The prosecution has rested in the penalty phase of the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person to be charged in conjunction with the terror attacks of 9/11. The prosecution argues he should be put to death.

I don't agree, but not out of any misplaced sense of mercy (mercy not being a quality generally associated with al Qaeda, anyhow).

I was at my desk in the Pentagon on the morning of September 11, 2001. Fortunately for me, my office was on the far side of the building from where the hijacked airliner crashed into it. I and my coworkers evacuated safely, and I was merely inconvenienced, while many hundreds of others were killed or horribly injured. Zacarias Moussaoui has admitted his peripheral role in the attack, has sworn his allegiance to Osama bin Laden in open court, and has mocked those who died and those who survived. If he's not directly guilty in this case, he is still a dangerous religious fanatic who should never again walk the streets as a free man.

Zacarias Moussaoui is a human cockroach. There's not a microscope in the world powerful enough to find any sympathy in my heart for a man who shows no remorse for his role in the deaths of thousands of innocent people. But consider this: although he may be a useless human being, his death would make him a symbol to many millions of fanatical Muslims throughout the world...it would make him a "martyr" and give him a status in death that he never had in life.

So don't put him to death. Sentence him to life in prison. Lock him away in the smallest, most miserable solitary confinement cell in the toughest prison in America and let him rot in the acid of his own hatred. Feed him bread and water and let him shout his racism and religious bigotry to four cement walls for the rest of his life.

Make no mistake: as a taxpayer, I don't relish the thought of paying to house this useless, bigoted moron for many years. It offends me that he'll be breathing air, drinking water, and eating food that could be nourishing the next Mother Teresa or Albert Schweitzer...someone who could build rather than destroy, and love rather than hate. But let's not let his death inspire others like him.

Lock him away and forget about him. For the 9/11 victims, survivors, and their families, it may not be as satisfying as seeing him dangling from a gallows, but I believe it's more appropriate.

I'll try to be more pleasant in tomorrow's post. Today, my heart just isn't in it.

Bilbo