Moussaoui Will Never Rot in Prison

Wall Street Journal ^ | 5/5/06 | DANIEL HENNINGER

[mathprof]

Need an antidote to the Moussaoui verdict? Go out this weekend to see "United 93."

Zacarias Moussaoui is lucky the jurors at his sentencing trial weren't allowed to see the movie "United 93" the day before reaching a verdict. If they had, rather than handing him life in prison, it is likely that one or more of the jurors would have come out of the box to deliver the death sentence himself -- just as the four doomed men on Flight 93 charged their hijackers to stop its fanatic pilots from flying the airliner into another American building.

Some will say the Moussaoui life sentence merely proves that we in the U.S. are beyond biblical justice, beyond an eye for an eye, even if our Islamic enemies do not bother to claim any grievance larger than resentment to justify the most startling slaughter of innocents all over the world. This argument -- that the refusal to impose the death penalty on Moussaoui shows "we are not like them" -- might have been entertainable before September 11. It may no longer be. [snip]

Our sense of normalcy may not be in our best interest.

As an example, one thought that occurred in the hour after seeing "United 93" had to do with the recent debate in the U.S. over the warrantless wiretapping of suspected phone calls between terrorists. In that hour, this "debate" seemed quite otherworldly. It is unlikely that in the first six months after September 11 Sen. Arlen Specter would ever have thought to intone that the wiretapping program was "in flat violation" of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. But he does now. Times change.

[capitalist229]

I can foresee suicide bombers trying to hold Americans hostage to get Moussaoui freed from SuperMax.

We had better develop (and highly publicize) a strategy for dealing with it.

BUMP

[faloi]

It wouldn't surprise me if some guards left his door open "accidently," and another con or two get the job done. Whether it's to make a name for themselves, get in good with some people, or just out of rage over the events of 9/11, I just can't imagine he'll be in prison too long.

[Jim Noble]

Why would the French even want this guy back?

So they can let him go.

[sinkspur]

I can foresee suicide bombers trying to hold Americans hostage to get Moussaoui freed from SuperMax.

We had better develop (and highly publicize) a strategy for dealing with it.

Why haven't suicide bombers tried to free Ramsi Yousef? He was much more high profile in al-Qaeda than Moussaoui. Or Khalid sheik Mohammed, who actually planned the 9/11 attacks?

Islamists know the answer they'd get, so they don't even try.

It's almost as foolish to overrate jihadists as it is to underrate them.

[Dinah Lord]

..."from a moving aircraft at 15,000 feet without a parachute, somewhere with a chance that he might be impaled on the Eiffel Tower."

Hmm. I like your idea. Might I add that the spire on the Eiffel Tower be covered in pig fat?

Cheers - Dinah

[sheik yerbouty]

Send him to France via vertical insertion without the benefit of a parachute! Allahu fubar!

[Savage Beast]

I meant the U.S. and Canada. The U.S. and Canadian people never had a falling out; however here's a hug: *HUG!*

[Former Proud Canadian]

Thanks for the hug, I think. This Canadian is spending derby weekend in central Kentucky. I'll give my local friend (she's an American) a hug in the interests of bilateral relations.

[Savage Beast]

Aw go ahead and give her a kiss. Canadia-U.S. relations can't be too cozy.

BTW, I'll think of the two of you during the Derby. I'll be watching it on TV with my family. We'll be wearing our Derby tee shirts.

[Jack Black]

Just curious why is everyone so sure he's going to Supermax? And assuming this is true, who decides that? Isn't some Federal Bureau of Prisons in charge of what prisons a person goes to? Don't they take a little time after the verdict to figure all that out based on a point system or something? If he behaves well for 1, 5, or 10 years isn't there a good chance he could be assigned to a lower security level joint?

[lawdude]

He will never see another live human in his life. He will have NO contact with the outside world except, perhaps, taped and screened religious (islam) proceedings.

[happygrl]

Wow, I didn't know the sea change in Canada was so profound. This is very encouraging.

[CDHart]

I'm afraid that some Muslims will kidnap Americans and want to exchange them for this guy.

Carolyn

[happygrl]

...you will appreciate a very strong American ally in the north.

Yes, we will !!!!!!!

[grayforkbeard]

You all are getting it all wrong.

He wants to die.

He wants to die as a martyr fighting the good fight.

If he dies as a martyr he gets his 72 virgins.

Let him rot in jail as somebody’s boyfriend for the next 50 years.

It’s more fun then killing him.

Where the hell is Ron White when we need him?

[Former Proud Canadian]

I'll be giving her more than a kiss, but I can't get too graphic on this board.

[Former Proud Canadian]

You haven't seen anything yet. PM Harper is very smart, and very conservative. The parliamentary/executive system of government lets him make may incremental changes immediately. After the next election, in 2007, when he gets a strong majority, you will see profound changes. I believe he is, philosphically, more conservative than Bush, and has more freedom of action, even with a minority government.

[Blackirish]

Thanks Condor for some real info on a rather hysterical thread.

As far as the panic that some dim president will pardon him that ain't gonna happen either. It would be political suicide and pretty soon he's gonna fall off the radar screen anyway.

Remember the blind sheik?

He's in Florence.
Nobody is clamoring to let him out and nobody ever will.

In a couple of days Mousse will no longer be in the papers. ...and no one will care that he's going insane in a little room.

[mikemach5]

Since hes muslim I figure anything thats another religion would really make him mad. Or perhaps horrible music 24/7 would be fitting.

I'm thinking Porky Pig cartoons alternating with a voice being piped into his cell saying nothing but "HAM! HAM! HAM!!"

[alnitak]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2166401,00.html HE MAY live to regret that he was not sentenced to death. Zacarias Moussaoui, 37, was told yesterday that he must spend the rest of his days at the “supermax” prison in Florence, Colorado, the bleakest and most secure of all American jails. There, he will be kept in an 8ft (2.5m) by 5ft (1.5m) cell, 23 hours a day. He will have no chance to mix with other inmates and only fleeting contact with staff. His desk, bed and stool will be made of concrete, his mirror of steel. A tiny slit in the wall will be his only source of natural light. If he is allowed a television it will be black and white, showing only educational and religious programmes. His only comfort may be a copy of the Koran. The prison, known as the “Alcatraz of the Rockies”, was built in 1994 at a cost of $60 million. It has 1,400 remote-controlled steel doors, motion detectors, pressure pads and gun towers. ADX Florence is already home to Moussaoui’s friend, the British “shoe bomber”, Richard Reid. Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman and Ramzi Yousef, jailed for conspiracy after the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre, are also there. But Moussaoui can forget about chatting with fellow terrorists. He is expected to be kept in isolation, eating meals in his cell and spending his recreation hour in the concrete courtyard alone. A taste of life ahead was offered by James Aiken, a former prison warden called as a defence witness during his trial. “We are not preparing him for a return to society. We are not even preparing him for a return to the general population. The mission here is incapacitation. “Time takes a toll on all of us, something he doesn’t even know yet. I have seen them rot. They rot.” Black and white TV! Oh, the inhumanity!