Moussaoui scolds Americans, warns of future strikes

The judge told Moussaoui he would 'die with a whimper' without ever speaking publicly.
WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON -- A federal judge on Thursday formally sentenced al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui to life in prison without parole for his part in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist plot after he confronted the judge and 9/11 family members in vitriolic exchanges, praising Osama bin Laden and warning that al-Qaida will strike again.
"God curse America," a defiant Moussaoui said loudly when given a chance to speak at the sentencing at U.S. District Court in suburban Alexandria, Va. "And God save Osama bin Laden. You will never get him."
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ended the session by telling Moussaoui he would "die with a whimper" without ever again speaking publicly.
Brinkema handed down the sentence, dispatching Moussaoui to a federal super-maximum security penitentiary, a day after the jury ended a four-year federal quest to secure the death penalty for the only person convicted of involvement in the deadliest terrorist strike on U.S. soil.
Family members speak
Before allowing Moussaoui to address the court, Brinkema asked a few of the Sept. 11 family members if they wanted to speak. Rosemary Dillard, who lost her husband in the attacks, told Moussaoui he had wrecked her life and she hoped he would never see the sun and sky again.
"I hope you sit in that jail ... without any contact with the world and that your name never comes up in any newspaper ever in my lifetime," she said.
Abraham Scott, whose wife was killed in the attack on the Pentagon, said he hopes Moussaoui and his al-Qaida colleagues "are put away forever."
Lisa Dolan, who lost her husband in the Pentagon attack, told Moussaoui simply, "There is still one final judgment day."
Addresses the court
Moussaoui, 37, who had been smiling before the family members spoke, was then allowed to address the court, and he launched into a sarcastic denunciation of the victims' relatives and America in general.
Staring at Dillard, the mercurial defendant said, "Maybe one day, she can see how to my people the CIA has destroyed their life." Addressing the family members in the courtroom generally, he said: "You have an amount of hypocrisy beyond any belief. Your humanity is a very selective humanity."
A prosecutor, Assistant U.S Attorney Robert Spencer, rose to object, saying Moussaoui should not be allowed to make a political speech. Brinkema agreed, but Moussaoui continued in the same vein anyway.
"You are branding me a terrorist, or whatever, a criminal," Moussaoui said. "You should think about yourselves first."
He added: "I fight for my beliefs, and I am a mujaheddin. You think you own the world, and I will prove you are wrong."
'Wasted opportunity'
He called the trial "a wasted opportunity for you to learn why people like me and Mohamed Atta have such hatred for you." He referred to the Egyptian leader of the Sept. 11 attacks who flew the first plane into the World Trade Center.
"We will come back another day," Moussaoui warned with a menacing glare.
His voice rising and his lips touching the microphone on the witness stand, Moussaoui then concluded his remarks by loudly cursing America and lauding bin Laden.
Brinkema, referring to Moussaoui's declaration of victory upon leaving the courtroom Wednesday, told him to "look around this courtroom" at people who were free to go out and do what they wanted. "In terms of winners and losers, it was clear who won and who lost yesterday, Mr. Moussaoui," she said.
The defendant interrupted, shouting, "It was my choice!"
"It was hardly your choice," Brinkema replied. She said the jury's verdict and the formal sentencing "represent a great win for the American people."
Then, addressing her most withering remarks directly to the defendant, Brinkema said with a smile: "You came here to be a martyr and to die in a great big bang of glory. But to paraphrase the poet T.S. Eliot, you will die with a whimper."
Moussaoui tried to shout something, and Brinkema, speaking over the commotion, told him, "You will never again get a chance to speak." Then she left the courtroom.
As he was being escorted out, Moussaoui referred to his dream that he will eventually be freed by President Bush. "I will be free," he exclaimed. "I will see you before the end of George W. Bush. Before the end, I will be out."
At the White House, spokesman Scott McClellan declined to say whether Bush thought Moussaoui deserved the death penalty.
Asked at a news briefing whether Bush was disappointed in the life sentence, McClellan said, "Well, we respect the decision."