Should Moussaoui face a death penalty?

[realFedUp]

If he wasn't involved in hijacking a plane
and involved in the crimes on 9/11, why
should he face the death penalty? And
maybe he shouldn't even be on trial for
this particular crime.

I know this government and many Americans want
someone to pay, but have we lost all sense of
American justice and law?

We abandon the law, we lose American democracy.

[IsItJustMe]

1. I think he's a nut case. Could be that years of solitary drove him nuts.

And whether or not he had anything to with 9/11, the evidence is questionable at best.

[catmother]

2. i don't believe in the death penalty,

[realFedUp]

3. I don't either, but this is a crime that he didn't seem directly involved

with and the question begs to be asked if he should
even be in trial for this particular 9/11 crime.

[radio4progressives]

4. No.

I don't believe in the death penalty either, but even if i did..

in this case it would be a flat out injustice.

He didn't have anything to do with 9/11.

[texastoast]

5. No, he should have to

clean the toilets, cook the meals, do the wash, and all without pay for all the families that had to take in the orphaned children he helped create. Just like Bush. For the rest of his life.

[realFedUp]

7. and if he didn't have anything to do with the crimes on 9/11?

That's the question.

[realFedUp]

8. MOUSSAUI TRIAL WILL PROVE BUSH GUILTY

http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2006/03/47827.php

MOUSSAUI TRIAL WILL PROVE BUSH GUILTY
by Albert Kada Tuesday March 07, 2006 at 10:25 AM

September 11th, 2001 was "just another day" or something like that according to government prosecutors railroading Zacharias Moussaui for not cooperating with a Saudi Arabian radical group who allegedly hijacked some airliners but it was Bush who had influential control over the group. Meanwhile, although most of America was oblivious, Bush ordered the assassination of a Columbian judge. Bush had declared war on the world and was actively prosecuting it with the military and any other means necessary.

[texastoast]

21. In real American justice

He is innocent until proven guilty. Don't you get it? America has no political prisoners. Just ask Leonard Peltier.

[catmother]

10. i agree with you.

[stickdog]

33. Whom did he kill?

Just wondering ...

[texastoast]

38. I'm not sure

that he killed anyone overtly, but I believe he did in fact conspire. He knew it was going to happen.

[xultar]

6. No.

[realFedUp]

9. Sy Hersh - Should Moussaoui Have Been A Witness Instead of a Defendant?

Should Moussaoui Have Been A Witness Instead of a Defendant?
http://talkleft.com/new_archives/000523.html#000523
Tuesday :: September 24, 2002

Seymour Hersh writes a very long profile on Zacarias Moussaoui in the new issue of The New Yorker. Hersh tackles the question, "Has the Justice Department mishandled the case against Zacarias Moussaoui?" In other words, would we have been better off if we had made a deal with Moussaoui to spare his life in exchange for his information on Al Qaeda rather than bring him to a public trial where some of our sensitive information gets broadcast to the world?

In answering, Hersh begins by outlining the differences in conduct between Moussaoui and the 19 hijackers:

"If the government's case is built on the similarities between Moussaoui's activities and those of the known hijackers, it must account for the fact that, though he shared their allegiance to Al Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden, his behavior in America was strikingly different from theirs. The government has found evidence of e-mails and meetings among the nineteen, but none between any of them and Moussaoui. The hijackers tried to fit in to American life?drinking in bars, for instance. Moussaoui, while in Oklahoma, remained largely aloof, although he was voluble about his Islamic beliefs. He criticized members of a mosque in Norman for not lowering their gaze when meeting women and for looking at lightly clad cheerleaders. "He went around making a nuisance of himself everywhere he went," Frank W. Dunham, Jr., the federal public defender in charge of Moussaoui's defense team, said. "He was not flying under the radar by any means." Another Moussaoui attorney depicted him as "wearing his fundamentalism on his sleeve," and said, "He was incredibly argumentative?always."

Also of note is the high bar the Justice Department has set for itself in seeking the death penalty against him:

continued

[Disturbed]

11. He plead guilty to the Govt. charges.

It sure seems that he is mentaly deranged.

[realFedUp]

16. and we don't know why he did that...

I'm not saying he didn't intend to commit crimes,
but this isn't the one he intended to commit and
shouldn't be tried for it.

And as we are seeing the current Justice department
head doesn't really care about justice, just the
outcome.

[groton]

12. Yes he should

I am anti DP for like 90% of all Cases
but this is one where I say Time to get old Sparky Ready.

i mean he is a Terrorist and he was Involved with 9/11 he was the Hijacker that Missed the Plane
case closed.

[realFedUp]

15. If you believe in the DP, it should go to those who committed a crime

and a heinous one at that.

When people wake up to the fact that although planes
were hijacked and 2 were flown into the WTC, the buildings themselves came down
by controlled demolition.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

17. THOSE WEREN'T PLANES.

They were SCALAR WEAPONS. From HELL.

[groton]

19. okay this is why i stay in the CT State Fourm

Okay Controled Demolition

Check

your the type of Democrat that gives the rest of us Liberals a Bad Name :)

[Radio_Guy]

22. It was a controlled demolition

But that aside, Moussaoui did nothing. There are no actions that he committed to warrant an arrest, let alone a conviction and execution. But public demand will lead to his execution. It will be the equivolent of a mob lynching.

