Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian, our potential suicide bomber who wanted to blow up LAX for a Y2K celebration, has been
sentenced to 22 years in prison.
Ressam first was arrested by U.S. authorities in December 1999 as he
tried to pass through U.S. Customs at Port Angeles in a car with
bomb-making materials. In April 2001, he was convicted of trying to
plant a bomb at Los Angeles International Airport, but his sentencing
was delayed as Ressam agreed to aid the Justice Department, a month
before 9/11, in investigations into the al Qaida network
This is before the whole enemy combatant thing, so it's interesting
because this trial and sentencing would never be held if he'd gone for
a later date for his bombing. More on this later.
John Gardner, Oxford Professor of Jurisprudence,
writes:
"Like many of my fellow-Londoners I am less alarmed by suicide bombers than I am by the police's Mossad-style execution of a 'suspect' (who turned out to be a completely innocent passer-by) on Friday 22 July. This is not because we are at greater risk of death at the hands of the police than at the hands of the bombers. (Both risks are pretty tiny, but of the two the risk posed by the police is clearly smaller). Rather, it is because, all else being equal, it is worse to be killed by one's friends than by one's enemies, and worse to be killed by people in authority than by people not in authority."