For those who argue that his sentence of life without parole is the worse than death, can they guarantee that no Americans will be taken hostage/killed for Moussaoui's release, or that some future liberal president won't give him clemency?
Clinton never pardoned Pollard. The justice system operates independently of political considerations (or at least it should). Nobody in al-Qaeda gives a damn about these people. Ramsi Yousef (WTC bomber in 1993) has been at a Supermax for eleven years, and there have been no efforts to leverage him.
The Islamists know that we will never yield to their demands.