[realFedUp]

27. thank you RG ....nt

[realFedUp]

24. ya mean the thinking outside the box kinda Liberal?

Yeah, I think beyond the pap the government is selling.

[realFedUp]

29. btw...DU has a September 11 forum...lots of sites with info

nothing happening in CT except Ned Lamont.

[groton]

30. Uh Nope

Lets see
GOV elections
US House Elections

National Defense Issues aka the fact that the FED Gov cutting of Contracts for the VA Class Submarines which is going cause huge layoff's

and of Yeah your a Wacko.
controlled Explosion okay

[mrgorth]

31. Agreed.

[stickdog]

34. Death for thoughtcrime?

What crime did he commit exactly to deserve "old Sparky"?

[sandnsea]

13. He pled guilty, he was a conspirator

I'm against the death penalty on principle. But this guy could have stopped the deaths of thousands of people. Christ he was involved in plotting an attack that, if it had succeeded, would have taken out the Pentagon and the White House or Capitol. I'd vote the death penalty on this guy.

[realFedUp]

14. Do we know that he knew the plans for 9/11?

And do you give the death penalty for someone who
knew the plans for the crimes on 9/11? In that
case, this administration knew the plans and
warned some people not to fly that day.

Maybe one day people will finally wake up to the
real crimes committed on 9/11.

[sandnsea]

18. He pled guilty

Yes we know he knew and yes we know he was part of the conspiracy. He would have been on one of those planes if he hadn't been in jail. Yes, we know that.

[realFedUp]

25. and so being part of the knowledge leads to the death penalty

then round up the Bushies...

[stickdog]

36. He plead guilty to being a member of al Qaeda with OTHER

plans to strike the United States.

And he did so ONLY in a gambit to preserve his life.

[stickdog]

35. That's insane. Bush, Cheney & Rummy could have stopped

the deaths of thousands of people. So could have the airport security folks for Flights 11 and 193. Should they all be put to death?

And where is the proof that this nut knew ANYTHING more about 9/11 than the aforementioned? Where is the proof that he plotted ANYTHING about 9/11?

[Bridget Burke]

41. Bush & his people knew something was up before 9/11....

But they did nothing & thousands died.

You can't be against the death penalty "on principle" & then make exceptions.

I am (really) against the death penalty.

[MadMaddie]

20. No....Life in Prison just like Terry Nichols....

Terrorism is Terrorism....

[realFedUp]

26. and crimes are crimes?

there are different degrees of crimes. You can
paint all terrorists as criminals if they break
laws, but what defines a terrorist?

It's good to think in shades of gray, instead
of black and white.

[SaveElmer]

23. No one should...

Doesn't matter what they did!

[realFedUp]

28. Good archives on Moussaoui at www.talkleft.com

http://talkleft.com/new_archives/cat_terror_trials.html

Latest one is really good:
Moussaoui Judge to Let Case Go to Jury, Moussaoui to Testify
http://talkleft.com/new_archives/014371.html

[stickdog]

32. Death for thoughtcrime?

Not until he learns to love Big Brother, dammit!!!

[Jeffersons Ghost]

37. yesterday on CNN...

I heard that prior to 9/11 most cases against terrorists were won by prosecutors because they met the legal requirements needed to gain a conviction... In post 9/11 most terrorists go free because they involve groundless charges that fall apart in court. thanks bushie for setting terrorists free! you damned fool

[realFedUp]

39. LA Times editorial today - Execute Moussaoui? (they say no)

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-moussaoui28mar28,0,653435.story?coll=la-news-comment-editorials

Execute Moussaoui?

March 28, 2006

EVEN IF HE WAS SUPPOSED TO fly a plane into the White House on the evil morning of Sept. 11, as he testified in court Monday, Zacarias Moussaoui should not be executed. Even if he knew enough, sitting in jail on immigration charges, to have stopped the slaughter at the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon and in a Pennsylvania field, killing the 20th hijacker is actually a worse idea than executing most other murderers on death row.

Monday's dramatic testimony marked the first time Moussaoui has spoken publicly since that world-changing day when 19 hijackers used four planes to kill nearly 3,000 people in the worst attack on the continental United States. Hearing his voice was like picking a scab of a wound that will never heal. And it begs a series of what-ifs: What if the FBI had let its man in Minneapolis seek search warrants based on the French Muslim's curious desire for jumbo-jet training and his professed hatred for the U.S.? What if we could hear all of the witnesses testify, instead of suffering from their silence because a federal lawyer improperly coached many of them through their expected cross-examination?

The 19 hijackers are dead. But there is still Moussaoui. He knew. He helped. Shouldn't he die?

No, he should not. Many committed opponents of the death penalty want to carve out exceptions for mass murderers or those who attack or betray the nation writ large, such as Timothy McVeigh. But if you believe, as does this page, that the death penalty debases our society, the principle becomes all the more important when it is most tempting to ignore.

continued with reasons not to...

[realFedUp]

40. their reasons don't include putting someone who didn't do it to death

I assume they want letters on this one.
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