Alexandria, Va. ? A former roommate who befriended Zacarias Moussaoui during flight training is helping the government, saying the accused terrorist talked openly of wanting to be a Muslim holy warrior.

Hussein al-Attas told a court this week that Moussaoui intended to finish flight training in Minnesota last summer and then go to New York. But he has not directly linked the French citizen to the Sept. 11 attacks.

On several occasions, Moussaoui “had expressed a general desire to participate in jihad,” or holy war, al-Attas said Monday as he pleaded guilty to making false statements and agreed to cooperate in the government’s terror investigation.

But al-Attas, 24, a Saudi student who has been in custody since Sept. 11, maintained through his lawyer that he didn’t know anything about the plot that unfolded that day indicating Moussaoui never discussed it.

The lawyer, Alexander Eisemann, said during the plea proceeding that his client simply “found himself with the wrong person at the wrong time.”

The cooperation of al-Attas adds to the complexity of a case in which Moussaoui has insisted on representing himself, accused the judge of conspiring to kill him, had his mental competency questioned and offered to plead guilty.

Moussaoui, the lone man charged as a Sept. 11 conspirator, is due in court again Thursday where he has said he intends to again submit the guilty plea that the judge refused to accept last week.

Moussaoui has admitted he is a member of al-Qaida. However, he previously has denied involvement in the Sept. 11 conspiracy while insisting he knows who aided the hijackers.