The Verdict (on Moussaoui)

National Review ^ | May 3, 2006 | Jon Podhoretz

[parousia]

"America, you lost. I won," Moussaoui said, clapping his hands as he was led out of the courtroom after the verdict was read.

The Verdict [John Podhoretz] extract http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTQwYmRmZDg2MGIyNDE2OTRkNjgwMDdhZmJiNzQ1M2M

Zacarias Moussaoui is the only person to be charged with crimes related to September 11. He pled guilty to involvement in the plot. We have been told that if the FBI had authorized a search of Moussaoui's computer, seized a month before the attacks, we would have been able to prevent the attacks.

Having judged that he was a participant in the September 11 planning, jurors nonetheless ruled that Moussaoui was not responsible for the deaths on September 11 — though they apparently acknowledge his involvement in the planning of the attacks. To imagine that there can be any mitigating circumstance regarding Moussaoui's actual guilt is moral idiocy of the highest order.

Alas, that moral idiocy was clearly at work in the jury deliberations. I would guess we will hear from some jurors who sought a different outcome over the next week that will cast some uncomfortable light on the goings-on inside the jury room.

Crazy? Yes. He wanted to commit suicide by being a participant in the hijacking and destruction of an airborne plane. No one but a crazy person could desire such a death.

The problem is that the world has seen at least two thousand such madmen and madwomen make a choice to kill themselves in order to kill others in the past 15 years. Is their hunger for death to be "understood" and explained away in this fashionable fashion — by invoking a cruel mother and a father with mental illness?

This is a deeply disheartening day.

[parousia]

Mark Levin said Jurors were persuaded to spare the life of the 19th hijacker after being plied by typical liberal testimony about his childhood to show that he grew up in a neglectful household in France where his father beat his mother regularly. Mark Levin read Podhoretz article and said the case had the wrong outcome...it should have been tried by military tribunal along with all terrorists. But our justice system, and our laws, have fallen victim to pandering liberal judges. Illegals are always the victims! Jurors agreed that he was guilty of doing bodily harm and destruction...but not the death of 3000 people. The jury gratuitously refused the terrorist martyrdom. But he'll receive special treatment in solitary confinement while we ponder the inevitable demands for his release.

[sourcery]

Alive, Moussaoui serves as a pretext for "hostages" to be taken, with the threat to kill them unless Moussaoui is released. I expect this to happen repeatedly from now on, with most of those taken suffering the ultimate penalty that Moussaoui should have paid.

For this reason only, Moussaoui is right that "we lost."

[CaliGirlGodHelpMe]

JMHO, but I think this sentence is perfectly suitable. What could be better than this jealous fool sitting in a prison cell, no chance of escape, forever? He can lie on his bunk, eating his heart out while watching the rest of the world on television living their lives, free. Living in constant, continual terror of his fellow inmates, without the solitude of death row.

While I realize that it offers scant solace to the families of the victims, I hope they gain comfort from the fact that he is eaten up with envy of this country, and now he's her prisoner.

[gr8eman]

Hence...GWB and Rumsfeld were right to keep all these gooners in Gitmo and elsewhere. In light of the translations of all the captured documents all of these pazy a$$e$ in the media and their buddies are dead wrong. We should throw it in their faces everyday. It is never "too soon".

[Number57]

Bullsh!t... he did not win.

We will NOT LOSE. I won't accept it.

[marron]

This muslim hero lives because his jurors pronounced him crazy, the misbegotten spawn of a stereotypically awful family, a failure in life, a failure as a terrorist, and a failure as a martyr.

[sheik yerbouty]

This is like the El Sayid Nosair jury. In that case the conviction was a weapons charge and not the murder of a NY Rabbi. The weeds of liberalism bear bitter fruit..

[sheik yerbouty]

There will be some dark days ahead. We must also wage war on the enemy within..

[singfreedom]

I agree. It happens, just consider all of those who suffered because Islamofacists were convinced we had "Muslim women" as prisoners.

As far as I'm concerned, this jury has betrayed all of us. I've known too many people who suffered this same kind of abuse, relatively common, and not felt compelled to kill thousands of innocent people. As one family member said, if anyone ever deserved the death penalty, he did.

