The Moussaoui Verdict

This was a very wise jury.

If Zacarias Moussaoui was complicit by his silence in the 9/11 attacks, you don’t punish him by dispatching him to meet Allah.

You deny him his martyrdom.

You deny him his 72 virgins.

You deny him every narcissistic desire that would, in his own mind, have made his existence meaningful in the eyes of Heaven and gotten him laid on Earth.

You make him live in the hated West, in the belly of the Great Satan, with the taste of the adversary’s food — and/or semen; after all, we *are* talking prison here — in his mouth every day for the rest of his life.

And you pray he lives a very long life.

7 Responses to “The Moussaoui Verdict”

  1. A.L. Baroza Says:

    I believe the death penalty is appropriate for certain crimes, but I agree–life is the greater punishment in this case. And call me a sap, but we will win hearts and minds by showing the world that we don’t need to resort to terror to fight terror. So yeah, the jury did the right thing.

    I heard that Moussaoui will probably be sent to the “Supermax” federal prisaon in Colorado, home of the Unabomber, Terry Nichols, Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph, and shoe bomber Richard Reid. Which means he’ll be in solitary most of the time, so prison abuse is probably out of the question. Unless the guards lay into him, or Bush sends CIA torture goons there to work him over.

  2. Clint Barton Says:

    Bullsh*t!

    He would only have been a martyr if he died in some glorious way. Since he was captured he is considered to be a fool. He deserves the death penalty.

    A.L. Baroza, you are a sap. This will do NOTHING to change anyone’s mind about us. There will ALWAYS be people that do not like us. Deal with it.

  3. Brian Spence Says:

    Wow, retract those claws.

  4. Steve Gerber Says:

    Clint: “He would only have been a martyr if he died in some glorious way.”

    You mean like being executed by minions of the Great Satan?

    Clint: “Since he was captured he is considered to be a fool. He deserves the death penalty.”

    Which is exactly what they said about Jesus, and look how *that* worked out.

  5. Dwight Williams Says:

    Yeah. We’re still dealing with the fallout, good and ill, two millenia later.

    No. Moussaoui got what he deserved rather than what he wanted. In this case, that’s true justice, even leaving aside my Canadian qualms on the death penalty.

  6. Bart Lidofsky Says:

    A) According to polls taken during the Carter administration, a lot of Americans who support (or at least supported at that point) the death penalty only do/did so because they believed that no matter what the sentence, criminals would frequently get released after a relatively short time. If they believed that “life without parole” did not mean “life until some judge sets him free”, there would be a LOT less support for the dealth penalty.

    B) The only problem (and I mean only) that I have with the life without parole sentence of Moussaoui is that, alive, he remains a symbol. I predict that, within 2 years, there will be kidnappings and hijackings, with the release of Moussaoui being the price.

  7. Allen Montgomery Says:

    Hadn’t considered point B there, Bart. You could be right. But after his sentencing, now he’s asking to retract his guilty plea and go to trial. If we can play up the notion that he’s a coward maybe point B won’t happen.