In between his rants at everyone in the criminal justice system, Moussaoui is raising a credible defense. We wrote about it, as well as the Government's creative new "5th hijacker" theory, in detail last week here, so we won't repeat ourselves. But the new details today of Moussaoui's striking out are too classic to pass over:

Legal experts say they're fascinated by the handwritten pleadings that place demands for access to witnesses and documents alongside insults and bizarre statements. Recently Moussaoui suggested the need to bang the judge's head against the wall, derided Attorney General John Ashcroft's Christianity, described one defense lawyer as fat and others as the racist, the Kamikaze and the Jew.

Moussaoui doesn't cooperate with the court-appointed lawyers, who were retained to represent his interests against terrorism charges that carry the death penalty.

...Other experts praised Brinkema for doing her constitutional duty despite a stream of insults directed toward her by Moussaoui. Moussaoui often addresses her as "death judge" and recently referred to Ashcroft as a "natural born liar" who "claim to be a Christian who will not announce my death on Good Friday."

We too praise Judge Brinkema for having the stamina to stay with the case, make sense of Moussaoui's hand-written demands and order the Government to produce the witnesses that could help his defense.

Moussaoui's complaints that prosecutors are withholding crucial information have persuaded the judge to question whether the government can give the acknowledged al-Qaida member a fair trial in open court.

In one recent motion, Moussaoui cited news reports that suspected Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed had told interrogators the defendant was not part of the conspiracy to attack the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

He asked the judge "to force the United Satan to give me the exculpatory statement of my brother Mohammed," because "brother Mohammed has told to the U.S. official that I was not 9/11."

Reportedly, Ramzi Binalshibh will do the same. If the Government doesn't have the goods to tie Moussaoui to Sept. 11 after all this time, they ought to acknowledge it and let him plead to a non-capital offense. We suspect, however, that Ashcroft couldn't stand the loss of face that would entail--to be beaten by a pro-se member of Al Qaeda with no legal training and for whom English is a second or third language. This case is indeed a farce, but its a farce of the Government's making.