NO MERCY - For bomb cowards

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NYPost

NO MERCY FOR BOMB COWARDS

By DEVLIN BARRETT

October 19, 2001 -- After four murderous lackeys of Osama bin Laden were hit with life prison sentences yesterday in Manhattan federal court, a juror in the case said America ignored the warnings of the trial earlier this year.

Two of the anonymous jurors spoke after attending the high-security sentencing of the men for the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa - attacks that killed 224 people.

After listening to months of testimony about al Qaeda earlier this year, Juror No. 7, a naturalized citizen, said she was furious at our country when she first heard of the Sept. 11 strikes.

"I was angry at our government, I was angry at the press," she said. "We were asleep, we were sleepwalking. We underestimated bin Laden."

The woman said she still questions why the country wasn't better prepared.

Another juror, a Manhattan woman, said she also wondered what investigators were doing, but was not angry because she "didn't know what the government was thinking or doing at the time of the attacks."

Both said they had argued for the death penalty for two of the embassy bombers, but three other jurors were staunchly opposed to their executions, and could not be budged.

Juror No. 2 said the trial also showed there are legitimate grievances against some parts of U.S. policy in the Middle East, and those need to be fixed in order to win any war against terrorism.

The two women said they felt honored to have served on the five-month trial, and came away from the trial inspired by the greatness of America - long before the Sept. 11 attacks.

But two of the terrorists used their chance to speak yesterday to deny their involvement and lash out at American foreign policy.

One of the four terrorists, Wadih El-Hage, even sniffled and fought back tears as he talked about his love for his wife and family.

El-Hage, bin Laden's personal secretary for many years, maintained his innocence. But he ripped America for its "unconditional support" of Israel and failure to follow "God's law."

"Today, my opinion is still the same towards what happened in Africa and what happened here last month [Sept. 11]," said El Hage. "The killing of innocent people and non-combatants is radical, extreme, and cannot be tolerated by any religion.

"There's nothing wrong or shameful that I did to apologize for," said El-Hage, 41, a naturalized American citizen.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald leapt up to attack El-Hage's self-pitying spiel - branding him a thankless, heartless traitor to his adopted country.

"He chose hatred and terror over his family," Fitzgerald said in an emotional denunciation of El-Hage's lifetime of terrorist plotting.

"He claims to be a citizen, but he's not an American. He claims to be a religious man, but he's not a Muslim," said Fitzgerald.

"He betrayed his country, he betrayed humanity," the prosecutor said. "He has no remorse, no shame, and no conscience."

Judge Leonard Sand swiftly rejected all of El-Hage's pleas for mercy and gave him a sentence of life without parole.

Another terror cell supervisor, Mohamed Odeh, also used the hearing to deny his guilt and attack America.

His lawyer, Anthony Ricco, said his client still denies his role in the attacks, but considers himself a loyal al Qaeda soldier.

"He is and remains a member of al Qaeda," Ricco said. "He does not have remorse about his participation in al Qaeda."

"How can the government claim justice?" said Odeh, who accused the United States of killing dozens of Afghan civilians when it fired cruise missiles at suspected bin Laden terror training sites in 1998 as retaliation for the embassy bombings.

"God help me in my calamity and replace me in goodness," Odeh said.

Judge Sand accused Odeh of trying to "deflect the enormity" of his actions, and gave him a life sentence.

Mohamed al-Owhali and K.K. Mohamed, two men who helped deliver the massive truck bombs to the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, were also given life sentences without parole.

-- Anonymous, October 19, 2001


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