The Moussaoui Show
by Clay Risen

First as tragedy, then as farce, the pretrial activity surrounding Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged "20th hijacker," has been dominated by the defendant's incoherent anti-America rants and absurd, barely legible court motions. He has refused to enter a plea, accused the judge of "preparing him for the gas chamber" and asserted his hatred of Jews and the United States — not particularly advisable for someone who also asserts he had nothing to do with Sept. 11. Sadly, what could have been a source of closure — and valuable information — for a country still healing from catastrophe is on the verge of collapsing before it even begins.

Appearing in front of District Judge Leonie Brinkema, he has taken to scrawling "Zacarias Moussaoui Muslim vs. United States Godless Government" at the top of such documents as "Remove Federal Public Defender from any Activity in this Case Because of their Conspiracy to Kill Me and their Ineffective Assistance. As well as any Government Court Appointed Lawyer" and "Compel the Government to Withdraw the Charge Against Me Because the FBI were Conducting an Undercover Surveillance Operation."

He has fired his court-appointed lawyers. He demands the right to represent himself, but then derides Judge Brinkema for not allowing Charles Freeman, a Houston lawyer, to represent him — even though Freeman, who has already advised Moussaoui on several occasions, refuses to submit documents necessary to allow him as representation. Moussaoui even demanded that the trial be moved to Denver, where there are fewer government employees and where he says the fresh air would allow jurors to think more clearly.

Before the pretrial activity got under way, there was significant speculation that Moussaoui was mentally unable to stand trial, let alone represent himself. And while — against his repeated objections — he was eventually deemed competent, observers of his legal antics wouldn't be too wrong in doubting whether the court-appointed psychologists weren't a bit off their mark. Taken out of context, his courtroom behavior is a riot.

It would be inappropriate of the media to make light of Moussaoui's errant tactics, and there's a good reason why they've been relegated to the inside pages. Moussaoui wants nothing more than to turn his trial into a soapbox, and through statements like "The curse of Allah is and Be on you U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema" to make it seem to Muslims worldwide that the United States is virulently anti-Islam. Judge Brinkema has been particularly deft in deflating his efforts (for instance, preventing him from entering a "no contest" plea, which would have effectively convicted him), but there is still the risk that what seems like buffoonery to us — writing "slave to Allah" above his signature or accusing anyone and everyone of being a "Jewish zealot" — will appear more like a valiant struggle toward martyrdom by masses that, despite global exports of "Law and Order," are less familiar with the American legal system.

Nevertheless, there is a very good reason not to dismiss Moussaoui's actions as simply crazed ramblings or naïve appeals to anti-American sentiment. Indeed, anyone interested in the mindset of the Sept. 11 attackers would do well to follow the case closely. Assuming that Moussaoui was, in fact, intended to be the 20th hijacker (and the evidence is pretty good), we can see in his every motion, every courtroom outburst, the sort of calculated insanity that must have undergirded the planning and execution of the attack.

Moussaoui may be a fool, but he's no idiot — over the last few months he has quickly learned the basics of the American legal system, with the help of Freeman crafting motions that are, though in their content ridiculous, in their form acceptable. He is fluent in French and Arabic, and more or less fluent in English. Like the 19 hijackers who died on Sept. 11, he is well educated and relatively well traveled, having exhibiting an eagerness to see the world and a proclivity for alcohol, women and partying before conversion to strict Islam.

In this light, Moussaoui is a perfect example of a type the world has grown to know all too well: the intelligent fanatic, someone who has learned what the secular world has to offer and thrn rejected it in favor of a virulent, exclusive ideology. Heinrich Himmler stocked the SS with just these sorts, men with advanced degrees and professional standing; he knew that once converted to the Nazi cause they would offer its most coherent defense and, comprehending it on a deeper level than most, were the least likely to stray.

Moussaoui, like Himmler's SS officers, is so thoroughly convinced of his beliefs that he feels anything and anyone that doesn't accord with them must be destroyed. Already in prison on Sept. 11, he is said to have cheered wildly at pictures of the twin towers aflame. He sees his trial as his last attempt to strike against the United States. He is blinded, yet resourceful, rejecting the American legal system but at the same time using it to his own ends, much in the same way Mohammed Atta and others are said to have navigated southern Florida culture almost unnoticed.

When Americans think of fundamentalism, whether it be the homegrown militia/anti-abortion type or the anti-American Islamic variety, they tend to picture uneducated, unwashed mendicants with little going for them than the hope of martyrdom. Yet the reality is often different — look no further than the average Palestinian suicide bomber, increasingly university educated and middle class. In most cases, fanatics tend to have sampled the world outside their ideological purview and rejected it (or, in the case of many Palestinians, been rejected by it). It is a typology that is often hard to explain, and even harder to translate into post-mortem newspaper profiles. But by paying close attention to the Moussaoui trial, we are afforded a rare insight — one that, if we hope to avoid future Sept. 11s, we would be unwise to ignore.

E-mail Clay Risen at risenc@yahoo.com.