Regards, Ivan
Posted on 04/14/2006 1:48:32 AM PDT by MadIvan
THE al-Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui called the US “the head of the snake” as he justified the September 11 attacks yesterday.
Moussaoui lambasted US support for Israel, which he said was little more than an American colony, in testimony as part of the defence’s attempt to avoid the death penalty.
“You [Americans] are the head of the snake for me. If we want to destroy the Jewish state . . . we have to destroy you first,” he said.
The 37-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan origin has pleaded guilty to conspiracy in connection with the September 11, 2001, attacks. The jury has ruled that he is eligible for the death penalty and must now decide whether he should be executed. Prosecutors this week used film and recordings of the attacks on New York and Washington and testimony from victims’ relatives to back their case for execution.
The defence plans to highlight Moussaoui’s mental health and tough upbringing.
Moussaoui quoted from the Koran which he said called on Muslims to fight for supremacy for Allah. He said that Islam taught that “we have to be the superpower, we have to be above you”.
Gerald Zerkin, for the defence, asked him why he hated the US and Americans.
“For theological reasons and life experience reasons,” he replied. “You are on a crusade, like [President] George W. Bush says. In Europe, they call New York ‘little Israel’,” he replied, attacking the US for being the first, in 1948, to recognise Israel, which he called the “Jewish state of Palestine”.
“There is no difference between the Jewish state of Palestine and Hawaii,” he said.
Asked what his defence theory would be, Moussaoui came up with the scenario in which Americans fighting abroad might be taken hostage, saying that his freedom could be negotiated in exchange. “This could work on even the most revengeful juror,” Moussaoui said.
“Let’s put him in jail, and one day he can save American life.”
He said that he also would tell the jury that martyrdom was a reward and life in prison was a harsher punishment.
The confessed al-Qaeda conspirator accused his court-appointed lawyers of being motivated by a desire for fame and said that they should have sought a different venue from the courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia. He said that its proximity to the Pentagon, which was hit by an airliner in the attacks, would mean that he would be more likely to receive the death penalty. “You have put your vested interest in keeping this case in your hands, above my interest to save my life,” he told Mr Zerkin. He said that his defence team was engaged in “criminal non-assistance”.
His appearance came a day after the prosecution had concluded its case by presenting traumatic evidence from the cockpit voice recorder from United Flight 93, which crashed in a western Pennsylvania field after passengers attempted to retake the plane from the hijackers.
The recording had never previously been played publicly.
Yesterday was the second time that Moussaoui had given testimony — to the despair of his defence team — in the sentencing trial that will decide whether he is sentenced to die by lethal injection or spend the rest of his life in prison.
His decision to take the witness stand in the first phase of his trial is thought to be have helped to convince jurors that he should be held responsible for some of the nearly 3,000 deaths on September 11.
He was in jail in Minnesota at the time of the attacks, but this month the jury ruled that lies told by Moussaoui to federal agents a month before had kept the authorities from identifying and stopping some of the hijackers.
Many observers have compared his first testimony with a suicide bid, but yesterday Moussaoui at least made it clear that he wanted to live. Asked why he had changed his story about his role, he said that he had decided to put his trust in God.
Moussaoui claims that one of his purported hijacking crew members was Richard Reid, the British “shoe bomber”. Reid, 33, who is serving a life sentence for an attempt to detonate homemade explosives on a flight in 2001, has been subpoenaed to appear as a defence witness next week.
Yesterday, Moussaoui said he had wanted an Islamic lawyer and said that the defence strategy of making him look “crazy” would not work.
Some relatives of the September 11 victims have said that they do not want Moussaoui to be executed, including Colleen Kelly, whose brother died in the World Trade Centre. “From the depth of my being, I don’t understand how killing another person will make this any better,” she said recently.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
so he thinks after several dozen beheading videos, we believe that any soldier captured would be swapped for him?
he laughs during the 9/11 tapes.
i am reminded of john wayne in true grit...
cmon out now, you will git a fair trial and a good hanging...
God I wish we could castrate, shave, and imprison this prick for the rest of his life. To him that would be true torment. But some liberal would surely let him go.
So we should castrate, shave, and kill him. Drown him in pork drippings. A pipe dream, I know.
see "Colleen Kelly" and "Peaceful Tomorrows" in the KEYWORDS...
Actually, I believe that it was the USSR that first recognized the State of Israel. Of course, it wasn't for the reason of support, but just as a last jab at the British.
But I don't believe that he should be fried: I think that this guy is the perfect poster child for torture. I'm quite upset that this was done in a civilian court. It should have been done by a military tribunal, and his cause of death being listed as lead poisoning. About 125 grains of lead, just behind the ear.
But seriously, here's a guy who cried out to be tortured to death, preferably over at least a few days.
Mark
Stick a fork in him. He's done.
Good heavens. Why don't they just say "Muslim" and leave it at that.
Really, if we don't execute this guy, we should all just kill ourselves.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad probably thinks much the same.
If he's dead, he can't be 'freed' in exchange for an American hostage.
Jew-obsessed muzzie monster!
I say this is too good for him. It would make him a martyr for Islam. I say solitary confinement for the rest of his life.
Yep. Acts of War an all that. Time for a dirt nap.
Good candidate for pig poop. One (moose)limb at a time.
Strap his ass to the first nuke we drop on Iran.
I wish it were so easy.
Moussaoui's doing what all al Qaeda are trained to do - gaming the legal system. And with the courts so firmly in the grasp of the left, it's ridiculously easy to game them. All of Moussaoui's rantings and ravings, IMO, are designed to set up numerous grounds for endless appeals, and to generate sympathy for himself among the hard-core leftists that so thoroughly infest the federal bench at the appellate level.
They'll never admit it in public, but many liberal jurists feel exactly as does Moussaoui - that we got what we deserved on 9/11, that the Joooos are the real focus of evil in the world and that George Bush is just an idiot dupe for them to advance their agenda, that the US is the greatest tyranny in the world, and on and on and on until you just want to scream. I actually think he has a better than even chance of having some soft-headed liberal appellate court toss his entire conviction at some point.
Moussaoui should have never been placed in the civilian courts - he should have been shipped directly to Gitmo to face a miltary tribunal and then a firing squad. OTOH, this case has shown the absolute folly of trying terrorism cases in our civil courts.
... scenario in which Americans fighting abroad might be taken hostage, saying that his freedom could be negotiated in exchange.
This guy has no future as a travel agent.
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