ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) – Zacarias Moussaoui maintained courtroom decorum for all of one minute.

Then the confessed terrorist conspirator resumed his four-year struggle to tell his own story in his own words. It got him thrown out of court – four times in one day.

“I’m al-Qaida,” the short, bearded Frenchman told a room filled with his prospective jurors. “I will take the stand to tell the whole truth about my involvement.”

U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema warned him this was not his time to speak. Undeterred, he plunged on calmly but forcefully in French-accented English. He said of his court-appointed lawyers: “They are Americans. I’ll have nothing to do with them.” So Brinkema ordered the marshals to escort him out. He put his hands on his head and left without resisting.

This scene was repeated in near-identical fashion four times Monday as about 500 northern Virginians were summoned in four separate groups to fill out a 49-page questionnaire on their attitudes toward the death penalty, the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Islam, Arabs and the FBI.

The only person charged in this country in Sept. 11 al-Qaida attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Moussaoui, 37, pleaded guilty last April to conspiring to fly planes into U.S. buildings but claims he had no role in the Sept. 11 plot.

Winnowing the pool down to 12 jurors and six alternates is expected to take a month. On March 6, the jury will begin hearing evidence to decide whether Moussaoui will be put to death or sentenced to life in prison without possibility of release.

Often a volatile figure in years of pretrial court proceedings, Moussaoui spoke without shouting Monday. The prospective jurors – most of them white and aged from their 20s through their 50s or 60s – showed no reaction in any of the sessions to the behavior of the man wearing a dark green jump suit with “prisoner” on the back in white block letters.

Brinkema told each panel of jurors: “If any of you feel that outburst or the way he conducted himself might affect the way in which you would go about judging this case, you need to clearly put that statement on the jury questionnaire.”

In two of the jury sessions, Moussaoui declared his allegiance to Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network. He also twice promised to tell his own story on the witness stand. In all four sessions, Moussaoui – who had represented himself for 17 months – disavowed the lawyers imposed on him by the court because of his intemperate behavior and legal briefs.

His first words, after the judge said hello to prosecutors and defense attorneys, were: “I want to be heard. … These lawyers are not my lawyers.” Leaving court the first time, he declared: “This trial is a circus.”

By the afternoon, Moussaoui, who has vowed to fight for his life, offered this:

“For four years I have waited. … I will tell you the truth I know.”

The potential jurors stayed long enough to answer 159 questions. They were asked about their religious beliefs, feelings toward Muslims and Arabs, knowledge of and reaction to the Sept. 11 attacks, opinion of the FBI’s performance in two deadly standoffs with radicals, and whether they belong to groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, National Rifle Association, Rotary Club or Kiwanis. Fifteen questions concerned their attitudes toward the death penalty.

Also among the questions: “Do you have any negative feelings or opinions about Muslims or people of Arab or North African descent?” “Do you believe Islam endorses violence to a greater or lesser extent than other religions?”

Brinkema told the prospective jurors the case hinges on whether Moussaoui lied when interrogated before Sept. 11, 2001, and whether people died that day as a direct result.

Advocating execution, prosecutors contend Moussaoui could have prevented the attacks by telling authorities about al-Qaida’s designs. Defense attorneys say the government knew more about the plot than Moussaoui before 9/11 and still couldn’t stop the attacks.

Moussaoui was arrested on immigration charges Aug. 17, 2001, after arousing suspicion as he trained at a Minnesota flight school to fly 747 jetliners. He was still in custody when 19 hijackers flew two 757 and two 767 jetliners into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 Americans in the nation’s deadliest terrorist attack.

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