Not the Hero We Deserve, But the Hero We Need

Does Moussaoui want trial or stage?

In a court appearance Monday, Moussaoui, a 33-year-old French Muslim, pointed his finger skyward to get the judge’s permission to speak, then declared that he would not cooperate with his lawyers. He also read verses from the Quran and said he prayed to Allah for destruction of the United States and Israel.



“What they’ve done is a sophisticated version of the kiss of death,” Moussaoui, speaking in heavily accented English, told U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema. He noted that Brinkema, the prosecutors and his court-appointed lawyers all were federal employees.



“The United States will not have a trial without me,” he said. “They only need me for the gas chamber.”



When he finished speaking nearly an hour later, he had lowered the odds for an orderly trial and boosted chances he’d try to use the courtroom for anti-American diatribes.

And I say, "Let him!" Will the trial become a circus? Well, duh! You mean there's been a resurgence in courtroom decorum since OJ?



What's the worst that can happen? A few who are already anti-America/anti-Israel might find more to chew on. More still will see the madness that grips these people, a gain a greater understanding of the threat, its depth and breath. I can't see this as a bad thing.