U.S., others are putting terrorists away for good

I'm pleased to report that the federal government has recorded some notable successes recently in the War on Terrorism - a string of convictions against unsavory individuals who killed, or intended to kill, as many of our fellow Americans as possible.

Foremost among these cases is that of the so-called "20th hijacker," Zacarias Moussaoui, who overruled his attorneys to plead guilty to six felony terrorism charges last month in a Washington, D.C. federal courtroom.

The 36-year-old Frenchman, who was born in Morocco, admitted that he had conspired with Sept. 11 hijackers to kill Americans and said he had intended to crash a commercial airliner into the White House in a follow-up to the deadly 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington. When they arrested him, FBI agents seized Boeing 747 flight manuals, a flight-simulator computer program, binoculars and two knives as evidence. Investigators linked him to 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta, who visited the same Norman, Okla., flight school that Moussaoui attended.

"I expect no leniency," Moussaoui declared as he acknowledged that his admission could bring him the death penalty. By pleading guilty, he became the first person to be convicted in the U.S. in connection with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But despite his surprise plea, the courts and his attorneys are still trying to figure out how to balance his legal rights against the government's need to withhold national security information from public scrutiny.

That sensitive issue will be argued in court later this year when the judge decides whether to levy the death penalty against Moussaoui, who has argued that because he wasn't directly involved in the 9/11 attacks, he shouldn't be put to death. I beg to differ, however, on grounds that the punishment should fit the crime. Some heinous crimes cry out for the death penalty, and this is one of them.

In a similar case, a student pilot who prompted a terror alert was arrested in Britain late last month on documents theft and illegal firearms charges. According to the FBI, 35-year-old Zayead C. Hajaig took flight lessons at a county airport outside Atlanta, Ga., in 2002.

A terrorism alert was issued after he allegedly tried to have his pilot rating upgraded to fly commercial aircraft although he wasn't qualified to do so. Hajaig, an illegal immigrant to the U.S. who had no visible means of support, will be extradited to Atlanta to face trial in federal court.

In another long-running federal case, Ahmed Ressam is still awaiting sentencing four years after he was convicted of taking part in a millennium-eve plot to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport. The 37-year-old Algerian was arrested at Port Angeles, Wash., in late 1999 as he was trying to bring an explosives-laden car into the U.S. from Canada.

The plot thickened when Ressam told authorities that he met Moussaoui at a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan in 1998. He stopped cooperating with the Feds two years ago, however, when he learned that prosecutors would recommend a minimum sentence of 27 years in prison; his lawyers are seeking 12-1/2 years. He'll be sentenced in July.

Just last week, a federal jury convicted an Islamic "scholar" on 10 terrorism-related charges in Alexandria, Va. Prosecutors said 41-year-old Ail al-Timimi had encouraged his followers to join the Taliban and fight against America following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The charges against al-Timimi were closely linked to an earlier case involving 11 members of a "Virginia jihad network" who were training for a global holy war against the U.S. Al-Timimi told his followers - three of whom attended terrorist training camps in Afghanistan - that Muslims were obligated to defend the Taliban against American invaders. The alleged "scholar" faces a well-deserved mandatory life sentence.

On Wednesday, a former British clothing merchant was convicted of attempting to sell shoulder-mounted missiles to what he believed was a terrorist group planning to shoot down U.S. airliners. A federal jury in Newark, N.J. took only a day and a half to find 69-year-old Hernant Lakhani guilty of providing material support to terrorists and money laundering.

Although his lawyers claimed that he was a victim of entrapment in an FBI "sting" operation, prosecutors called the verdict "a triumph for justice .. .in the war against terror." He'll be sentenced in August.

And on Thursday, a Fort Bragg, N.C., military jury sentenced U.S. Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar to death on premeditated murder charges resulting from a 2003 grenade and rifle attack that killed two officers and wounded 14 soldiers at the Army's Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait. Military prosecutors said Akbar was trying to prevent the killing of fellow Muslims during the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

He was the first American serviceman since the Vietnam War to be convicted of murdering fellow soldiers during wartime. In my opinion, he earned the death penalty.

What strikes me most about these successful federal terrorism prosecutions is that we've heard so little about them in the so-called "mainstream" media. While they focus on setbacks on Iraq and alleged deficiencies in the Patriot Act, which is designed to help the federal government apprehend potential terrorists before they can strike, the Feds continue to arrest and convict terrorism suspects.

When 20 or 30 left-wing crazies protest against the Patriot Act in downtown Reno, the local daily plays the story on page one; but when the government sends a terrorist to prison, the story is always buried on inside pages, if it's published at all. Go figure!

n Guy W. Farmer, a semi-retired journalist and former U.S. diplomat, resides in Carson City.