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Moussaoui Will Never Rot in Prison
Wall Street Journal ^ | 5/5/06 | DANIEL HENNINGER

Posted on 05/05/2006 4:24:36 AM PDT by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 911; moussaui; waronterr
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To: Blackirish
Lets' try that again: Original Article in The Times

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!

121 posted on 05/05/2006 8:47:51 AM PDT by alnitak ("That kid's about as sharp as a pound of wet liver" - Foghorn Leghorn)
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To: mikemach5
Or maybe Monty Python singing "Spam!" :)
122 posted on 05/05/2006 8:51:36 AM PDT by Warhammer (Appeasing terrorists is like throwing steaks at a tiger hoping he becomes a vegetarian.)
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To: Jack Black
Just curious why is everyone so sure he's going to Supermax?

I don't recall who the source was, but it was said on FNC last night, and a graphic description of the "joint" was provided.

123 posted on 05/05/2006 9:09:53 AM PDT by JimRed ("Hey, hey, Teddy K., how many girls did you drown today?" (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help m)
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To: mathprof

This country is turning into a bunch of Tofu eatin', Charrdonay swillin', tree huggin' feel your pain, pansies!


124 posted on 05/05/2006 9:15:46 AM PDT by gc4nra ( this tag line protected by Kimber and the First Amendment (I voted for McClintock))
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To: Former Proud Canadian

Good for you, C! I'm proud of you too!


125 posted on 05/05/2006 9:19:09 AM PDT by Savage Beast (The Spirit of Flight 93 is the Spirit of America!)
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To: Jim Noble
RE:" Think Spain. You think Canada's eastern city dwellers will be any different when the bombs start going off?"

Yes I think it would be very different. IMO, politically and culturally, even after so many years of Canadian Liberals and socialist "leadership", Canada is nothing like Spain.

126 posted on 05/05/2006 9:47:04 AM PDT by concrete is my business (place, consolidate, finish)
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To: Thom Pain
We are too stoopid to survive the war against terror.

I am trying so hard not to go there, but I fear you may be right – particularly if, in addition to smart and stupid, you bring good and evil in to the equation.

The Founders were explicit, consistent and loud about our republic requiring good smart people.

Here’s what we’ve got
-- Open Borders
-- Open Morals
-- Millions of clueless, selfish dumbassess
-- Millions of determined lovers of government
-- Millions of determined jihadis.
The above reads like the contents of the book How to Eradicate a Nation. The Constitution and Bill of Rights (may peace be upon them) seem hardly to have a chance.

----

Okay, enough of that dark stuff. Here’s a lighter recipe:
-- Pray.
-- Make Babies.
-- Buy guns and books and bibles and guns and books for those babies.
-- Use those guns and books and bibles and guns and books.
-- Use those books and guns and bibles some more.
-- Pray some more.
-- Make some more babies.
-- Repeat as needed. (Note: That’s expected to be a while.)

127 posted on 05/05/2006 11:58:15 AM PDT by FreeRadical (That's no open container officer. That's my beer.)
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To: kabar
He spends his one hour in the yard alone. A guard would have to get him.

We had baseball sized hail a couple of weeks ago in Indianapolis....

128 posted on 05/05/2006 1:28:56 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going....)
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To: sinkspur

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


Wise words.


129 posted on 05/06/2006 7:21:28 AM PDT by Valin (Purple Fingers Rule!)
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To: mathprof
During periods of peace, and we have had a long one, some people come to believe that this happy condition is the natural state of life. It is not. The unprotectedness of civilized, quotidian life was earned, over centuries, often in war.

this is an excellent point... something many Americans take for granted...

130 posted on 05/06/2006 7:30:47 AM PDT by latina4dubya
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