Moussaoui

last updated 8 January 2015

On his judgment day, Zacarias Moussaoui had a final message for America, said Neil Lewis in The New York Times. Sentenced to life in solitary confinement for his role in the Sept. 11 attacks, the al Qaida operative erupted into a defiant diatribe in the federal courtroom in Alexandria, Va. 'œAmerica, you lost!' he shouted after the jury's verdict was read. 'œI won!' A visibly angry Judge Leonie M. Brinkema told him, 'œYou came here to be a martyr, and to die in a great big bang of glory. But to paraphrase the poet T.S. Eliot, instead you will die with a whimper. It's quite clear who won and who lost.'

Sadly, it isn't clear at all, said National Review in an editorial. As a committed member of al Qaida, Moussaoui was a soldier in an army waging war against the United States. He should have been tried in a military court as an alien enemy combatant, 'œnot entitled to the protections of either criminal defendants or real soldiers.' Instead, said Peggy Noonan in Opinionjournal.com, Moussaoui used our lenient legal system to get gullible jurors to spare his life. His lawyers apparently convinced the jury that 'œmitigating factors'—an abusive father and childhood encounters with racism—had turned him into the hate-filled monster on display in the courtroom. This is nuts. Imprisoned on a visa violation weeks before 9/11, Moussaoui knew of the looming slaughter and said nothing, dooming 2,700 people to a terrible death. He's as guilty as the hijackers who flew the planes. 'œIf Moussaoui didn't deserve the death penalty, who does?'

Only those actually convicted of murder, said Dahlia Lithwick in Slate.com. Moussaoui may have wanted to kill Americans, but he was in a jail cell when 9/11 occurred—and in this country, we don't execute people for their intentions. Moussaoui, a clearly deranged man, presented several grandiose and conflicting versions of his supposed assignment on 9/11; the prosecution eagerly seized upon these dubious scenarios so it could blame someone—anyone—for that catastrophic attack. But in resisting the attempt to turn Moussaoui into 'œa scapegoat,' the jury made a 'œcourageous' decision. Locked in solitary inside a 7-foot-by-12-foot concrete cell, Moussaoui will soon find that his victory is hollow indeed, said Froma Harrop in The Providence Journal. 'œHe'll be left to rot behind bars and die too old to enjoy the imagined virgins. That is the most appropriate punishment and also the best revenge.'