Moussaoui Pleads Guilty to Terror Plot

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A calm, deliberate Zacarias Moussaoui pleaded guilty Friday to conspiring with Al Qaeda operatives who were involved in the Sept. 11 terrorist plot. But he defiantly vowed to "fight every inch" of the way against being put to death because, he said, he actually was recruited for a separate assault: flying a large plane into the White House.

Nevertheless, by signing a five-page, 23-paragraph statement of facts acknowledging his involvement, Moussaoui made himself subject to the death penalty when the punishment phase of his case opens later this year.

In the statement of facts, the 46-year-old French Moroccan said he came to the United States after being "personally selected" by Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to attack the White House. He acknowledged that he used several aliases, including Abu Khaled al Sahrawi. And he said that Bin Laden, in encouraging him to kill Americans, told him, "Sahrawi, remember your dream."

Moussaoui's admissions seemed to offer new details about Al Qaeda and its plans to attack the United States. He supported the theory, widely held by anti-terrorism experts, that Bin Laden personally approved members of the teams sent to attack the United States. And he indicated that one of Al Qaeda's goals had been to free the so-called blind sheik, Omar Abdel Rahman, who is imprisoned in the U.S.

But the statement of facts also left some key questions unanswered, including whether the Al Qaeda leader had wanted to hit the White House in the same wave of attacks that struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11 or in a later one.

Both Moussaoui's guilty plea and his statements about details of his case are shadowed by questions about his mental state. In the past, he has frequently made contradictory, sometimes incoherent statements, ranted against the judge and his own attorneys, and taken positions that appeared to be against his own interests.

Some analysts have suggested that Moussaoui, instead of being a trained Al Qaeda operative, may simply be a zealot -- possibly unbalanced -- who portrayed himself as playing a more important role in terrorist plots than he actually had. He was being held in a Minnesota jail when the attacks occurred; he had been arrested on immigration charges after his efforts to obtain flight training had aroused suspicions.

The questions may be resolved when the case enters the penalty phase, in which the government could be forced to reveal more of its evidence.