THE 20TH HIJACKER :

U.S. Values Will Be on Trial With Moussaoui : Justice is crucial even for a lunatic filled with hate. (Jonathan Turley, July 19 2002, LA Times)

Crimes require not only evil intent (which Moussaoui easily possesses) but evil acts. The actual case against Moussaoui is extremely thin and circumstantial. He does not fit the pattern of any of the other hijackers and cannot be tied to any of the preparations for the attacks. He could very well be a simple terrorist wannabe who has found himself on a world stage where he can rant about casting non-Muslims "into the fire" and killing Jews.

Mr. Turley, though I often disagree with him, seems like a stand up guy, but this assertion is simply wrong. Here's what we know just from news accounts about Mr. Moussaoui :

He has been under investigation since 1994, when French authorities began looking into his links to extremist Islamic groups and his trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan. When Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who was originally to have been the 20th man, was denied a visa to travel to the United States, Moussaoui was substituted and came to America with over $30,000 in cash, moving to Norman., OK, where he began flight training lessons and bought two knives. Once there he was wired money by Ramzi Binalshibh, who had lived with the gang's leader Mohammed Atta. Moussaoui purchased flight instruction videos from the same store in Ohio as did the other hijackers. He was arrested after flight instructors reported that he was only interested in learning how to turn a jumbo jet, not how to take off or land. He inquired about and his personal computer contained information on crop-dusting technology and techniques. When he was arrested he was found to have, in addition to a Boeing 747 flight manual, papers relating to Global Positioning Systems. Six days later one of the other hijackers bought such a GPS device. His mother and brother, rather than deny his involvement, have said that he must have been "brainwashed" by Islamic extremists. He originally chose for his attorney the woman who defended and has since become engaged to Carlos the Jackal. Her fiancé has told the newspapers that he felt a sense of "relief" on September 11th, and several years ago publicly wished Osama bin Laden good luck when he was indicted for the African embassy bombings.

Now Mr. Turley is correct that this evidence is circumstantial but he's obviously wrong when he says that Mr. Moussaoui does not fit the pattern of the other hijackers. He fits it precisely and the fact remains that the 20th hijacker was unable to participate on September 11th. It seems at least possible, maybe even probable, that he was that 20th man. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 23, 2002 7:32 PM