Justice Dept. Goes Easy on the Shoe Bomber

The U.S. Department of Justice has decided to lighten up on convicted shoe bomber, Richard Reid.

Reid, you may remember, is the terrorist (oops! is it still politically correct to use that word?) who tried to blow up American Airlines flight 63 from Paris to Miami in February, 2002 by igniting explosives hidden in his shoe. Fortunately, a passenger noticed Reid trying to light the fuse, and flight attendants took him down and subdued him until the Boeing 767 landed in Boston.

Reid was incarcerated in federal prison here in Colorado along with other nasty pieces of work such as four of the terrorists--including leader Ramzi Yousef--responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, co-conspirator of 9-11 Zacharias Moussaoui, Jose Padilla -- the Dirty Bomber, and Bin Laden's personal assistant (use your imagination...) Wadih el-Hage.

Reid complained to prison authorities that he was being prevented from conducting daily group prayers as dictated by his religion. This seems a little strange to me: First, it implies that Muslims cannot pray alone, only in groups. Second, it seems like an excuse for a mini terrorists convention at the prison every day. Third, if Reid was so concerned about his religious freedom, maybe he should have considered the consequences before he tried to murder a plane-load of people, forever robbing 197 souls of all their freedoms, religious and otherwise!

But that's OK, under "special administrative measures"(SAM), the federal prison authorities have not been allowing Reid to contact the other terrorist prisoners, so who cares what he thinks? Well, since Reid is incarcerated on U.S. soil, he is protected by the First Amendment right to freedom of speech and religion, just like the rest of us. And now, the Justice Dept. has seen fit to suspend those SAMs. Amazing. Next thing you know, we'll be closing the Guantanamo Bay prison for terrorists and sending the inmates to a tropical paradise to serve out their time...Oh yeah, I forgot; we're already doing that.