Reasonable people can disagree on this verdict. In a previous post on this site I pontificated that since he wanted so badly to die a martyrs death we shouldn't give it to him--make him rot in the pen. It wasn't out of sympathy, it was because he wasn't a major player in 9/11 and was more filled with rage than sage. He was no KSM.
Case in point, despite all the earlier heroic rhetoric supporting the cause of international jihad, he totally destroyed it on his way out of court by yelling, "America, you lost. I won". Some jihadi.
The jury claims they didn't spare his life because he begged them to die, and claims they didn't find him crazy, either. We know he's a pathological liar prone to playing two bit mind games, but perhaps they figured he just didn't have enough foreknowledge of 9/11 to warrant the noose.
After all, shoe bomber Richard Reid got life for actually trying to crash a plane; superterrorist Ramzi Yousef murdered six people at the World Trade Center (and wanted to get hundreds of thousands) plus many more around the world and only got life; and Terry Nichols is still alive, so the verdict was not entirely out of line.
Of course, we're talking about 9/11 and therefore many surviving family members will be understandably upset. And yes, it's probably likely he scammed the court (and maybe some little known pundits) by his eleventh hour shenanigans about wanting to die, but that only proves his street punk mentality. The verdict is ok with me based on his impact to the movement, which was small. It's KSM and Yousef who should swing.
SOME BLOGGER INSIGHT 5/3
In the Bullpen agrees, while Gateway Pundit doesn't. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross from the Counterterrorism Blog seems to agree, while MacRanger doesn't. From just that quick survey the opinion is not slicing left and right.
FRENCH DIP 5/4/06
The French now say they'll ask for transfer of Moussaoui to one of their prisons to serve out his term.
Paris's interest is probably nothing more than pandering to the masses. Moussaoui's mom had this to say about her home country:
"My son will be buried alive because France didn't dare contradict the Americans," El Wafi said.Can you say riots?
This sounds like a political no-brainer for all parties. France simply must show some kind of an effort to get him, but it's likely Bush won't be able to get the word 'no' out of his mouth fast enough. Moussaoui predicted he'd be turned loose by Bush if allowed to live, so the last thing they'd want is to immediately prove the terrorist right. Also, just imagine the 9/11 victims' horror at such a thing.
Politics alone says Bush will refuse, whereupon the French will bash Bush and move on to something else.
FINI? 5/4/06
The WaPo chronicles the formal sentencing today, which Moussaoui attempted to turn into a Saddam Hussein moment:
"Maybe one day she can see how to my people the CIA has destroyed their life." Addressing the family members in the courtroom generally, he said, "You have an amount of hypocrisy beyond any belief. Your humanity is a very selective humanity."This exemplifies the problem with bringing deranged terrorists into open court, they will invariably try to use it as a political soapbox. Try to imagine Bin Laden or KSM in such a situation.
In the end though, the final court is not of this earth, which was placed into perspective by a 9/11 victim's family member:
Lisa Dolan, who lost her husband in the Pentagon attack, told Moussaoui simply, "There is still one final judgment day."
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