27th MARCH 2006

It seems that at the moment all of my classes seem to contain some little piece of discussion based around words. The ability of words to change things, the effects of language to describe a situation, the purpose of correct language usage when trying to convey a certain concept or idea. And I've never really considered it before but through analysis and reflection I have found that a lot of these notions I already understood and tried to use in my everyday language. Although, not consciously. In most cases, and by that I mean the times when I sat there thinking, "Wow, why did I say that to convey my meaning? I could have used a different word instead and yet this is the word I chose," I believe that the words I chose to use, even though they may not have been the smartest words or the words most people would have used, I felt that to convey my meaning in the best way possible, that was the language conventions I used.
By thinking and reflecting on all of this it shocked me when I learned what happened on this day.

On the 27th March 2006 Al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent, claimed in his trial that he was supposed to hijack a fifth airplane on September 11 2001 and fly it into the White House. He was convicted of conspiring to kill Americans as part of the September 11 terrorist attacks and is serving a life sentence at the Federal ADX Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.
Whilst this information is not happy knowledge to have gained,  it wasn't what he did, but the responses that he gave when answering questions in court that I really just couldn't understand. When asked by his lawyer as to why in April of 2006 he signed a guilty plea as the 5th hijacker, Moussaoui replied, "because everybody used to refer to me as the 5th hijacker and it was a bit of fun."

"...it was a bit of fun."

What kind of person do you have to be and what processes go on in your head for you to decide that that is what you want to say? That you actually found it fun to be part of a terrorist regime that planned to and succeeded to kill thousands. What kind of person does that make you? And can you really blame people for putting you into a high security prison now?

Moussaoui also said he was grateful to have been the fifth pilot involved in the 2001 tragedy, saying that "I believe in destiny. God gives life and death. I just have to speak the truth and God will take care of the rest."

Yes you whack job, leave it up to God to decide your fate. I'm not a big believer in religion. I don't have one that I devoutly follow, I don't follow anything. I believe that all religions have something to offer to anyone willing to show dedication and to accept all of that particular religions views. But when someone actually believes that after conspiring to kill thousands, being involved in a world-wide acknowledged tragedy and then simply saying that all you have to do is tell the truth, I'm fairly sure that God would be saying burn in hell buddy.

It made me so disgusted to think that there are people like that in existence on this planet. Sure it takes all sorts to make a world go round, but what about all those families who lost someone in the attack? I'm certain that for a while, make that a long while, their world's stopped going round.

Because what kind of person are you if you can't even show regret?


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