March 27, 2006

"Everybody used to refer to me as the 20th hijacker and it was a bit of fun."

Zacharias Moussaoui explains why he signed the confession. Now, he only admits to knowing that the 9/11 attacks would take place. But he reveals that there was a plan for him -- along with the shoe bomber, Richard Reid -- to hijack a fifth airplane to attack the White House.

MORE: From the NYT:
Mr. Moussaoui said there were times when a Muslim can lie without being immoral: to reconcile Muslims, to answer "yes" when a wife asks, "Am I beautiful?" and to carry out jihad.

When Mr. Spencer asked if his refusal to tell the truth after his arrest in August 2001 reflected his refusal to give up his jihadist dream, the defendant did not disagree. "You're not dead until you're dead," he said.

16 comments:

Ricardo said...

Lies, on top of lies, on top of lies. With maybe a strand of truth, here and there. How does the jury sort through all of this?

MadisonMan said...

When I was on a jury, and we faced lies, the benefit of doubt was given to the accused. Of course, that was "just" a domestic dispute, not a terrorist. It does seem like ZM is trying to martyr himself.

I wonder if his Mom can tell when he's telling the truth using that Mom intuition thing. (What? No pictures of her in the article this time around?)

KCFleming said...

Pardon my boundless ignorance, but why is this being tried as if it were a legal rather than a military matter?

And why is he still alive?

Unknown said...

"Mr. Moussaoui said there were times when a Muslim can lie without being immoral."

Yes, al-taqiyya, which uses concealment of one's true objectives or beliefs to achieve one's goals. I'm glad the prosecutor is aware of this.

Troy said...

Other fun terms with which to sign your plea agreement... The 8th member of the Chicago 7, The Second Kennedy Assassin (you can also sign "LBJ" -- they'll get the hint), the other Mrs. Rosenberg (nothing like Big Love and Commie espionage to juice up a legal proceeding), and I've always found "the guy OJ's looking for" to be an especially high-larious signature.

knox said...

"a bit of fun"

????

Icepick said...

Troy, the eigth member of the Chicago Seven was Black Panther Bobby Seale. Seale made such a ruckus in court that his trial was svered from the other seven, and so the Chicago Eigth became the Chicago Seven. SO really, you should sign as the ninth member of the Chicago Seven. Unless you are Bobby Seale, of course.

Gaius Arbo said...

OK, so just give him what he seems to want.

Or be really harsh and sentence him to life without possibilty of parole at Pelican Bay.

Troy said...

Icepick... As usual you are quite right. I stand (with hand raised in a show of resistance to the Man) corrected.

Regards,

The Ninth member of the formerly Chicago 8 which was subsequently made the Chicago 7. There's a Monty Python skit there somewhere.

AST said...

There are times when a Muslim, Christian, or Jew can lie without being immoral--when he wants to and can rationalize it. Of course, killing people at their workplaces is never immoral for a Muslim. That's martyrdom.

Icepick said...

Troy wrote: The Ninth member of the formerly Chicago 8 which was subsequently made the Chicago 7. There's a Monty Python skit there somewhere.

Okay, that sounds very familiar, but I can't place a Python skit. It does sound a lot like a seen from The Big Lebowski, though.

knighterrant said...

This lad wants to be a martyr. His testimony is clearly fiction to that end. I may be a liberal and against the death penalty, but I see no reason to deny him his desires.

Icepick said...

KnightErrant, I'm a pro-death penalty conservative, but I disagree with you completely on this one. Let's make the punishment as bad as we can make it, and keep him alive and healthy and confined for as long as we can keep him alive.

Ann Althouse said...

The best reason to keep him alive is that he knows things that he might not have told us yet. The contents of his head have some unknown value. We might regret losing that.

Icepick said...

Ann, that's a decent argument, but the value of anything he knows decreases with every passing day.

Of course, if we thought that he knew anything truly important at this stage... Well, we have ways of making him talk. Bring out ... the comfy chair!

KCFleming said...

I asked: "Pardon my boundless ignorance, but why is this being tried as if it were a legal rather than a military matter?

Art said: Re: "Because President Bush hasn't declared martial law. Yet."

So what moronic justification was used to say that enemy soldiers should be tried in court, instead of shot at until completely dead?

We're turning this into another Milosevic nightmare, where the "defendant" gets to spread his evil gospel on the evening news.

His undisclosed information is well past the expiration date, and he is a chronic liar to boot. He needs to shake loose this mortal coil, and we should assist him in that endeavor.