Remember the "shoe bomber"

[nipper]

Received this yesterday and thought some might enjoy it.

Remember the guy who got on a plane with a bomb built into his shoe
and tried to light it?

Did you know his trial is over?
Did you know he was sentenced?
Did you see/hear any of the judge's comments on TV or Radio?

Didn't think so.!!!

Everyone should hear what the judge had to say.
_____


Ruling by Judge William Young, US District Court.

Prior to sentencing, the Judge asked the defendant if he had anything to
say. His response: After admitting his guilt to the court for the
record, Reid also admitted his 'allegiance to Osama bin Laden, to Islam,
and to the religion of Allah,' defiantly stating, 'I think I will not
apologize for my actions,' and told the court 'I am at war with your
country.'

Judge Young then delivered the statement quoted below:

January 30, 2003, United States vs. Reid.

Judge Young: 'Mr. Richard C. Reid, hearken now to the sentence the
Court imposes upon you.

On counts 1, 5 and 6 the Court sentences you to life in prison in the
custody of the United States Attorney General. On counts 2, 3, 4and 7,
the Court sentences you to 20 years in prison on each count, the
sentence on each count to run consecutively. (That's 80 years.)

On count 8 the Court sentences you to the mandatory 30 years again, to
be served consecutively to the 80 years just imposed. The Court imposes
upon you for each of the eight counts a fine of $250,000 that's an
aggregate fine of $2 million. The Court accepts the government's
recommendation with respect to restitution and orders restitution in the
amount of $298.17 to Andre Bousquet and $5,784 to American Airlines.

The Court imposes upon you an $800 special assessment. The Court imposes
upon you five years supervised release simply because the law requires
it. But the life sentences are real life sentences so I need go no
further..

This is the sentence that is provided for by our statutes. It is a fair
and just sentence. It is a righteous sentence.

Now, let me explain this to you. We are not afraid of you or any of
your terrorist co-conspirators, Mr. Reid. We are Americans. We have
been through the fire before. There is too much war talk here and I say
that to everyone with the utmost respect. Here in this court, we deal
with individuals as individuals and care for individuals as individuals.
As human beings, we reach out for justice.

You are not an enemy combatant. You are a terrorist. You are not a
soldier in any war. You are a terrorist. To give you that reference,
to call you a soldier, gives you far too much stature. Whether the
officers of government do it or your attorney does it, or if you think
you are a soldier, you are not----- you are a terrorist. And we do not
negotiate with terrorists. We do not meet with terrorists. We do not
sign documents with terrorists. We hunt them down one by one and bring
them to justice.

So war talk is way out of line in this court. You are a big fellow. But
you are not that big. You're no warrior. I've known warriors. You are
a terrorist. A species of criminal that is guilty of multiple attempted
murders. In a very real sense, State Trooper Santiago had it right when
you first were taken off that plane and into custody and you wondered
where the press and the TV crews were, and he said: 'You're no big
deal.'

You are no big deal.

What your able counsel and what the equally able United States attorneys
have grappled with and what I have as honestly as I know how tried to
grapple with, is why you did something so horrific. What was it that
led you here to this courtroom today?

I have listened respectfully to what you have to say. And I ask you to
search your heart and ask yourself what sort of unfathomable hate led
you to do what you are guilty and admit you are guilty of doing? And, I
have an answer for you. It may not satisfy you, but as I search this
entire record, it comes as close to understanding as I know.

It seems to me you hate the one thing that to us is most precious. You
hate our freedom. Our individual freedom. Our individual freedom to
live as we choose, to come and go as we choose, to believe or not
believe as we individually choose. Here, in this society, the very wind
carries freedom. It carries it everywhere from sea to shining sea. It
is because we prize individual freedom so much that you are here in this
beautiful courtroom, so that everyone can see, truly see, that justice
is administered fairly, individually, and discretely. It is for
freedom's sake that your lawyers are striving so vigorously on your
behalf, have filed appeals, will go on in their representation of you
before other judges.

