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I am pleased to welcome you to my personal blog, which I started in March 2009. I first became interested in blogging about five years ago, using old "blogger.com", which was cumbersome to use and I never mastered. About a year ago I discovered that Google had bought "blogger.com" and had revised it considerably, making it fun to use, so much so that I have devised at least 15 blogs on various subjects and frequently add posts and Gadgets to them.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Sentencing of Shoe-bomber Reid



This post is a combination of things, starting with an email from Chan this morning and ending with material from about.com.

IT MAY HAVE BEEN AROUND BEFORE, BUT STILL GOOD READING ON HOW WE DEAL WITH TERRORISTS IN OUR PROUD NATION!!!!


Something to remember!

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.

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, 4 and 7, the Court sentences you to 20 years in prison on each count, the sentence on each count to run consecutive with the other. That's 80 years.

On count 8 the Court sentences you to the mandatory 30 years consecutive to the 80 years just imposed. The Court imposes upon you each of the eight counts a fine of $250,000 for the 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 the $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 statues. It is a fair and just sentence. It is a righteous sentence. Let me explain this to you.

We are not afraid of any of your terrorist co-conspirators, Mr. Reid. We are Americans. We have been through the fire before. There is all too much war talk here. And I say that to everyone with the utmost respect.

Here in this court , where 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 it is the officers of government who do it or your attorney who does it, or that happens to be your view, you are a terrorist.

And we do not negotiate with terrorists. We do not treat 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 know warriors. You are a terrorist. A species of criminal guilty of multiple attempted murders.

In a very real sense Trooper Santigo had it right when you first were taken off that plane and into custody and you wondered where the press and where the TV crews were and he said you're no big deal. You're no big deal.

What your counsel, 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 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 winds carry freedom. They carry 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 and have filed appeals, will go on in their, their representation of you before other judges. We are about it. 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.

This is what about.com reports about what happened after the sentencing:

BOSTON (CNN) -- The man who admitted to trying to blow up a U.S. jetliner with explosives in his shoes was wrestled out of a courtroom by federal marshals Thursday after a federal judge sentenced him to life in prison.

As he was dragged out of the courtroom, Richard Reid began yelling at Judge William Young, repeating his allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

"
I'm at war with your country not for personal reasons but because you have killed so many innocents, so many children. ... My fate is in Allah's hands. ... I leave you to judge." (Read more on the exchange)

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

God bless America

This is what Wikipedia says about the arrest of Reid in 2001:

Reid, according to the FBI using the aliases Tariq Raja (طارق راجا) and Abdel Rahim (عبدالرحیم), was arrested on 22 December 2001 for attempting to destroy a Boeing 767 on American Airlines Flight 63, a flight from Paris, Charles De Gaulle International Airport to Miami International Airport, USA
, by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes.
Passengers on flight 63 complained of a smoke smell in the cabin shortly after a meal service. One flight attendant, Hermis Moutardier, walked the aisles of the plane, trying to assess the source. She found Reid, who was sitting alone near a window and attempting to light a match. Moutardier warned him that smoking was not allowed on the airplane; Reid promised to stop. A few minutes later, Moutardier found Reid leaned over in his seat; her attempts to get his attention failed. After asking "What are you doing?" Reid grabbed at her, revealing one shoe in his lap, a fuse which led into the shoe, and a lit match. She tried grabbing Reid twice, but he pushed her to the floor each time, and she screamed for help. When another flight attendant, Cristina Jones, arrived to try to subdue him, he fought her and bit her thumb. The 6 foot 4 inch (193 cm) Reid was eventually subdued by other passengers on the airliner, using plastic handcuffs, seatbelt extensions, and headphone cords. A doctor administered valium found in the flight kit of the aircraft.[5] The flight was diverted to Boston's Logan International Airport. Authorities later found PETN with a triacetone triperoxide (TATP) detonator hidden in the lining of his shoes.

This news is from about.com last month:

"Shoe-bomber" Reid on hunger strike in U.S. prison


By Keith Coffman and Robert Boczkiewicz

DENVER (Reuters) - Convicted "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid, who was found guilty in 2003 of trying to blow up a transatlantic jetliner, has been refusing food for several weeks and is being force fed, court documents showed on Tuesday.

Traci Billingsley, spokeswoman at federal prison headquarters in Washington, D.C., said the bureau does not comment on inmates' conditions and would not say whether Reid's hunger strike is related to a lawsuit he has filed against prison officials.

Reid's lawsuit alleges prison authorities have repeatedly prevented him from following the tenets of his Sunni Muslim faith. A U.S. District Court judge in Denver recently denied the authorities' request to throw out Reid's lawsuit.

Reid, 35, has refused food since March at the Supermax prison, the United States' highest-security federal lockup, 90 miles south of Denver, a federal government lawyer said in the court filings.

The government attorney, in a previously undisclosed court filing dated April 14, wrote that prison officials determined on April 7 "that medical intervention was necessary" and Reid was being force fed and hydrated.

He had refused 58 meals by April 9, the attorney said in the documents.

In an update court filing last Friday, the government attorney wrote that Reid remains on the hunger strike and that prison officials continue to monitor his condition.

Reid was sentenced in 2003 in federal court in Boston for trying to ignite two bombs in his shoes on a Paris-to-Miami flight on American Airlines. He was subdued by passengers before he could detonate the explosives.

The Supermax facility houses the most notorious federal inmates including Ramzi Yousef, convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Bill Trott.)

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