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Deborah Feyerick: Moussaoui 'a little out of control'

CNN's Deborah Feyerick

(CNN) -- Zacarias Moussaoui, the only man charged in connection with the September 11 attacks, begged a judge to allow him to plead guilty Thursday.

But the defendant, who has refused to speak with his court appointed attorneys, did not get his legal wish.

CNN Correspondent Deborah Feyerick witnessed the drama in the federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, and discussed the situation with CNN Anchor Kyra Phillips.

FEYERICK: Well, Kyra, a big surprise in court today. Zacarias Moussaoui tried entering a plea of guilty. The judge refused to accept that plea, saying instead: I will give you one week to think about this. If, in fact, in a week, you want to plead guilty, then I will accept that plea.

She asked the government, the government said that yes, they too will accept that plea.

Now Zacarias Moussaoui was clearly upset and very, very frustrated. He kept trying to make points to the judge, and the judge kept quieting him. Initially he -- when he said that he wanted to enter a particular plea, the judge had entered a not guilty plea for him. He said "this is not what I want to do, this is not the plea that I want to enter. I want to enter a not guilty plea."

Now, as he was saying this, he really just blurted out, I am a member of al Qaeda. I swore an oath of allegiance, the bayat, to Osama bin Laden. He said that he knew details about September 11. He said, "I know exactly who did it, I know which group it was, I know how it was decided." The judge said: "Stop. All of this can be used against if you if this goes to trial. You have to wait. If there is a plea bargain to be made, then it has got to be made by your lawyers and the government, but right now, Mr. Moussaoui, you cannot continue saying this."

Zacarias Moussaoui was clearly very, very upset, continuing to try to talk, but the judge really silenced him and then said: "Court is in recess. We are out, we are leaving."

She got up to stand, Zacarias also stood up to stand, but again, he is trying to enter a plea. And the judge tried to make it very clear to him that look, you cannot just plead guilty to pieces of what the government has charged you with. If you are going to plead guilty, then you have to plead guilty to each and every count that is against you. It is not clear whether Zacarias Moussaoui understands all that, and that is what the judge is looking at.

PHILLIPS: Amazing. I mean, this is just -- this is so surprising. I'm taking notes here, because obviously we are going to talk about this a lot more in the next hour. But, does this surprise -- I guess it is not really surprising, because his whole mental state has been in question right now, right, Deb?

FEYERICK: Well, there is no question about that, and I apologize if I am a little out of breath. I ran down the stairs to try to get here. But yes, his mental status has been in question. First time, he refused to enter a plea. Second time, he tried to enter a plea of "no contest." Now he is entering a plea of guilty. So it has always been a wild card as to what he is going to do when he gets in front of that judge.

But again, this is explosive because he is trying to enter this guilty plea, but he only wants to plead guilty to certain things. That is, "I'm a member of al Qaeda, I swore an oath of allegiance to Osama bin Laden, I know details about 9/11."

But the government has said, or alleged in its indictment: "You know more than details, you know exactly what happened. You took part in that, or you were planning to take part in that, and all of these acts that you were conspiring would have lead to the deaths of thousands of people, as is what happened with the September 11 attacks."

PHILLIPS: Deb, he has said that he wants to represent himself, doesn't want to deal with an attorney. Can the judge force him to deal with an attorney because this is getting a little bit out of control?

FEYERICK: It is definitely a little out of control. And you really do get that feeling as you are sitting in the courtroom. The judge has standby counsel for him. Those are the lawyers who were initially representing him. However, he said: "Those lawyers are trying to kill me, I want nothing to do with them." The judge, however, said: "Well, they are going to be there, and in case something does happen, then they will be the ones to step in."

But again, Moussaoui very passionate about not having these particular lawyers represent him. He wanted his own Muslim lawyer to represent him, but the Muslim lawyer refused to play by the rules. He would not register formally with the court, he would not make an appearance. He would not even hook up with a Virginia law firm. The lawyer is from Texas. And the judge said: "You can't do that. If you are going to play, play by the rules." And that lawyer refused.

So again, there is a big possibility that at some point, Moussaoui may not be able to represent himself. And as a matter of fact, the judge said to him today, "I am putting you on notice, if you continue" -- (effectively, she didn't use this word ) -- these shenanigans, then she is going to have no choice but to do that, but to make sure that his standby counsel who is representing him.

The big question now is whether standby counsel would get together with the U.S. attorneys and make the decision that yes, they are ready to plea bargain.

PHILLIPS: Putting you on notice. What does that mean? What happens to him now?

FEYERICK: That basically means, if he continues to behave this way, and if he decides within a week that he is not going to plead guilty, she is not going to let him represent himself if he continues speaking up in court.

And the one thing that I noticed this time, which has not been clearly apparent during the other court hearings, and that is, he was very, very upset. At one point he was shaking his head, at another point he was shaking his finger at the judge like this. He was clearly frustrated because he wanted to make his point, and he kept saying to the judge: "You know, you have got to let me speak. You have got to let me speak. And the judge said, effectively: No, I don't. And that's when she really put him on notice."

PHILLIPS: Deborah Feyerick, thank you so much.