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March 19, 2010
Rabbi Berel Wein: The Divine is in the details
JWisdom.com Stewards of sacrifice with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Why Obama is waging war on Israel
March 18, 2010
Cal Thomas: Israel's New Enemy: America?
JWisdom.com Love me not? with Rabbi David Aaron (5 minutes)
Jonathan Rosenblum: Washington Throws a Tantrum
March 17, 2010
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Orwell, Santayana, and Me
Jonathan Tobin: How Many Lives Is Biden's Pride Worth?
March 16, 2010
Steven Emerson: Combating Lawfare
JWisdom.com How to perform a miracle with Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair (4 minutes)
Anne Bayefsky: Behind Obama's Dangerous Overreaction on Israel
March 15, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Father's obligations toward minor children
JWisdom.com Moody, Grumpy, Irritable Children with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Judith Graham: Get the whole picture before a CT
March 12, 2010
Rabbi David Aaron: You CAN have Heaven on Earth
JWisdom.com Manufacturing mediums with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: The march of the Red-Green brigades
March 11, 2010
Glenn Garvin: Conspiracy theories, why people believe them and how they spread
JWisdom.com For Yourself, Not By Yourself with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer : Turn leftovers into tasty New England hash
Paul Richter: Biden promises 'viable Palestine' is in the offing
March 10, 2010
Paul Greenberg: Death Checks In
JWisdom.com How To Get A (Real) Life with Rabbi Warren Goldstein ( EXTENDED EPISODE)
Paul Richter: Israel exerts soverign right to its capital as Biden looks on astounded
Richard A. Serrano: 'Jihad Jane' indictment alleges threat from within U.S.
March 9, 2010
Wesley Pruden: Joe's Israeli adventure
JWisdom.com Free To Be (Responsibly) You and Me! with Rabbi Naftali Brawer ( 8 MINUTES)
David G. Savage: Supreme Court to rule on free speech in case of soldier's funeral
March 8, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Make a fuss about those who cuss?
JWisdom.com Finding or Losing Yourself? Here's How! with Rabbi David Aaron ( 5 MINUTES)
Steven Emerson: America must learn from the UK about the future of Islamist subversion
March 5, 2010
Rabbi Berel Wein: Golden Calf still with us --- except it has multiplied
JWisdom.com The Limits of Eternity with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: Biden's lost cause
March 4, 2010
Alan M. Dershowitz: How About A Real Campaign Against Abuses?
JWisdom.com Using Things, Loving People with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff ( 7 MINUTES)
Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel's Everything's Relative
March 3, 2010
JWisdom.com Grasping The Name of Your Life Game with Rabbi Warren Goldstein ( 8 MINUTES)
The Kosher Gourmet by Marialisa Calta : A cowboy's recipes for really good grub
March 2, 2010
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Someone's there
Diane Toroian Keaggy : Have we misunderstood Michelangelo?
March 1, 2010
JWisdom.com Whole in One with Rabbi David Aaron ( 5 MINUTES)
Michael Muskal: Hillary meets with Israeli official, discusses gefilte fish dispute
Feb. 26, 2010
Rabbi Francis Nataf: The Megilla of Spring
JWisdom.com A Biblical Secret for a More Powerful You with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: When rhetoric rules the roost
Feb. 25, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: When walking away from your mortgage is both economically sound and makes ethical sense
JWisdom.com The Second Most Important Question in Your Life with Rabbi Yehoshua Karsh ( 5 MINUTES)
Seema Mehta : U.S.-Israel relations raised in California's Senate race --- by conservatives
Feb. 24, 2010
Rabbi Avi Shafran: The gift of the ‘prayer bomber’
Steven Emerson: Why Religious Freedom Commission is under attack
Feb. 23, 2010
Dennis Prager: Government, Yes! The Divine and Parents, No!
JWisdom.com The Last Laugh of Enlightenment with Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair ( 5 MINUTES)
Anne Applebaum: Prepare for war with Iran --- in case Israel strikes
Feb. 22, 2010
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Is it not refreshing Tiger Woods' career has crashed and burned so dramatically?
JWisdom.com Esther and the third Truth with Rabbi David Aaron ( 9 MINUTES)
Kelly Brewington: Going smoke-free may raise diabetes risk
Feb. 19, 2010
Rabbi David Aaron: Is the Divine beyond us or within us?
JWisdom.com Olympic Faith with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: Israel and the West are perpetrators of a myth that endangers the Jewish State
Feb. 18, 2010
Cal Thomas: Who is Rashad Hussain?
JWisdom.com A Wedding Disaster to Remember with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein ( 3 MINUTES)
Feb. 17, 2010
JWisdom.com Think your life is messed up? with Rabbi David Aaron ( 11 MINUTES)
Greg Logan: 'Greatest Jewish sporting event of all time since David versus Goliath' may be postponed because of bar mitzvah
Feb. 16, 2010
Anya Martin : Boy's 'cerebral palsy' fixed with diet
JWisdom.com Feet On The Street Spirituality with Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 8 MINUTES)
Marty Peretz: Let Europe Mind Its Own Business. It Brings Nothing To The Table Save For Mischief
Feb. 15, 2010
Herb Geduld: Lincoln and the Jews
JWisdom.com Are Our Children Really Ours? with Rabbi Mordechai Becher ( 5 MINUTES)
Susan King: 'Wolf Man' reflected writer's wartime Jewish experience

