Scapegoats...
So yesterday Zacarias Moussaoui was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the September 11th attacks as the so-called "20th Hijacker". This man was in prison almost a month before the attacks and was not directly involved in the death of any American citizen, yet his sentence is life in prison. Something about that is just wrong. Sure, he's a dangerous and absolutely insane man, but he should be in a mental hospital and not prison. Afterall, what crime did he commit? He was in prison when the hijackings took place, and any attempt made to link him to 9/11 has failed. His trial was also a farce. The trial had dozens of these 9/11 victims who just can't get over their loss and have to blame someone testify tearfully. They would tell about how losing their husband ruined their life, and about how good of a person he was. Yes, it is devastating to lose a loved one, but blaming someone who had no hand in the death and putting him away for life is not what our legal system is supposed to do. Bin Laden is a ghost, so Moussaoui took his place.
This is not to mention the fact that we essentially convicted Bin Laden within days of the attacks. Even if he were to stand trial, he would come into the trial as a guilty man and have no chance for justice. On April 22, 2005, in one of the court sessions at the end of the current trial phase, Moussaoui surprised the whole audience by pleading guilty to all of the charges against him, while at the same time denying having any intention of a massacre like 9/11. He said that it was not his conspiracy and that he intended to free sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman. According to him, his master plan was to hijack a Boeing 747-400, since the plane is one of a few that could reach Afghanistan from the U.S. without any intermediate stops. (from wikipedia). However, the man directly contradicted this on numerous occasions. Actually, he was constantly contradicting himself, and he also would fight against his lawyers and have frequent outbursts during the trial. How can someone be sentenced to life when he isn't even sure of what he did?
Scapegoats are common in this country. Whether it's the Mexicans we're blaming, the German-Americans back in WWI, the Japanese-Americans in WWII or people with left-leaning views during McCarthyism, we are always looking to blame someone for our problems. Instead of taking responsibility for our actions: destabilizing the Middle East, TRAINING OSAMA BIN LADEN TO KILL, ignoring warning signs of terrorism (like the fact that the WTC was bombed in 1994!) or even natural disasters like the levies in New Orleans which had been considered basically useless for more than a decade. Americans are so quick to place blame that they forget that they are responsible for themselves. I wasn't surprised that we were attacked by terrorists because we'd been attacked before and Europe and Israel had been facing this for decades.
As we continue to go down the road towards right-wing authoritarian governance, we can look at this trial of Zacarias Moussaoui as the point where we abandoned the right to a fair trial and punishment. Look how the administration has used terrorism to erode the right for the accused to stand trial. Just because a prosecutor thinks someone is guilty doesn't mean that they are. Prosecutors think everyone is guilty, they have a chip on their shoulder that they are something like a superhero in the courtroom, dedicating their life to cleaning the streets. If a heinous crime is committed, the first person arrested will be guilty until proven innocent in the mind of the prosecution. Not only that, but in the Moussaoui trail there was a ton of evidence that wasn't allowed to be used in court because it would "undermine national security". If we are locking up innocent people as terrorists (and Moussaoui is not one of these, he plead guilty...) we aren't helping to protect ourselves, we're endangering ourselves. Afterall, the US is looked at as an evil country which acts as a dictator for the world. If we continue lock up people without a trial, and do these Kangaroo Court trials for those who are actually charged with something, we WILL face another major attack. But then again, that next attack will probably come as a surprise to Americans and they will once again blame the government or some Arab they never heard of before the government told them about him. It's just like blaming illegal aliens for gas prices being high...
This is not to mention the fact that we essentially convicted Bin Laden within days of the attacks. Even if he were to stand trial, he would come into the trial as a guilty man and have no chance for justice. On April 22, 2005, in one of the court sessions at the end of the current trial phase, Moussaoui surprised the whole audience by pleading guilty to all of the charges against him, while at the same time denying having any intention of a massacre like 9/11. He said that it was not his conspiracy and that he intended to free sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman. According to him, his master plan was to hijack a Boeing 747-400, since the plane is one of a few that could reach Afghanistan from the U.S. without any intermediate stops. (from wikipedia). However, the man directly contradicted this on numerous occasions. Actually, he was constantly contradicting himself, and he also would fight against his lawyers and have frequent outbursts during the trial. How can someone be sentenced to life when he isn't even sure of what he did?
Scapegoats are common in this country. Whether it's the Mexicans we're blaming, the German-Americans back in WWI, the Japanese-Americans in WWII or people with left-leaning views during McCarthyism, we are always looking to blame someone for our problems. Instead of taking responsibility for our actions: destabilizing the Middle East, TRAINING OSAMA BIN LADEN TO KILL, ignoring warning signs of terrorism (like the fact that the WTC was bombed in 1994!) or even natural disasters like the levies in New Orleans which had been considered basically useless for more than a decade. Americans are so quick to place blame that they forget that they are responsible for themselves. I wasn't surprised that we were attacked by terrorists because we'd been attacked before and Europe and Israel had been facing this for decades.
As we continue to go down the road towards right-wing authoritarian governance, we can look at this trial of Zacarias Moussaoui as the point where we abandoned the right to a fair trial and punishment. Look how the administration has used terrorism to erode the right for the accused to stand trial. Just because a prosecutor thinks someone is guilty doesn't mean that they are. Prosecutors think everyone is guilty, they have a chip on their shoulder that they are something like a superhero in the courtroom, dedicating their life to cleaning the streets. If a heinous crime is committed, the first person arrested will be guilty until proven innocent in the mind of the prosecution. Not only that, but in the Moussaoui trail there was a ton of evidence that wasn't allowed to be used in court because it would "undermine national security". If we are locking up innocent people as terrorists (and Moussaoui is not one of these, he plead guilty...) we aren't helping to protect ourselves, we're endangering ourselves. Afterall, the US is looked at as an evil country which acts as a dictator for the world. If we continue lock up people without a trial, and do these Kangaroo Court trials for those who are actually charged with something, we WILL face another major attack. But then again, that next attack will probably come as a surprise to Americans and they will once again blame the government or some Arab they never heard of before the government told them about him. It's just like blaming illegal aliens for gas prices being high...
posted by Dan Pasternack at 10:59 AM
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