We Americans are all about freedom. Because we all know that the way we
treat you, Mr. Reid, is the measure of our own liberties. Make no
mistake though. It is yet true that we will bear any burden; pay any
price, to preserve our freedoms. Look around this courtroom. Mark it
well. The world is not going to long remember what you or I say here.
The day after tomorrow, it will be forgotten, but this, however, will
long endure.

Here in this courtroom and courtrooms all across America , the American
people will gather to see that justice, individual justice, justice, not
war, individual justice is in fact being done. The very President of
the United States through his officers will have to come into courtrooms
and lay out evidence on which specific matters can be judged and juries
of citizens will gather to sit and judge that evidence democratically,
to mold and shape and refine our sense of justice.

See that flag, Mr. Reid? That's the flag of the United States of
America . That flag will fly there long after this is all forgotten.
That flag stands for freedom. And it always will.

Mr. Custody Officer. Stand him down.

So, how much of this Judge's comments did we hear on our TV sets? We
need more judges like Judge Young. Pass this around. Everyone should
and needs to hear what this fine judge had to say. Powerful words that
strike home.


Please SEND this----so that everyone has a chance to read it.

[willy]

Nipper, though I agree in a lot of the observations of the judge he is wrong, dead wrong. And I will tell you why.
we have a segment of the world that HAS declared war on our society. They are believers in what is called the Twelvers, the Muslim fanatics that believe we are Satan, and the State of Isreal is little Satan. They believe that the 12th Imam is coming to spread the blood all over the earth of the infidel non believers. With the US being the most important target on earth.
These two leggers are not honorable warriors that is true. But they do mean to death to our innocents, and our nation. They need to be rooted out like a plaque on the world and put to immediate death. No negotiations, no juries, no expendtitures of millions of dollars of our hard earned money to put on show trials.
And most importantly Americans need to do with them just what was done with the scum Nazi's at Nurhremberg. Military Tribunals, weigh the evidence against them and put them to death. Nazi's, Stalinists, Maoists, Followers of Che Gueverra types are the antipathy of free people around the world and the very last thing we should do with them is grant them Constitutional Rights guaranteed to the Citizens of the United States in some misguided attempt at hiding some peoples aversion of doing the right thing, otherwise known as manning up.

[charlie_the_tuna]

only problem there willy, is we have no real justice system to speak of. the current administration is more concerned with making sure these pieces of sh!t were read their miranda rights. this is a system where a pile of dung like o.j.simpson, after viciously hacking two human beings to death, was sentenced to 15 years of playing golf. it took him stealing a baseball card to finally have him serve justice.
we are just too civilized and everybody has too many rights for anybody to be served up "real justice".
i agree with you, these sub-humans should be tortured and left to die in the blazing sun or maybe have them watch as their entire families are brutally murdered and then simply throw them all in a big hole together with a dozen or so pigs. i am all for "eye for eye" justice but it'll never happen.
read him his rights, danno.

[willy]

I am not advocating torture or whatever, just a change of venue for appropriate action against this threat to the world, just like we did at the end of WWII. Simple basic trial, is this the guy, did he do what we accuse him of, is there evidence of it. Good Hang um.
To afford walking crap the same rights an American Citizen is guaranteed is a travesty.
This p;resident and his policies towards this plague on earth is also a travesty and dishonors every American.

[reelapeelin]

Back when pirates were terrorizing the SC coast, one was captured and hung out on the point outside Charleston Harbor...his body was ordered left there for all to see what would become of those who perpetrate such crimes against society...

I say Reid and the so called "Christmas Bomber" (whatever that pekkerhead's name is) should be hung from Lady Liberty's extended right hand over NY harbor and left there to rot as a simular warning...

I also believe we need to get the hell outta Iraq and Afghanistan and stop pissin' our money and soldiers lives away and callin' it a fight for freedom...Reid and this last moron have proven there will be more attempts no matter how much we spend in lives and treasure...

Don't confuse the above statement w/thinkin' I don't support our troops...I support our troops wherever they are whether I agree w/our powers-that-be's decision to put them there or not...

[RABBITFISH]

I wonder how many of us feel the same way about these kind of things? You never hear about the outcome on the news media. Where will all of this end up?

[garagenc]

I say we set him afire put it out before it kills him and then throw him in jail without any medical attention.