Maybe I'll change my mind
From an article by Dan Eggen Washington Post May 5, 2006
It's not the death penalty, but convicted al-Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui will soon face a punishment that some consider even worse: up to 23 hours a day in a soundproof, concrete cell, cut off from contact with anyone other than his guards and, perhaps, the lawyers who helped save him from execution.
Moussaoui is expected to be transferred within days to the Administrative Maximum United States Penitentiary, or Admax, in Florence, Colo. Dubbed the "Alcatraz of the Rockies" by prison experts the 12-year-old "supermax" facility houses about 400 of the most dangerous and infamous prisoners in the federal system, from "Unabomber" Theodore J. Kaczynski to Ramzi Yousef, architect of the 1993 World Trade center bombing.
But Moussaoui is unlikely to meet, or even glimpse, Yousef or any other fellow jihadists at the Florence facility anytime soon, according to federal officials, lawyers and others familiar with operations there.
Bernard V. Kleinman, a New York lawyer who represents Yousef, said he is the only person allowed to visit his client. He said Yousef often spends days at a time without leaving his cell, declining an hour of solitary exercise time because of body-cavity searches performed before and after each session.
In the most tightly monitored part of the facility, known as the "control unit," inmates are kept in segregation at all times -- living, sleeping and eating in individual cells poured from concrete that measure approximately 7 feet by 11 feet. They are designed to ensure that inmates cannot speak or make eye contact with each other, according to defense lawyers, human rights advocates and others who have had access to the facility. Some prisoners are monitored 24 hours a day by surveillance cameras in their cells. Some inmates are allowed a handful of visitors and phone calls each month, but many of those incarcerated for terrorism-related crimes have no visitors other than their attorneys and the guards who shackle them whenever they are removed from their cells.
Most of the facility's cells are outfitted with small black-and-white televisions with a limited number of channels. It is unclear whether Moussaoui will be allowed to watch one.
Now, in five years, if they would just leave a dull knife coated in pork fat in the cell......
It's not the death penalty, but convicted al-Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui will soon face a punishment that some consider even worse: up to 23 hours a day in a soundproof, concrete cell, cut off from contact with anyone other than his guards and, perhaps, the lawyers who helped save him from execution.
Moussaoui is expected to be transferred within days to the Administrative Maximum United States Penitentiary, or Admax, in Florence, Colo. Dubbed the "Alcatraz of the Rockies" by prison experts the 12-year-old "supermax" facility houses about 400 of the most dangerous and infamous prisoners in the federal system, from "Unabomber" Theodore J. Kaczynski to Ramzi Yousef, architect of the 1993 World Trade center bombing.
But Moussaoui is unlikely to meet, or even glimpse, Yousef or any other fellow jihadists at the Florence facility anytime soon, according to federal officials, lawyers and others familiar with operations there.
Bernard V. Kleinman, a New York lawyer who represents Yousef, said he is the only person allowed to visit his client. He said Yousef often spends days at a time without leaving his cell, declining an hour of solitary exercise time because of body-cavity searches performed before and after each session.
In the most tightly monitored part of the facility, known as the "control unit," inmates are kept in segregation at all times -- living, sleeping and eating in individual cells poured from concrete that measure approximately 7 feet by 11 feet. They are designed to ensure that inmates cannot speak or make eye contact with each other, according to defense lawyers, human rights advocates and others who have had access to the facility. Some prisoners are monitored 24 hours a day by surveillance cameras in their cells. Some inmates are allowed a handful of visitors and phone calls each month, but many of those incarcerated for terrorism-related crimes have no visitors other than their attorneys and the guards who shackle them whenever they are removed from their cells.
Most of the facility's cells are outfitted with small black-and-white televisions with a limited number of channels. It is unclear whether Moussaoui will be allowed to watch one.
Now, in five years, if they would just leave a dull knife coated in pork fat in the cell......
posted by Dalt Danyon at 8:36 AM
2 Comments:
Hey- I guess this means he won't get shanked. Such a pitty, the general population in prison would love his autograph, in blood.
Solitary, though, is not for the faint of heart.
Thanks for the update! Talk to you later, Kel
As much as I would like to see the f*c^er locked in a room with each and every family who lost someone on 9-11, this may be the best possible punishmnet. He did really want to die for his so called cause, and this will not only keep him from completing any plans, it will keep him from achieving the martyrdom he thought he was headed for.....
Post a Comment
<< Home