Jewish World Review April 21, 2006 / 23 Nissan, 5766

Moussaoui's slouch to justice

By Debra J. Saunders

Debra J. Saunders
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | In 2001, critics worried that the so-called "rocket docket" in Virginia would steamroll Zacarias Moussaoui in a rush to judgment. Several years, motions and court delays later, it's a marvel that federal prosecutors managed to get to the point where jurors are deliberating on whether to sentence Moussaoui, 37, who has pleaded guilty, to death or life in prison.


Today, if anything, the public seems inclined to yawn through the end of the trial, while editorial writers twist themselves in knots as they work to spare Moussaoui from the execution he deserves.


Since this case has dragged on so long, let me supply a few facts: Osama bin Laden selected Moussaoui to fly a plane into the White House. Al-Qaida paid $14,000 to send Moussaoui to flight school to learn to pilot big planes. When he was detained on immigration charges in August 2001, Moussaoui had two knives and other paraphernalia similar to that used by the Sept. 11 hijackers.


There is only one question — and it probably will never be answered — and that is whether Moussaoui was supposed to fly a plane on Sept. 11 or later. The 9-11 commission found that Moussaoui likely "was being primed as a possible pilot" for the Sept. 11 attacks. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, has said Moussaoui was being saved for a "second wave" attack. Either way, he's guilty.


Moussaoui was a knowledgeable member of a plot that robbed nearly 3,000 individuals of their lives. In his guilty plea, he admitted that he lied to the FBI in order to enable others to carry out the Sept. 11 attacks.


Of course, Moussaoui's attorneys will use what arguments they can to save him. They've found experts who believe Moussaoui is a paranoid schizophrenic. But it's Moussaoui's courtroom antics that have impressed the chattering classes. Moussaoui's self-incriminating testimony let jurors know that his only regret is that more Americans didn't die. Ergo, pundits reason, he must be not bloodthirsty, but willfully self-destructive.


A Washington Post story reported last week, "Some legal experts wondered if he was using reverse psychology with the jurors yesterday, expressing a wish for life when his real aim was to die a martyr." (How about: Moussaoui was using reverse-reverse psychology and his real aim is to be spared the death penalty by making people think he wants to die a martyr?)


Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen opined, "Had he simply not taken the stand and let his lawyers talk for him, he might have averted the death penalty."


Ever notice how death-penalty opponents love to argue that life imprisonment is worse than execution — even though death row inmates' copious appeals belie that argument? That argument has returned.


"Let him rot," the Hartford Courant editorialized. Don't sentence Moussaoui to death, when "he deserves to live his worst dream, which is to spend his remaining years looking at four bare walls in a cell separated from everyone else and monitored round the clock." The Los Angeles Times editorialized, "Capital punishment gives (jihadists like Moussaoui) the martyrdom they crave."


Of course, the Times and the Post's Cohen would oppose the death penalty even for Osama bin Laden himself. And it's a safe bet that if jurors do not sentence Moussaoui to death, then in the future they'll be arguing that if a man involved in close to 3,000 homicides can beat the death rap, then jurors would be wrong to mete out a capital sentence to a man who, say, has killed only two people.


The Times argued that the death penalty "debases our society." Nice sounding words — but that's a mantra, not an argument.


It debases a society when a group of hateful extremists murder nearly 3,000 innocent people and there is so little outrage. It debases a society when elites are so concerned about feeling civilized that they fool themselves into believing that life behind bars can atone for so much senseless carnage. It cannot.

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© 2006, Creators Syndicate

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