A CALL to ACTION!
God Bless America!
Note: I received this as an email. I have been unable to verify the information but it seems legitimate to me.
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 the TV/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 stated “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. Judge Young: “Mr. Richard C. Reid hearken now to the sentence the Court imposes upon you. On the 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 imposed. The Court imposes upon you each of the eight counts a find of $250,000 for the aggregate 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 required 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 statutes. It is a fair and just sentence. It is a righteous sentence.
Let me explain this to you. We are not afraid of you or any of your terrorist co-conspirators, Mr. Reid. We are Americans. We have been through the fire before. There is all to much war talk here and I say that to everyone with the utmost respect. Here in this court, 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 if you think you are a soldier, you are not--- you are a terrorist. And we do not negotiate with terrorists. We do not meet 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’ve known warriors. You are a terrorist. A species of criminal that is guilty of multiple attempted murders. In a very real sense, State Trooper Santiago had it right when you were first 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 are no big deal.
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 is 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. 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 to us is the 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 wind carries freedom.. It carries 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 freedoms sake that your lawyers are striving so vigorously on you behalf and have filed appeals, will go on in their representation of you before other judges.
We Americans are all about freedom. 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. Day after tomorrow, it will be forgotten, but this, however will long endure. Here in this courtroom and in 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 this courtroom 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 all this is forgotten. That flag stands for freedom and it always will.
Mr. Custody officer; Stand him down.
So how much of this Judge’s comments did we hear on our TV sets? We need more judges like Judge Young, but that another subject. Pass this around. Everyone should and needs to hear this fine Judge’s powerful words that strike home.
God Bless America! |