As for the idiot juror who was afraid she would be hounded by the press? Three guesses as to how SHE voted!!

[unfortunately a bluestater]

MHO, but I think this sentence is perfectly suitable. What could be better than this jealous fool sitting in a prison cell, no chance of escape, forever? He can lie on his bunk, eating his heart out while watching the rest of the world on television living their lives, free. Living in constant, continual terror of his fellow inmates, without the solitude of death row.

---

I am concerned that his fellow inmates will find his form of looniness heroic. That would then increase the already-considerable influence of radical Islamism in our prisons (ie, the prison imams).

[singfreedom]

I share that concern. Also, every year when 9/11 rolls around, will we be subjected to Jail-house interviews, profiles, etc? Timothy McVeigh died, why isn't Moussaoui going to die?

[CaliGirlGodHelpMe]

There's also the consideration that he could be used as an excuse for terrorist kidnappings and attempts at bargaining for his freedom. This has some validity, but they haven't tried it in Saddam Hussein's case yet, so I doubt it will be done in Moussaui's.

[TheCrusader]

"For this reason only, Moussaoui is right that "we lost."

We lost on several levels by sparing Moussaoui's life. Moussaoui was referring to al Quaeda's murderous mentality as they purposefully and gleefully killed 3,000 Americans on 9-11 and wreaked havoc on our economy, and are planning much more mayhem. Meanwhile, America seemingly doesn't have the spine to execute the only one of them that we captured. Apparently, he was referring to the fear in our society instilled by himself and his 'brethren', and our soft response towards those who are trying to destroy us.

The upside is that we showed the world that America stands on infinately higher moral ground than does islam.

[truthpls]

I just have one thing to say. He stinks from here to eternity. The only thing that comes out of his mouth is filth. Let's not discuss him any further, it only gives him legitimacy and gives the false impression that he is a human being.

[Theresawithanh]

Yes, this is a very disheartening day.

The only thing that gives me pleasure is reading about the type of max security place he'll be sent to.

[Solamente]

http://www.supermaxed.com/ ?

[Solamente]

He's goin' to SUPERMAX!

"...Set in the high desert of Colorado, Supermax holds America's most dangerous criminals. They include terrorists, murderers — even members of the Taliban.

They spend up to 23 hours a day in soundproof cells, locked behind solid steel doors. They eat their meals in these 8-by-12-foot cells, where the desk, the stool, even the bed are made of concrete.

The only window — 42 inches high and 4 inches wide — looks out on a small recreation yard that prisoners might never get to use. When inmates are allowed out of their cells, they are strapped into leg irons and other restraints and are strip-searched.

They call this place the Alcatraz of the Rockies..."

"...Everything within the cell is of pre-poured concrete: the sink, toilet, shower, and slab that is the bed..."

"...After several years... may be allowed outside for recreation, but will never again set eyes on the beauty of the mountains that surround us here in Florence...

...Because of the high walls surrounding the small recreation area, "he will only be able to look upward, into the sky..."

"...23-hour lockdown leads some prisoners to develop symptoms of mental illness: depression, increased paranoia, delusions and suicide..."

[Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit]

This sounds like hell on earth. And to think that people here wanted to make him a martyr.

The guy has got 30-40 years of torture ahead of him. It would have been too merciful to kill him.

[Tinman93]

Well said.

[Northern Alliance]

As a resident of Asia, I'm very glad about this decision for this reason: If he had got the death penalty, then a lot of the coverage and discussion overseas would have been about the death penalty, not Moussaoui or the danger people like him represent. Enemies of the USA would use the controversy over capital punishment, and don't forget few (no?) western countries have it anymore, and few anywhere else, to their advantage - not just for days, but for years until he was executed and then he would become a martyr to some.

It's better that the punishment at least have some value to the USA by not generating any sympathy for Moussaoui or condemnation from the rest of the world. Plus there is nothing glorious about life in solitary - no 74 virgins and all that - nothing for any young Muslim kid to fantasize about.