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Friday, April 26, 2024

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Were we Bullwinkled by Moussaoui?


Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person convicted of a role in the September 11 attacks, was "spared."  Instead, he is on his way to the Florence, Colorado ADX supermax prison.  He would have been far better off getting the bye-bye needle.  Read about florence at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADX_Florence.  For those of us who complain about Moussaoui not getting death, this place is far worse than death.  I will admit that I have opposed the death penalty in the past (for the fear of executing the innocent), but in this case that opposition was sternly put to the test.  Moussaoui used the courtroom as a platform to spew his vile hatred.  He would doubtlessly have used the execution gurney for the same purpose before being gently lulled off to sleep and then gently relieved of his vile life.

I like the idea of this person, who appears to live to speak out to others, being isolated for decades in a world whose critics say is demeaning and dehumanizing to the point of torture.  And to those critics, I say, "So What!"  The evil people locked up here have already proven themselves to be the "worst of the worst of the worst," quoting an Ohio official who is planning that state’s version of Florence.  These are the terrorists, or the prisoners who murder prison guards.  Moussaoui will now rot in a place where the term "rot in prison" has real meaning.

Had he been sentenced to death, Moussaoui would have had numerous future fora where he could spew his evil rhetoric, and would have ended his life a martyr, dying comfortably on a gurnee.  He would not have been crushed by a falling skyscraper, or immolated in jet fuel, or crashed into the ground at six hundred miles per hour.  He would have been put to sleep with more consideration than a beloved family pet.  That is simply, to me, inadequate.

Now, instead, he will be silent and forgotten, while federal guards tend to him in a bleak concrete world where he does not ever see grass or trees or children or any of the America he hates without just cause.  He will never see the news, except of course when the guards change his TV to it when Bin Laden is captured -- the guards control his TV.  He will be subject to random, frequent body-cavity searches.  He will be escorted the 20 feet to his thrice-a-week shower by two heavily-armed guards, in shackles and cuffs.

And, the biggest torture for this murderous publicity hound, his crap will never be heard again.  That is the point Judge Brinkema made yesterday, and that is the big one for me.  The reasons the jury gave, about abuse and "racism,"  were pathetic and ridiculous.  Did they formulate any excuse to make sure this guy paid for a long time?  I don’t know.  I do, however, like the result.

And, in closing, don’t worry.  Even John Kerry, were the country to go insane and suicidally vote him into the White House, would not send Moussaoui to France, only to see Les Wimps release him at some date.  France, if they are stupid enough to make the request, will be told to take that request and shove it in their les Postéirures. Au revior, Le terrorist!