monday, Moussaoui continues to file them -- six more on Tuesday, four on Wednesday and another six on Thursday.

Moussaoui's handwritten motions are often rambling statements rather than cogent legal arguments. For example, Moussaoui persistently asks for evidence that he claims would prove the FBI had him under surveillance after his arrival in the United States last year and shows investigators knew he was not an intended hijacker.

Prosecutors have asserted in court documents that neither Moussaoui nor the 19 hijackers were being watched.

Moussaoui expends a lot of ink in personal attacks on his stand-by counsel and the judge herself.

"She is a master of deception, deceiving everybody with her grandnanny look," he wrote of Brinkema in one motion unsealed Thursday. "You are crude and rude."

In another order, Brinkema granted Moussaoui's request to inspect the physical items in his possession when he was arrested last August 16 and to bring in an surveillance expert to evaluate the items for tracking devices.

Moussaoui was detained nearly a month before the September 11 attacks after a Minnesota flight school reported him to law enforcement. Moussaoui, who did not even have a pilot's license, aroused suspicions by seeking training on a 747 flight simulator.

Prosecutors say in addition to flight training, Moussaoui received money from the same overseas source as some September 11 hijackers and underwent weapons training in an al Qaeda camp inside Afghanistan.