Moussaoui Called Unfit to Plot 9/11 Attacks

Dec. 3 -- A defense psychologist has concluded that Zacarias Moussaoui, a self-proclaimed member of al Qaeda, was too mentally unstable to be a part of the intricate Sept. 11 plot, ABCNEWS has learned.

Three months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced Moussaoui's alleged role in the terror plot.

"The indictment of Zacarias Moussaoui is an important step in securing justice for the victims of Sept 11," he said in a news conference on Dec. 11, 2001.

Even though Moussaoui was already in U.S. custody in the weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks, the government charged that he knew about the attacks and was part of the conspiracy.

But legal documents written by Moussaoui since his arrest indicate he may be too mentally ill to be capable of participating in such a complex plot, according to a defense psychologist who reviewed them.

"I could show these papers to first-year psychiatric residents if they knew nothing about the case, and they would tell you the likely diagnosis is paranoid schizophrenia," psychologist Xavier Amador told ABCNEWS in an exclusive interview. Amador, who is on the board of directors for the National Association of Mental Illness, was hired by Moussaoui's lawyers to give his opinion on the writings.

Moussaoui wrote the documents as motions he filed with the court while he was in custody and legally representing himself. Several independent psychiatrists contacted by ABCNEWS came to the same conclusion as Amador after reviewing the documents.

The U.S. District Court judge in the case, Leonie Brinkema, had initially ruled that Moussaoui was mentally competent to defend himself, but on Nov. 14 she reversed herself, saying his writings were so "contemptuous" and "disrespectful" that he could no longer do so.

In one document, Moussaoui wrote: "I have a masters in International Bombing Business from the University Bombing Limited. My mentor is the Chief Executor of the World Terror Company."