Yesterday, would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad pleaded guilty in a federal court in New York City. He did so after waiving his Miranda rights, confessing in custody, and treating interrogators to what they claim are reams of "actionable intelligence." As with Umar Abdulmutallab, the would-be underwear bomber, and Najibullah Zazi, the would-be subway bomber, none of the conservative prophesies of doom regarding terrorism and the civilian justice system were proved correct.
Shahzad's confession yesterday, however, offers another abject lesson in the utility of the criminal-justice system to delegitimize the terrorist narrative. After attempting to betray his country for a mere $12,000 and failing to do so because of his own ineptness, Shahzad attempted to rescue his dignity by framing his behavior as that of a soldier. Notably, Shahzad came with a prepared statement the judge refused to let him read -- again debunking the notion that civilian trials serve as "platforms" for terrorists. Instead, he was allowed only to say a few words:
"One has to understand where I'm coming from," he said in an unusual departure from tightly scripted guilty pleas, with his defense attorney and prosecutors sitting in silence in federal court in Manhattan. "I consider myself ... a Muslim soldier."
[...]
"I am part of the answer to the U.S. terrorizing the Muslim nations and the Muslim people. And, on behalf of that, I'm avenging the attack. Living in the United States, Americans only care about their own people, but they don't care about the people elsewhere in the world when they die."
This is, of course, pathetic. Unlike those individuals who will be tried by military tribunals, Shahzad can make no credible claim to being a soldier. He is a traitor, an attempted murderer, and a hapless terrorist whose fragile ego is clinging to a warrior narrative because it's the only way he knows to hold on to the last shred of dignity he has. With the sharp knock of a judge's gavel, that meager comfort was denied. That's exactly how it should be.
The question now becomes, why are Republicans so eager to give every suspected terrorist that very comfort?
-- A. Serwer
