US District Court Judge William Young statement in sentencing "shoe bomber" Richard Reid

Hey, gang! Just got this in an email from my husband at work. He said he just got it from an old AF buddy in Virginia who it it from...?

US District Court Judge William Young made the following statement in sentencing "shoe bomber" Richard Reid to prison. It is noteworthy, and deserves to be remembered far longer than he predicts. I commend it to you and anyone you might wish to forward it to.

Judge Young: "Mr. Richard C. Reid, hearken now to the sentence the Court imposes upon you.

"On counts 1, 5 and 6 the Court sentences you to life in prison in the custody of the United States Attorney General.

"On counts 2, 3, 4 and 7, the Court sentences you to 20 years in prison on each count, the sentence on each count to run consecutive with the other.

"On count 8 the Court sentences you to the mandatory 30 years consecutive to the 80 years just imposed.
The Court imposes upon you each of the eight counts a fine of $250,000 for the aggregate fine of $2 million.

"The Court accepts the government's recommendation with respect to restitution and orders restitution in the amount of $298.17 to Andre Bousquet and $5,784 to American Airlines.

"The Court imposes upon you five years supervised release simply because the law requires it. But the life sentences are real life sentences so I need go no further.

"This is the sentence that is provided for by our statutes. It is a fair and just sentence. It is a righteous sentence.

"Let me explain this to you: We are not afraid of any of your terrorist coconspirators, Mr. Reid.
We are Americans. We have been through the fire before.

"There is all too much war talk here. And I say that to everyone with the utmost respect. Here in this court, where we deal with individuals as individuals, and care for individuals as individuals, as human beings we reach out for justice, you are not an enemy combatant.

"To give you that reference, to call you a soldier, gives you far too much stature.

"Whether it is the officers of government who do it or your attorney who does it, or that happens to be your view,

"We hunt them down one by one and bring them to justice. So war talk is way out of line in this court.

"You are a big fellow. But you are not that big. You're no warrior. I know warriors. You are a terrorist.

"In a very real sense Trooper Santiago had it right when you first were taken off that plane and into custody and you wondered where the press and where the TV crews were and he said you're no big deal.

"What your able counsel and what the equally able United States attorneys have grappled with and what I have as honestly as I know how tried to grapple with, is why you did something so horrific.

"I have listened respectfully to what you have to say. And I asked you to search your heart and ask yourself what sort of unfathomable hate led you to do what you are guilty, and admit you are guilty of doing.

"It may not satisfy you. But as I search this entire record it comes as close to understanding as I know. It seems to me you hate the one thing that is most precious: You hate our freedom.

"Our individual freedom. Our individual freedom to live as we choose, to come and go as we choose, and to believe or not believe as we individually choose.

"Here, in this society, the very winds carry freedom. They carry it everywhere from sea to shining sea.

"It is because we prize individual freedom so much that you are here in this beautiful courtroom. So that everyone can see, truly see, that justice is administered fairly, individually, and discretely.

"It is for freedom's sake that your lawyers are striving so vigorously on your behalf, have filed appeals, and will go on in their representation of you before other judges.

"We are about it. Because we all know that the way we treat you, Mr. Reid, is the measure of our own liberties.

"Make no mistake though: It is yet true that we will bear any burden, pay any price, to preserve our freedoms.

"The world is not going to long remember what you or I say here. Day after tomorrow it will be forgotten. But this, however, will long endure. Here in this courtroom and courtrooms all across America, the American people will gather to see that justice, individual justice. Justice, not war. Individual justice is in fact being done.

"The very President of the United States through his officers will have to come into courtrooms and lay out evidence on which specific matters can be judged. And juries of citizens will gather to sit and judge that evidence democratically - to mold and shape and refine our sense of justice.

"That flag will fly there long after this is all forgotten. That flag stands for freedom. It always will.

(How much of this Judge's comments did you hear on our TV sets? ZERO! Please pass this around. Everyone needs to hear what the judge had to say.)

http://newstribune.com/stories/013103/wor_0131030916.asp

Friday, January 31, 2003

Shoe bomber called a terrorist; Richard C. Reid sentenced to life

BOSTON (AP) -- A defiant Richard C. Reid asserted his attempt to blow up a trans-Atlantic jetliner with explosives hidden in his shoes was the act of a soldier in a war against those who attack Islam.

But U.S. District Judge William Young branded Reid as a terrorist, sentencing the 29-year-old British citizen to life in prison for the Dec. 22, 2001, bombing attempt aboard a Paris-to-Miami American Airlines flight.

"You are not an enemy combatant -- you are a terrorist. You are not a soldier in any war -- you are a terrorist. ... To give you that reference, to call you a soldier gives you far too much stature," Young said at Thursday's sentencing hearing.

"You are a terrorist, and we do not negotiate with terrorists ... We hunt them down one by one and bring them to justice."

Reid boldly denounced U.S. foreign policy before the sentencing.

"Your government has sponsored the rape and torture of Muslims in the prisons of Egypt and Turkey and Syria and Jordan with their money and with their weapons," said Reid, who converted to Islam eight years ago.

"Your government has killed two million children in Iraq. OK? If you want to think about something, 20 against two million, I don't see no comparison."

Young would have none of it.

"We are not afraid of any of your terrorist coconspirators, Mr. Reid," said the judge. "We are Americans. We have been through the fire before."

Young then pointed to the American flag behind him and said: "See that flag, Mr. Reid? That's the flag of the United States of America. That flag will fly there long after this is all forgotten."

When Young instructed a court officer to take Reid into custody, Reid leaned forward and pointed at the judge, raising his voice. "That flag will be brought down on the day of judgment and you will see in front of your Lord and my Lord and then we will know," Reid said.

"You will be judged by Allah!" Reid said before being taken from the courtroom in handcuffs.

Pleading guilty in the case last October, Reid said he was a member of al-Qaida, pledged his support to Osama bin Laden and declared himself an enemy of the United States.

Reid admitted that he tried to ignite plastic explosives hidden in his shoes on American Airlines Flight 63 about three months after the Sept. 11 attacks -- terrorism that left many Americans afraid to fly.

Several of the dozen American Airlines crew members seated in the courtroom Thursday looked stunned as Reid delivered his courtroom denouncement, glancing at each other and shaking their heads. One woman wept.

Prosecutors said there was enough plastic explosives in his shoes to blow a hole in the fuselage and kill all 197 people aboard.

Reid had tried furiously to light a match to his shoes but he was unable to ignite the fuse. Passengers and crew members overpowered him, using seat belts and their own belts to strap him to his seat. Two doctors sedated him, and the flight was diverted to Boston.

"I can still see the fearful look on their faces as they huddled together after Richard Reid tried to blow them out of the sky with their families," flight attendant Carole Nelson said of the more than 20 children aboard the plane.

"I believe that Richard Reid was on a mission of evil, a mission of destruction and a mission of murder."

In Washington, Attorney General John Ashcroft praised the sentence and called the passengers and crew heroes who averted a disaster.

"The sentence imposed on Richard Reid says to the world that terrorists cannot escape American justice," Ashcroft said.

Reid's lawyers say he credits Islam with saving him from a life of drug use and despair. They described Reid's troubled youth plagued by poverty, feelings of uselessness, racism and crime.

The case is not closed. The FBI thinks Reid had help making the bomb from "an al-Qaida bomb maker," and authorities have said they found unidentified hair and a palm print on the explosives.

Reid pleaded guilty to eight charges, including attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. Besides his sentence, Reid was fined $2 million.

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