| By culhavoc on News (AP) ALEXANDRIA, Va.
April 18th, 2006 
A defense psychologist said Tuesday his conclusion that Zacarias Moussaoui is a paranoid schizophrenic is based on observations of the actions and writings of the confessed terrorist conspirator described earlier as convinced President Bush will set him free. Psychologist Xavier Amador said the clincher in making his diagnosis was an April 2005 encounter with Moussaoui in which the defendant in the nation’s only Sept. 11, 2001 prosecution repeatedly spit water on him - and appeared to be talking to himself. Amador said the visit lasted for about an hour, and that Moussaoui spent much of the time telling Amador to go away. Amador observed Moussaoui talking to himself in a manner that did not appear to be prayer, the witness said. When Amador refused to go away, he said, Moussaoui spit water at him more than a dozen times and then finally resigned himself to Amador’s presence. Moussaoui then complained that jail guards used excessive force in taking him from his Alexandria jail cell to a deposition at the federal courthouse. And he told Amador that Bush would release him from prison. Amador testified that he had become convinced Moussaoui was suffering from a delusional thought disorder before the incident but that this particular encounter reinforced his belief. Government experts have reached conclusions that diverge from Amador’s statements, and are expected to testify later this week in rebuttal. While prosecutors’ experts have been able to examine Moussaoui, he refused to cooperate with Amador or any other defense expert. Amador based his diagnosis, revealed during testimony Monday, largely on conclusions of other mental-health professionals and an analysis of Moussaoui’s actions and writings over a period of years. These included the numerous rambling, often insulting, legal motions that Moussaoui filed during an 18-month period in which he represented himself. Moussaoui’s defense lawyers, who are at odds with their client, say he is delusional and cite his testimony last week about a dream that Bush will free him prison before his lifetime sentence expires. Jurors must decide whether Moussaoui should be executed or serve life in prison without parole, their only options since Moussaoui has already pleaded guilty to conspiring with al Qaeda to fly planes into U.S. buildings. One of Moussaoui’s jail guards offered a few more details of Moussaoui’s dream during testimony Monday. Deputy Vikas Ohri said Moussaoui has told him that after Bush frees him, he will “fly to London, write a book, make some money and go back to the mountains of Afghanistan and be al-Qaida.” He said he has also seen Moussaoui standing in front of a wall talking to himself. He asked Moussaoui about it once, and Moussaoui said he was practicing for court. Moussaoui is the only person charged in this country in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks. The jury deciding his fate has already declared him eligible for the death penalty by determining that his actions caused at least one death on 9/11. Even though Moussaoui was in jail in Minnesota at the time of the attacks, the jury ruled that lies he told federal agents a month before the attacks kept authorities from identifying and stopping some of the hijackers. (source) | 
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