Moussaoui Pleads Guilty, Says bin Laden Chose Him for Attacks
Zacarias Moussaoui pleaded guilty today to conspiring with the September Eleventh hijackers to kill Americans and declared that he was personally chosen by Osama bin Laden to fly a plane into the White House during a later attack.
Moussaoui admitted guilt in front of a packed courtroom only a few miles from where one of the four hijacked planes crashed into the Pentagon in 2001.He pleaded to six counts, four of which could bring the death penalty, and said he had not been promised a lighter sentence for his pleas and expected no leniency.
The judge accepted the plea, making the French citizen the lone person convicted in a U.S. court in connection with the attacks that killed nearly three thousand.
Moussaoui will have his sentence determined at a later date.
Chad at In the Bullpen notes that Moussaoui expects no leniency in his sentencing. Chad then goes on to take the court to task.
In my view this trial took completely too long […] Moussaoui should have served as a lesson to terrorists around the world that the American justice system will react harshly when this country is attacked, but it did not.
You may also find the case’s Statement of Facts an interesting read.
13 Years for Shoe Bomb Plotter
A British Muslim who took part in a “shoe bomb” plot to blow up two transatlantic airliners was jailed for 13 years yesterday.
Saajid Badat, 25, an Islamic scholar whose anger at the treatment of Muslims led him to become a potential “courier of death” after attending Taliban training camps in Afghanistan, would have faced a 50-year sentence had he not backed out of the conspiracy.
His fellow potential shoe bomber, Richard Reid, a former Brixton street criminal who converted to Islam and became a follower of the al-Qa’eda leader Osama bin Laden, tried and failed to detonate his footwear on a Paris-Miami flight just months after the September 11 attacks on New York. Reid has been jailed for life in the US.
Badat, however, threw away his shoe and hid an amount of explosive at his family home in Gloucester in December 2001. Like Reid’s device it would have been capable of blowing a hole in the fuselage of an aircraft, almost certainly bringing it down.
At the Old Bailey yesterday Mr Justice Fulford told Badat, who had admitted conspiring to blow up an airliner at a hearing in February, “that the plot was truly appalling”.
”Your joint objective was the murder of hundreds of unsuspecting men, women and children who happened by chance and bad luck to be travelling on the airliner selected by the conspiracy.”
Badat had remained in the plot, which involved him and Reid blowing themselves up on flights from Europe to America, shortly before Christmas 2001, until “very late in its evolution”, the court heard. His continued participation may have encouraged Reid. However, in the end Badat turned his back on the plan and tried to return to a normal life and hoped the affair would “go away”.
[…]
[Michael Mansfield, QC, defending,] said: “It was his faith which in a sense took him to the brink of disaster and at the same time it was his faith in the end which pulled him back.” Badat, he added, wanted to send a message to those minded to use force, that “they should have the courage to turn away”.
Was it faith that stopped him? Not the faith of a man who would would travel to Afghanistan for terrorist training under bin Laden. No, I’d say it was more likely cowardice. Badat and Reid, coward and incompetent. Talk about your pair of jokers.
Missile Accused a Clown, Says Lawyer
A Briton charged with selling a shoulder-launched missile to terrorists for use in the US was described by his lawyer today as “a joke, a clown”, who was strung along by undercover agents in a case of entrapment.
Defence lawyer Henry Klingeman portrayed Hemant Lakhani, 69, a British citizen born in India, as a failed businessman who “couldn’t finish a deal if his life depended on it”.
Mr Lakhani, arrested in August 2003 after a two-year international sting operation, was charged with trying to provide material support to terrorists, unlawful arms sales, smuggling and money laundering. He could face 25 years in prison.
US District Judge Katharine Hayden scheduled the New Jersey jury to begin deliberations on Tuesday.
[…]
While the prosecution depicted him as an enthusiastic broker eager to supply a terrorist group, the defence said he was a victim of the Government’s overzealous law enforcement in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
“He may be a fool, a charlatan, but he’s no arms dealer,” said Mr Klingeman, who said there was nothing in Lakhani’s background to suggest involvement with terrorists and no criminal record of that sort.
The defence lawyer said Mr Lakhani was a failed businessman who had declared bankruptcy, owed taxes on his house, was evicted from the office where he ran his clothing business, and owed money on bounced cheques.
Prosecutor Stuart Rabner countered that Mr Lakhani had freely offered to arrange the sale of 50 more missiles.
“There was no coercion. No threats, no guns to the defendant’s head,” said Mr Rabner. “You don’t have to be sophisticated to be a criminal. You can be a dumb criminal.”
The prosecution produced hours of videotapes and taped telephone conversations of Mr Lakhani allegedly making the deal with an undercover FBI informant posing as an Islamic militant, and evidence of negotiations with Russian law enforcement officers posing as Ukrainian arms suppliers.
An interesting strategy there by the defense. It might have been effective had Lakhani been charged with being a genius. Unfortunately, willfully trying to aid terrorists is a bit more serious matter. It’s also something idiots are quite capable of doing. Since we can’t kill him, I hope the jury locks him away for the max. Maybe others behind bars can complete the justice Lakhani deserves.
As an aside, isn’t that just a craptastic headline?