[Vision2020] FW: The Shoe Bomber Sentence

Wed Jun 19 14:14:42 PDT 2013

I ran across an interesting commentary on this e-mail, which seems to have been circulating for some time. It's too long to post the text from all four blog posts. You can read them starting here: http://dailymull.com/1701/The-Shoe-Bomber-Email-Mystery

The analyst was confused to receive the e-mail from a conservative source, since the judge espoused a progressive message:
	1. Our efforts against terrorism should not be considered a matter of war, but of criminal justice.
	2. Terrorism is a crime, committed by criminals, who should not be handed the dignity of being designated as "enemy combatants" or tried by the military as though they were soldiers on the other side of a war between two countries.
	3. They should be treated as individuals, and justice should be meted out to them as we would to any other murderers, in a court of law, with all of the rights to defense that we give anyone else.
	4. This is not because we want to protect murderers, but to protect the innocent from being punished, and to protect the freedom and fairness the United States stands for.
	5. All of the above is the best answer to terrorists, and the best argument to the rest of the world, that we mean what we say when we stand for justice and freedom, and that we will not be frightened into abandoning our values by a handful of hate-motivated criminals.
The author of the email implies that the media buried the story, but a quick Google shows that the story was comprehensively covered, despite filming and recording were not allowed in the courtroom. CNN published the full text of the judge's remarks.  The point was that the e-mail author edited Reid's statement that provoked the remarks down to: 
	1. The shoe bomber admitted his allegiance to Osama bin Laden,
	2. He admitted his allegiance to Islam and Allah,
	3. He wouldn't apologize, and
	4. He was at war with our country.
What the email author left out was the Reid's statement that the US had tortured and killed millions of Muslims and their children, invaded their countries, raped their women, and hated them just because they were Muslims. The analyst concludes:
There are two ways we can respond to this information:
	1. We can use it.

We can understand that the "they" in the question "Why do they hate us?" is not the entire Islamic world.

Rather, it's a relative handful of extremists.

These extremists have been propagandized into believing
	2. 	1. that Americans hate Islam, and
	2. that, solely on the basis of that hatred toward their religion we are
	3. 	1. encouraging the rape and torture of Muslims,
	2. encouraging the deaths of Muslim children, and
	3. crafting an entire foreign policy to do Islam in.

We can understand this, and then we can set about finding ways to undermine that propaganda, and stop the organizations that are taking advantage of it.

Or...
	3. We can bury the information, substitute the idea that Muslims in general hate Americans, and come to believe that they are all evil terrorists.

If we take the second path, we will, of course, come to hate Islam, begin structuring our foreign policy to eliminate it, and prove that the shoe bomber is right.

Which will encourage more shoe bombers.
That seems to be exactly what the author of this email is after.
Strange, since that is also what bin Laden seems to be after.
The entire purpose is to subtly forward the idea that Islam is evil and scary and to make the reader more prejudiced against Muslims.

Ron Force
Moscow Idaho USA

>________________________________
> From: Representative Shirley Ringo <sringo at house.idaho.gov>
>To: Moscow Vision 2020 <vision2020 at moscow.com> 
>Sent: Wednesday, June 19, 2013 9:38 AM
>Subject: [Vision2020] FW: The Shoe Bomber Sentence
> 
>
>
> 
> 
> 
>Hello Friends:  Robert Huntley, sent the following.  He asked that it be forwarded to as many as possible.  Bob is a Navy vet and one of the finest citizens I know.  Please take the time to read it.
>
>
>
>_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
>This is one of the finest pieces of writing in a long time.   It pretty well summarizes what our country is all about.
>> 
>> 
>>The Shoe Bomber Sentence
>> 
>> 
>>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 TV or 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
>>stating, '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:
>>
>>Judge Young: 'Mr. Richard C. Reid, hearken now to the sentence the Court imposes upon you.
>>
>>On 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 consecutively. (That's 80 years.)
>>
>>On count 8 the Court sentences you to the mandatory 30 years again, to be served consecutively to the 80 years just imposed. The Court imposes upon you for each of the eight counts a fine of $250,000 that's an aggregate fine 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 an $800 special assessment. The Court imposes upon you five years supervised release simply because the law requires 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.
>>
>>Now, 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 too 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 the officers of government do it or your attorney 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 first were taken off that plane and into custody and you wondered where the press and 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 was 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? And, 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 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 freedom's sake that your lawyers are striving so vigorously on your behalf, 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. The day after tomorrow, it will be forgotten, but this, however, will long endure.
>>
>>Here in this courtroom and 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 courtrooms 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 this is all 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. Pass this around. Everyone should and needs to hear what this fine judge had to say. Powerful words that strike home.
>>
>>Please SEND this----so that everyone has a chance to read it.
>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
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