If anyone can explain to me why there was a trial at all -- he confessed, right?
I think he was a hanger-on, certainly not directly involved. I think the gov't. claim that if he'd talked they would have been able to prevent 9/11 is BUNK. The various institutions already had several pieces of the puzzle that they didn't put together -- why would this have gone any more smoothly.
As far as the sentence goes - I think it was the right one. Death at the hands of the Americans would have brought him his 1000 virgins (or whatever it is) and made him a martyr to the cause. Sitting in a 7 x 10 cell for 23 hours a day w/o contact with the outside world is far worse than death, IMO. The downside is that we have to pay to keep him there, but executing him wouldn't have fixed anything. It would only have served to allow the US gov't to say "see? we've held someone accountable." even if the "someone" they held accountable was a lackey.
I think he was a hanger-on, certainly not directly involved. I think the gov't. claim that if he'd talked they would have been able to prevent 9/11 is BUNK. The various institutions already had several pieces of the puzzle that they didn't put together -- why would this have gone any more smoothly.
As far as the sentence goes - I think it was the right one. Death at the hands of the Americans would have brought him his 1000 virgins (or whatever it is) and made him a martyr to the cause. Sitting in a 7 x 10 cell for 23 hours a day w/o contact with the outside world is far worse than death, IMO. The downside is that we have to pay to keep him there, but executing him wouldn't have fixed anything. It would only have served to allow the US gov't to say "see? we've held someone accountable." even if the "someone" they held accountable was a lackey.
Comment