Word: moussaoui
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...Moussaoui's "martyrdom" mission went ahead without him, largely as a result of his own sloppiness. The hapless 34-year-old Frenchman had been arrested by the FBI on immigration charges after carelessly arousing suspicion at a Minnesota flight school. Even in those infinitely more innocent days, a man impatient to learn to operate a Boeing 767 in midair but singularly uninterested in the art of takeoff and landing was not going to pass unnoticed. His more disciplined comrades were careful to avoid triggering alarms, diligently mastering the superfluous skills of takeoff and landing during their time at American flight...
...from al-Qaeda's point of view, the September 11th "martyrdom" mission was a roaring success, its 19 perpetrators to be eternally lionized in the terror network's video hall of fame. No such plaudits for Number 20. Indeed, for Moussaoui the portal to paradise that fills the fevered imagination of terrorists inspired by a twisted reading of Islam closed that day, leaving him stranded on this Earth...
...then things got worse. The U.S. went to war in Afghanistan and wiped out al-Qaeda's sanctuaries, capturing hundreds of its operatives in the process. Still, there was no company for Moussaoui in the U.S. criminal justice system. For his comrades captured in Afghanistan, there was no habeas corpus or court-appointed counsel. They were packed off to the U.S. military's own version of Devil's Island 90 miles off the coast of Florida and interrogated in circumstances unthinkable anywhere that U.S. Federal law applied. Yet there was Moussaoui showered with court-appointed attorneys, his own ranting second...
...when Moussaoui finally faced his accusers and took the blame, his most defiant statements were simply overruled by the judge. "I'm guilty," said the prisoner, now eager to prove his terrorist credentials. ''I am member of al-Qaeda. I pledge bayat (a loyalty oath) to Osama bin Laden.'' But Judge Leonie Brinkema overruled him, entering a not-guilty plea and telling him to go away and think about the consequences of his choice...
...Strangely enough, Moussaoui had flip flopped: Two weeks ago he had professed his innocence in motions he filed in his own defense Moreover, judging from his words in court, the professed terrorist who'd chosen to defend himself suddenly appeared to be desperately seeking a plea bargain. Moussaoui may once have vowed to die for his cause and professed a loyalty oath to bin Laden, but on Thursday he declared his willingness to rat out bin Laden as a means of further postponing his journey into the next world...