Moussaoui Jury Told to Avoid Dictionaries

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. Apr 28, 2006 (AP)— The judge in Zacarias Moussaoui's death penalty trial admonished the jury Friday to avoid dictionaries after learning a juror looked up the meaning of "aggravating."

How aggravating and mitigating factors balance out in the jurors' minds is key to their deliberations, which resumed after a daylong break called because one juror was sick.

Moussaoui can only be executed for his part in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks if the jury believes unanimously that his crimes involved at least one of three main aggravating factors alleged by the government. If so, the jury must consider mitigating factors offered by the defense before reaching that decision.

The jury of nine men and three women is deciding whether Moussaoui should be executed or given life in prison.

more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1902257

[MADem]

1. Gosh, that can be SO aggravating, when they tell you that you can't

look up words!!!!

Sorry, couldn't help it!!!! It begged to be said.

[0007]

4. So aggravating. This trial is a sham.

[sendero]

2. In the judges defense..

... the legal meaning of "aggravated" probably has only a tangential relationship with the dictionary definition.

[Disturbed]

3. Did the Jury need to look up the word...

"insane"?

[MADem]

7. I was being a little snarky with my use of the word, above! n/t

[Gormy Cuss]

8. How so?

The formal dictionary definition of aggravation is to make some something worse. Isn't that the legal sense as well? I do understand the judge's admonishment because the jurors should ask the court to define it.

There is the common colloquial usage of aggravate when one really should use irritate or exasperate, as when one's mother says "Stop whining, you're aggravating me. " ;)

[damntexdem]

5. What's wrong? Haven't they ever heard of a thesaurus?

What's another word for "aggravating"? Hmm, how about charging a minor nutcase in a capital case while ignoring those who were engaged in the plot in a major way -- and, of course, "not thinking about him much" with regard to Osama?

[Mika]

6. How about a copy of the tenth edition of the Newspeak Dictionary?

http://www.online-literature.com/view.php/1984/14

O'Brien: 'What I had really intended to say was that in your article I noticed you had used two words which have become obsolete. But they have only become so very recently. Have you seen the tenth edition of the Newspeak Dictionary?'

'No,' said Winston. 'I didn't think it had been issued yet. We are still using the ninth in the Records Department.'

'The tenth edition is not due to appear for some months, I believe. But a few advance copies have been circulated. I have one myself. It might interest you to look at it, perhaps?'

'Very much so,' said Winston, immediately seeing where this tended.

'Some of the new developments are most ingenious. The reduction in the number of verbs -- that is the point that will appeal to you, I think.

[Haole Girl]

9. I once went through a jury selection process and

they actually selected a woman for the jury who didn't know what Miranda Rights were! And, I'm sure they didn't let her look it up later either. Our jury system frightens me.

[politrix]

10. If He's Being Tried For Prior Knowledge

And, if they want to parade the families with their horror stories to bring home that he in some way helped caused the deaths that day -

- Then, WHY isn't EVERYONE with prior knowledge being treated that way? I mean, there are so many people who KNEW beforehand - starting with our government, why aren't they on trial?


Exclusive: The Informant Who Lived With the Hijack
NEWSWEEK has learned that one of the bureau�s informants had a close relationship with two of the hijackers

By Michael Isikoff
NEWSWEEK


Sept. 16 issue � At first, FBI director Bob Mueller insisted there was nothing the bureau could have done to penetrate the 9-11 plot. That account has been modified over time�and now may change again. NEWSWEEK has learned that one of the bureau�s informants had a close relationship with two of the hijackers: he was their roommate.

http://www.google.com/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=relationship+with+two+of+the+hijackers&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

------------------------------

Then, there's Curt Vreeland's letter:

It was on these 2000 intelligence operations in Russia that Vreeland obtained the information which told him attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon -- among other targets -- were pending, and that US intelligence was aware of them.

Vreeland�s warning note, sealed and placed in the sole custody of Canadian jailers on Aug. 11 or 12, also contained the ominous statement, �Let one happen. Stop the rest.� That document was entered into evidence in Vreeland�s extradition hearing on Oct. 7, 2001.

At that time Canadian authorities acknowledged that the letter had been written a month before the attacks.

A copy of the warning letter can be viewed at http://www.copvcia.com/free/ww3/
01_28_02_vreeland.jpg.

--------------------------

Flight School Warned F.B.I. of Suspicions
By PHILIP SHENON
WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 �

An instructor at a Minnesota flight school warned the F.B.I. in
August of his suspicion that a student who was later identified as a
part of Osama bin Laden's terror network might be planning to use a
commercial plane loaded with fuel as a weapon, a member of Congress
and other officials said today.

http://www.google.com/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=An+instructor+at+a+Minnesota+flight+school+warned+the+F.B.I.+in+August&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

------------------------------

Who Knew? The unanswered questions of 9/11
September 3, 2003

"CBS reporter David Martin revealed that weeks before the attacks, the CIA had warned Bush personally of Osama Bin Laden’s intent to use hijacked planes as missiles. That followed the damaging exposure by The Associated Press’s John Solomon of a pre-9/11 FBI memo from an officer in Phoenix warning of suspicious Middle Eastern men training at flight schools—a warning that went unheeded."

http://www.inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=340_0_1_0_C

-------------------------------

U.S. Clamps Secrecy on Warnings Before 9/11
August 7, 2003

"The committee managed, 'inadvertently,' it says, to get some contents of a key briefing Bush received in August 2001. It included 'FBI judgments about patterns of activity consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks; as well as information acquired in May 2001 that indicated a group of Bin Ladin (sic) supporters was planning attacks in the United States with explosives.'"

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpcoc073404676aug07,0,4849578.column

-----------------------------

Bush's 9-11 Secrets
July 31, 2003

"The U.S. government had received repeated warnings of impending attacks—and attacks using planes directed at New York and Washington—for several years. The government never told us about what it knew was coming."

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0332/mondo4.php

----------------------------

9/11 report, Rice remarks in conflict; Investigators say Bush got specific data on threats
July 29, 2003

"...the briefing given to the president a month before the suicide hijackings included recent intelligence that al-Qaida was planning to send operatives to the United States to carry out an attack using high explosives."

http://www.sunspot.net/business/nationworld/bal-te.rice29jul29,0,2620591.story?coll=bal-business-headlines

---------------------------

FBI Warned D.C. It Was A Target
September 25, 2002

"A Minnesota FBI agent investigating Zacarias Moussaoui testified yesterday that he notified the Secret Service weeks before Sept. 11 that a terror team might hijack a plane and 'hit the nation's capital.'"
http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/57848.htm

Moussaoui Warnings Ignored
September 24, 2002

"An FBI supervisor, sounding a prophetic pre-Sept. 11 alarm, warned FBI headquarters that student pilot Zacarias Moussaoui was so dangerous he might 'take control of a plane and fly it into the World Trade Center,' a congressional investigator said in a report Tuesday."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=512&ncid
=716&e=4&u=/ap/20020924/ap_on_go_co/attacks_intelligence

America had 12 warnings of aircraft attack
September 19, 2002

"American intelligence received many more clues before the 11 September attacks than previously disclosed, that terrorists might hijack planes and turn them into weapons, a joint congressional committee was told yesterday."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/
story.jsp?story=334633

------------------------

There are more prior warnings and official reports than I can list here. So, WHAT is the big deal about this one guy who knew what alot of people knew and NONE of them stopped.

He should tell the jury that he didn't warn us because our government already knew. THAT would be damn interesting. I think it would be excellent defense - they'd have to prove they didn't know and it's public record that they did.