Commentary
Moussaoui comes out fighting again
By Jerry Mazza
Online Journal Contributing Writer


May 12, 2006, 01:28

Ding, the bell rings for the next round. And like one more lone perp, Zacharias Moussaoui makes a post-sentencing turnaround to withdraw his guilty plea.

His claim is that during the trial he was angry at the justice system, a not unreasonable view, considering among other things he spent his off-trial time in solitary confinement. Yet he was “extremely surprised” at the jury’s verdict of life imprisonment versus death by lethal injection. So much so that he said “it is possible I can receive a fair trial even with Americans as jurors.” How 'bout that?

He claims his testimony was “a complete fabrication” and now would like a new trial to prove it. Then too, faced with the Supermax Prison of Florence, Colorado, “Tomb of the Rockies,” he must have woken up abruptly from his trial’s dream-sequence, however that was induced. Nor would any way surprise me: drugs, hypnosis, stun belt, name it, in addition to solitary confinement.

And despite the fact that Moussaoui’s filing came on May 6, only two days after his sentencing, Judge Leonie M. Brinkema wrote in her order: "Because defendant was sentenced on May 4, 2006, his motion is too late and must be denied on this basis only.”

But Brinkema’s order did go on to state, “To appeal this decision, defendant must file a written notice of appeal within (10) days of receipt of this Order.” I gather that appeal would supplant the Defendant’s Motion to Withdraw Guilty Plea that Moussaoui originally submitted. Could this be a gold ring to a second ride on the legal merry-go-round?

Perhaps in her heart of hearts, the estimable Judge Brinkema is aware somebody was playing with Moussaoui’s marbles all along. Perhaps her legal integrity doesn’t allow her just to blow the guy off. She strikes me as a forceful advocate for doing the right thing, having kicked FAA lawyer Carla Martin out of her courtroom for “egregious” jury tampering.

Also, she warned the jury and prosecutors that the excess of emotional testimony elicited from grieving relatives of 9/11 victims might come back to bite them in the butt, which it did, when many relatives testified that they did not seek vengeance and didn’t want to see Moussaoui die.

The good news is that Moussaoui thinks he’s got a shot at freeing himself because we are a fair people. How do we rate that on the International Spin Meter (ISM) in the endless battle for minds and hearts around the world? I think rather high.

Yet “his chances are zilch” said Victoria Toensing, a right-wing Washington, DC. lawyer, former head of counter-terrorism for the Justice Department in the Reagan administration, the latter sounding like a contradiction in terms given the Iran-Contra debacle.

She was quoted in a May 9 Washington Post article by Jerry Markon, “Moussaoui Fails in Bid to Withdraw 9/11 Guilty Plea.” Toensing said Moussaoui dealt a death-blow to his argument when he wrote he was telling the truth when he pleaded guilty last year and said his attack was to come after Sept. 1. To quote her, “He was telling the truth for the plea, so it’s no issue. The plea is good.”

But what does that mean? What if one argued that he lied for the plea, i.e., did not tell the truth because he was under federal duress to do so. Now he wants to set the record straight because he thinks he can get a fair trial and people won’t mess with his head or any other part of him.

Also, he is facing rotting in jail for life, like Sirhan Sirhan who confessed to the assassination of Robert F Kennedy, which he later retracted, and the late James Earle Raye who retracted his confession to having assassinated of Martin Luther King.

In Sirhan’s case, his confession came as a victim of the CIA’s MK-ULTRA mind control program. In Raye’s case, he was the victim of his lying, manipulative first lawyer, who told him that if he pleaded innocenct and the jury didn’t buy it, he could get the death penalty. And so Raye buckled, just as Sirhan buckled and rushed to confess.

Also the Los Angeles Polce Department, in RFK’s, case buried the evidence of the real killer, the Ace Security Guard, Thane Eugene Cesar, who was standing behind Kennedy, and dealt him the death shot under his right ear, the one the Coroner Naguchi said killed Kennedy. Sirhan was standing four feet in front of Kennedy, with a similar 22 pistol as Cesar’s, what a coincidence.

