Salem Witch Trial c.2006

The trial of the so-called 20th hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui has been a rather familiar form of the Salem witch hunt. Here’s a guy that’s been in jail for 5 years without proper legal representation, under extreme circumstances in jail and now he “qualifies” for the death penalty. [This trial even has its own version of spectral evidence.]

Moussaoui admitted he was going to participate in the attacks of 9/11 but he’s been inconsistent in his often emotional statements. Perhaps his treatment in jail had something to do with it. As reported a few years ago by Seymour Hersh, [Moussaoui]...has been held in a windowless, six-by-six cell with the lights on 24 hours a day for eight months and has been denied free access to counsel.” Even his own lawyers admit that he suffers from some form of mental illness, perhaps schizophrenia. Last week, in a story on MSNBC, it was revealed that Moussaoui was wearing a stun belt that was controlled by U.S. Marshals. Like the accused in Salem, Mass. 314 years ago, the defendants suffered “fits, outbreaks of obscene babbling, and wild partying in the local woodland.”

Regardless of his diagnosis, Moussaoui isn’t quite the terrorist the prosecution makes him out to be that’s why he was allowed to testify. He looks and often acts the part with emotional outbursts to shock the jury. But in the words of Bill Maher, “he’s an open-miker”; a wannabe al Qaeda member. He has the desire but not the talent, that’s why he was arrested in the first place. Yet he stands to die for 9/11.

Revenge is a meal best served cold, it has been said. Perhaps that’s what this expensive trial is all about. We can’t get bin Laden but we can get one of his deranged disciples and if he’s punished, we all feel better. Just like it was in Salem in 1692; sometimes the appearance of justice is enough, regardless of the truth.

That’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.