As we sit and wait for the verdict in the Moussaoui trial .......

[Stinky The Clown]

... let's take a look back ..... and let's speculate forward.

In my view, this whole thing has been a stupid show trial. There's little evidence beyond his own words that he's a serious part of the 9/11 plot.

Had certain .... uh ..... dots been connected in the days and months before 9/11, we would have avoided the event. Had someone paid due attention to good, solid, work-a-day people like Colleen Rowley, it could have been stopped. Had the August 6 PDB been written with a title less .... mmmmm ..... subtle than "BIN LADEN DETERMINED TO STRIKE IN AMERICA", it could have been stopped.

If Rummy and Tommy Franks had stayed in Afghanistan instead of jerking off Il Dunce's war boner, we would have gotten the real bad guy. Instead, Bin Laden's out there having brunch with Nicole's killer.

So today we get a verdict in the trial of a man who arguably a delusional borderline schizophrenic who simply serves the purposes of Rove's massive fabrication.

Am I arguing for Moussaoui to get off and be allowed to go back home? Absolutely not.

Is the trial .... and the man, fry him or not ..... a balm to our national wounds?

No fucking way.

[babylonsister]

1. If someone was allowed to, the dots could still be connected

easily, blame assigned, and it would not be pointing at Moussaoui. This is one huge distraction so we'll look anywhere except towards those responsible.

[Selatius]

2. If you're arguing against the death penalty, I'm there with you.

I hope there was at least one person of conscience on the jury who is opposed to the death penalty in all cases on principled grounds.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. Not arguing ...... but this isn't about the death penalty

It is about the distraction and deflection of it all.

**If** there is a case to be made for the death penalty, taking down the towers is a case where it is appropriate.

By that standard, this should never have been a death penalty case.

This guy is closer to that neighborhood bum we all knew and loved who walks down the street talking to himself.

[gratuitous]

3. If you believe in the power of violence to redeem violence

Then Moussaoui must die.

However, if you're a rational human being for whom facts and evidence matter, then Moussaoui would spend the remainder of his life under clinical observation and psychiatric intervention in the hope of retrieving his lost humanity.

[jenmito]

5. What did Moussaoui do?

They're just using him as the face of 9/11 when for all we know he's a wannabe terrorist who likes all this attention but knew nothing. He probably feels way more important now than he ever should've been or deserved to be. The govt. can say he was the 20th hijacker all they want. He probably likes that "status."

[Stinky The Clown]

6. There was good testimony that indicates the **real** bad guys

told him to take a hike.

He's just a nut.

[jenmito]

8. I agree...

He IS just a nut that these people are making into an oak tree.

[gratuitous]

10. Yeah, I don't think he did anything, either

But if violence can redeem violence (and a lot of folks in the United States think it does), someone must die for the attacks of 9/11 -- even if he didn't have anything to do with it.

As near as I can tell, Moussaoui was even too nuts for the fanatics who steered the planes into the towers, and I didn't hear of much independent evidence that he had been anything more than an approving onlooker to the whole affair. I don't know how or why Moussaoui lost his humanity such that the fiery deaths of 3,000 people pleases him so much, but if there's a chance of any kind for his redemption, it doesn't lie along the path of a state-sanctioned homicide.

[Master Mahon]

7. He should be sent to a mental institution

he should become John Hinckley Jr.'s roomate and spend weekends
home with the Bush's in Crawford as punishment! :+

[jenmito]

9. He got life in prison. n/t