With King, the rifle and bullet Raye supposedly used to kill him were never matched up as the weapon or ammo that killed King, as stated in Dr. William F. Pepper’s landmark book, An Act of State -- The Execution of Martin Luther King.

Pepper, who followed the case for over two decades, also talks about the ring of Army snipers brought in, along with the Memphis Police Department, its ace sharpshooter, and the nearby saloon owner who aided and abetted him in the kill made from the high bushes facing the motel across the rear courtyard. The next day the bushes were gone, cut away by the saloon owner and helper trolls.

In other words, real life isn’t bagged as nice and neat as the spinners would like us to believe. Come in National Media, come in! Are you listening? The truth may be calling once again. And before we ship Moussaoui off to 23 hours a day in a soundproof concrete cell, with no one to speak to but his guards, let’s hear the whole story, even if it’s a pain in the butt.

This may even force us to think and read about who was really behind 9/11, and who demolished the lies as recently as May 6, that is, the former top economist and defector from Bush’s Department of Labor, Morgan Reynolds. Still another person spills the beans.

We might even get this country back on track and out of the hands of the Bush Boyz and his pick for CIA chief, Gen. Michael V. Hayden. As reported in Scott Shane's May 8 New York Times article, “Dodging Perils on Way to Top of Spy Game,”

“Since joining the ranks of America's top spies seven years ago Gen. Michael V. Hayden has weathered intelligence catastrophes and controversies that might easily have ended his career: the Sept. 11 attacks, erroneous reporting on Iraqi weapons and domestic surveillance without warrants -- all on his watch at the National Security Agency.” Some track record.

In fact, read all about this beauty who will help Bush fuse the NSA over and above the CIA, and control our intelligence even more. The NSA, since it is made up of no elected officials, is responsible only to the president as is the CIA, though the NSA has the most sophisticated mechanisms and network in the world for spying on foreign elements as well as US citizens.

But returning to Ms. Toensing and Mr. Moussaoui, she said that under federal conspiracy law “it doesn’t mater whether he was involved in Sept. 11. He didn’t have to know the exact, time or method.” Well then what did he have to know or do exactly under federal conspiracy law for being the lone being tried for the mass murder of Sept. 11?

The fact is he was arrested and languishing in jail on Sept. 11, 2001, on immigration charges made a month earlier. Admittedly, he gave various versions of a possible role in the attacks. And for some strange reason, he decided to plead guilty in 2002, perhaps under undo pressure of prosecutors looking for perpetrators. Last year he upped his own involvement to an intimate knowledge of the hijackings, saying his attack was to come later.

During the sentencing trial, he went one step farther and said that al-Qaeda had told him to fly the fifth plane into the White House. This would have been difficult since Moussaoui, after more than 50 flying lessons, couldn’t qualify to get a single engine craft off the ground.

His crew on that flight was supposed to include Richard the “Shoe Bomber” Reid, who disavowed himself of that bond. Nor did the FBI or his lawyers allow Richy the Shoe to show up in court to testify.

So, round and round we go again, that is if Moussaoui gets anywhere with his appeal. And you might ask, why do I keep writing about him? One friendly reader told me Americans probably “don’t give a rat’s ass” about Moussaoui. He’s another shadow in a world of shadows we’ve been taught to fear. Well, somehow the feds willingness to stamp him Raw Meat for the prosecution rankles. It’s that old American willingness to fight for the underdog. And I am an old American and probably a bit of an underdog. How about you?

As to Moussaoui’s chances of success, the “smart” DC money has been wrong before. Witness the sentence not to kill him. Maybe lightening will strike twice in the same place and this oddball man and his oddball case will keep the light shining on the surrounding perps, wrapped like Caesar’s assassins in their powerful robes, daggers tucked next to their hearts, from which an endless stream of enmity for justice and the common good pumps.