Moussaoui's mental health questioned

Jurors are deciding whether Moussaoui should be executed or should serve life in prison without parole. These are their only options, since Moussaoui has pleaded guilty to conspiring with Al Qaeda to fly planes into US buildings.

Yesterday, the defense introduced affidavits filed by lawyers for Ramzi Yousef, who is serving life in prison for the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, and other Al Qaeda members. All the lawyers said their clients had actively assisted their defense and did not believe their lawyers had been working against them.

''What we see with this individual is unique to him," Amador said. ''It's not Al Qaeda."

On cross-examination, a prosecutor, David Novak, suggested that Moussaoui's behavior is indeed consistent with that of other Al Qaeda terrorists.

He said that Yousef had represented himself for an extended period, and that another Al Qaeda terrorist had tried to take his lawyers hostage.

Amador said he would need more information about such matters to determine whether his opinion would change.

Amador also said he had given several media interviews about the case, despite a court order barring them.

Amador said that his diagnosis had been confirmed after an April 2005 encounter with Moussaoui, in which the defendant repeatedly spit water on him -- and appeared to have been talking to himself.

Amador said that 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, he said.

When Amador refused to go away, he said, Moussaoui spit water at him more than a dozen times, then resigned himself to Amador's presence.

Moussaoui then complained that 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.

Government specialists have reached conclusions that diverge from Amador's statements. The specialists are expected to testify this week in rebuttal.

Moussaoui mocked the testimony about schizophrenia. He said ''beautiful terrorist mind" as he was led from court during a recess, referring to the movie ''A Beautiful Mind," about a mathematician with schizophrenia.

Amador cited other evidence of Moussaoui's paranoia, including his belief that an electric fan that he had picked up from the curb outside his Oklahoma apartment in 2001 had been bugged.