Zazi gets a break

Monday was a lucky day for the Big Apple, which somehow managed to bring an Afghani terrorist to court without suffering a Jihadist attack. Pleading guilty was Najibullah Zazi, conspirator in what many authorities are calling the most serious attempted attack since 911, and it is most curious that the man managed to make it all the way to this point without becoming a cause celebre for the Cheney-worshiping panic-panderers on the righteous right. Zazi is the New York City coffee cart operator who plotted blowing up the subway system with a lethal mix of beauty supplies, only to abandon the plan when he was stopped for a routine traffic violation and became paranoid. Quite visibly paranoid, obviously, since the cops decided that someone should keep an eye on him, and before long he had a perfectly valid reason for his paranoia. Zazi got rid of his cosmetics of mass destruction, but the FBI gave him a visit anyway, and it didn't take long before he folded like a cheap suit, spilling the beans on everything and everyone, including his uncle, his imam, and his dear old dad. Now it goes without saying that the FBI used brutally harsh interrogation techniques in order to make Zazi talk - they told him they might bring immigration charges against his mother, and then to sweeten the deal, they agreed to let him out on bail for a few days. Yesterday Zazi pled guilty in the Brooklyn Federal courts, and now faces life in prison without parole. The information he revealed has enabled the investigation to be widened, and Attorney General Holder able to hold his case up as an example of the superiority of using the civilian court system as opposed to military tribunals. And it's too late, FOX, it's just too late, you done missed the outrage train this time while you were fixating on the Underwear Bomber. Still, we've got to give your fair and balanced source for news and information credit for trying by running 'Why Did Zazi Get a Break?' by Annemarie McAvoy, which opines that "It is an outrage that Najibullah Zazi and his family gets a break, thanks to the fact that he's in the federal judicial system instead of in a military tribunal, where he belongs." Damn those Feds, don't they know that "Zazi should have been interrogated immediately as an enemy combatant, by those trained to do so, in Gitmo." Sorry, Annemarie, but I can't answer your question as to when this administration is going to smarten up. We've got the bad guy going to the big house, we've got some of his associates with more likely on the way, we've got the details and methodology of his plan, but I guess we could have gotten so much more if we had tortured him, although most of the extra would likely be lies and delusions. I guess there's just no pleasing some people.