Shoe Bomber to the White House ?

Mr. Zacarias Moussaoui, in the penalty phase of his terrorism trial in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, says the he and the famous "shoe bomber." Mr. Richard Reid, were supposed to hijack a fifth aircraft on 9/11 and crash into the White House. The other crew members, Mr. Moussaoui tells us, "were not definite." If that's the case, the other putative suiciders certainly had more brains than the rather wacky Mr. Moussaoui.

This is certainly intriguing, and, as Captain Ed over at Captain's Quarters says, indicates that the target of Flight 93, forced down by the passengers in a field in Pennsylvania -- was probably the US Capitol. However, I agree with Captain Ed that Mr. Moussaoui's tale is a very unlikely story, and that Mr. Moussaoui is trying to, in effect, save the Government's death penalty case by spinning a big hijacking fable, the better to keep his date with the 72 virgins, and die a great Islamic martyr. We will probably never know. Quite aside from the fact that Mr Moussaoui seems to have been a washout from the original operation; he and Shoebomber Reid simply do not seem organized enough to be successful mass murderers.

Mr. Moussaoui seems, however, to want to die. It seems only just and right to accomodate this hero in his own mind, and as many of his friends and fellow fanatics as possible. Whether they will have their meeting in the hereafter with the 72 virgins, I beg leave to doubt, because there are no virgins, or facilities for congress with same, where Mr. Moussaoui and his fellow scumbags are going.