Will the Real 20th Hijacker Please Stand Up?
USA Today's Tuesday scoop that the FBI has identified a new "20th hijacker" has persistent John Ashcroft critic Jonathan Turley seeing red:
The status of "the 20th hijacker" has become something of a terrorist time-share. As the government seeks the arrest of the third 20th hijacker, it is struggling to execute its first 20th hijacker ? Zacarias Moussaoui. [?]
It does not matter that, while the government pushes the 9/11 theory in court, other government officials are widely quoted outside of court admitting that he was not the 20th hijacker. Ashcroft appears to be working on a legal version of the string theory of physics in which he can prosecute multiple 20th hijackers in parallel legal universes. [?]
Ashcroft's obsession with executing Moussaoui for the crimes of 9/11 now stands in willful ignorance of both the evidence in the case and the statements of high-ranking officials. It is time to try Moussaoui as a terrorist ? not as a 9/11 terrorist but simply a garden-variety terrorist. It may be a blow to Ashcroft's ego, but it is hardly a loss. After all, we have plenty more 20th hijackers where he came from.