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?'
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