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Murphy Martin Commentary
May 11, 2006

 "Moussaoui Meeting with Virgins Delayed"

So the jury, after more than sixty-hours of deliberation decided to spare the life of a 37-year old Frenchman and instead make him spend the rest of his life in a concrete cell in U.S. government's super-maximum-security prison in Florence, Colorado. There he will be held in solitary confinement near some of America's most notorious criminals.

Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols, 1993 World Trade Center conspirator Ramzi Yousef and "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid. None of these people will ever have an opportunity to get-together to compare notes!

Moussaoui -- as those mentioned above -- will spend 23-hours a day in
a 12-by-7-foot cell that features a concrete platform topped with a thin mattress that serves as a bed. A desk and a stool of poured concrete and a shower with a spout in the ceiling and a drain in the floor. Each cell has a long, narrow window looking out at other prison walls or a small concrete-walled recreation yard. He will be allowed one  hour a day alone in the recreation yard.

A twelve-inch black-and-white television set in each isolation cell pipes in closed-circuit anger-management and parenting classes. Literacy and Religious services also are part of video feeds into the cells. And, each isolation prisoner eats alone in his cell.

When passing sentence on the admitted co-conspirator of the 9/11 attacks on America, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkerma said: "Mr. Moussaoui, you look around this courtroom....when this proceeding is over, everyone in this courtroom is free to go anywhere they want....see the sun...hear the birds. You will spend the rest of your life in a supermax prison." But Moussaoui still wanted to be heard and vowed that Osama bin Laden would never be captured and he also claimed that somehow he would be set free before President Bush leaves office in 2009.....and claimed the verdict that concluded the two-month trial was a victory for him.

Judge Beinkerma would have none of the convicted terrorist's boasts. She said: "In terms of winners and losers it's quite clear who won and who lost....You came in here to be a martyr in a great bang of glory. But to paraphrase the words of poet T.S. Eliot, you will die with a whimper. You will never again get a chance to speak."

Reportedly, three members of the jury were not convinced Moussaoui
was a major player in the 9/11 attacks despite his admission to guilt. Efforts to sentence him to death for his part in the attacks that killed three-thousand on 9/11 failed. The after-effects of those terrorist's attacks continue to maim and kill American forces in the middle east. This man who said he would "gladly have slaughtered Americans if given the chance" will spend the rest of his natural life in concrete isolation -- still another burden to U.S. taxpayers.

What a shame he was denied an early visit with the Virgins promised by Allah. Maybe some jurors thought death would have been the easy way out for him. Maybe they thought it will be more painful to live in the Alcatraz of the Rockies in isolation as he dreams of Allah's promise of all those virgins!

That may not be all bad! By the time he gets to wherever they are---those Virgins may be old and ugly! Just what he deserves before he burns in Hell!

Murphy Martin

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