The lullaby of the Beltway

In just about the least surprising verdict ever, a federal jury Monday set the stage for the execution of Zacarias Moussaoui, the fabled "twentieth hijacker" in FBI custody at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, by ruling him directly responsible for at least one death.

The story line goes that Moussaoui withheld information from investigators that could, at least in theory, have thwarted the entire plot. As reported by the (world-jarringly Web redesigned) New York Times:

The Justice Department argued that even though he did not take part in the attacks, he deserved to die because at the time of his arrest he willfully concealed detailed knowledge of Al Qaeda's plans to use suicide hijackers to fly planes into buildings.

His lies, a prosecutor told the jury, "made him just as guilty as if he were at the controls of one of those planes."

Funny, you don't tend to see that rationale in other wrongful death cases, in which those who conceal or manipulate information are charged as mere accessories, or for obstructing justice–not as murderers.

But because the Sept. 11 families have already been paid their millions in compensation for the government failures and all the actual perpetrators are off enjoying their 72 martyrs' virgins (or, for the "House"-Frauen und Herren, their martyrs' stacks of scrumptious Macadamia nut pancakes), Moussaoui's got to go down for it all–yes, the jury's verdict suggests they believe he's responsible for each one of the nearly 3,000 deaths–and become a martyr himself.

Now, obviously I wasn't on that jury and I didn't hear the evidence–but when it's reported that high-ranking FBI officials testified that, even if Moussaoui had told them everything he knew, their agency would likely either not have listened, believed him, put the pieces together or acted on the information to halt the attacks, one has to wonder just what conception of "justice" is being served by this bit of legal theatre.

And we all know how the final act is going to play: The perfunctory parade of Sept. 11 families will file through to tearfully or forcefully insist allowing Moussaoui to live would be tantamount to killing their loved ones all over again, as if those loved one's lives are somehow worth less if someone doesn't officially die for taking them, preferably with the survivors getting to watch.

Moussaoui probably is every bit the sociopathic sack of scum he appears and probably would have killed if given the chance–but when the incompetent government behind the intelligence and security screw-ups that failed to stop the Sept. 11 attacks can barely hold together his trial but for the defendant's own self-aggrandizing and stereotypical crazy A-rab outbursts, perhaps all this attention, passion and effort could be better directed toward something that might produce actual reform or substantive change (I think that little report from that little Sept. 11 Commission might have a few ideas scripted for getting belatedly started, but I could be mistaken).

Delivering Moussaoui a lethal injection will not stop crimes and security failures like Sept. 11 from happening again.

It will only momentarily indulge that oh-so-patriotic American fetish for vengeance, as apparently displacing it onto Iraqi civilians and indefinite military detainees just isn't doing it for us anymore.