Enough Already
What an embarrassment the Zacarias Moussaoui trial has become. Maybe the government should not have tried so hard last week to prevent the case from being dismissed after Carla Martin, a lawyer for the Transportation Security Administration assisting the prosecutors, was found to have coached witnesses improperly and otherwise violated basic trial rules.
This week does not seem to have gone much better. On Monday, an FBI agent testified that he submitted a memo on August 18, 2001, saying that Moussaoui should be investigated as a potential terrorist hijacker. Yesterday, another FBI agent -- the first agent's boss -- testified that he never read the memo. Today, the prosecution trotted out Robert Cammaroto, a TSA staffer apparently untainted by Ms. Martin, to say that if Moussaoui had talked after being arrested in August 2001, the FAA could have taken steps to thwart the hijackers.
Of course, that testimony might have been more persuasive if Cammaroto also did not have to admit on cross-examination that the FAA knew before September 11 of a plan to fly a plane into the Eiffel Tower and of al-Qaida plans for suicide missions generally. What Cammaroto said the FAA did not know, however, was whether al-Qaida's suicide attacks would include suicide airplane attacks in the U.S. Oh, okay, that makes sense.
And did I mention the unread freakin' memo? Gee, if only the government had known something bad was going to happen!!!!
This week does not seem to have gone much better. On Monday, an FBI agent testified that he submitted a memo on August 18, 2001, saying that Moussaoui should be investigated as a potential terrorist hijacker. Yesterday, another FBI agent -- the first agent's boss -- testified that he never read the memo. Today, the prosecution trotted out Robert Cammaroto, a TSA staffer apparently untainted by Ms. Martin, to say that if Moussaoui had talked after being arrested in August 2001, the FAA could have taken steps to thwart the hijackers.
Of course, that testimony might have been more persuasive if Cammaroto also did not have to admit on cross-examination that the FAA knew before September 11 of a plan to fly a plane into the Eiffel Tower and of al-Qaida plans for suicide missions generally. What Cammaroto said the FAA did not know, however, was whether al-Qaida's suicide attacks would include suicide airplane attacks in the U.S. Oh, okay, that makes sense.
And did I mention the unread freakin' memo? Gee, if only the government had known something bad was going to happen!!!!
posted by FCB at 8:43 PM
1 Comments:
OK. The government screws up this case, and it looks like our "would be" terrorist gets life. How ironic that he sealed his own fate by testifying that he planned to drive a fifth plane into the White House. All of the sudden what was never a case has become one.
Be that as it may, one more critical government blunder: here is a guy that wants to be a martyr, and wants to die. And, our government is more than happy to help him pull the trigger. If it were my choice, I'd stop this death penalty trial and commit him to life at Club Fed (not the one with tennis courts). Isn't that a more fitting sentence than giving him exactly what he wants?
Can you see the circus that will ensue when he is put to death? Moussaoui proclaiming, "Death to America, Death to the Great Satan. My virgins await me"!
Burghlaw
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