Yesterday at the Old Federal Courthouse in Lower Manhattan – which is only blocks from what used to be the World Trade Center, Judge Leonard B. Sand sentenced Wadih El-Hage, Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-‘Owhali, Khalfan Khamis Mohamed and Mohammed Saddiq Odeh to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the August 7, 1998 bombings of two American Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania – which killed two hundred and twenty four people and wounded thousands more.

Besides the fact that these four lowlifes are terrorists themselves – they are very close associates of Osama Bin Laden. And despite this – the judge gave them life instead of death.

While I am a very strong supporter of this Government and it’s laws – it infuriates me when judges hand down sentences that are nothing but a slap on the wrist to monsters that deserve a fate far worse then death. These terrorists live in the mountains under very horrible conditions that make our homeless citizens seem more domesticated – so why would this judge choose to give these men the opportunity to live out the rest of their lives having better living conditions then they would if we set them free?

In prison, these men will be fed three meals a day, they will be allowed to earn a living, get and education – and even have visitors. And who do you think will be paying for their future comforts and necessities? – Us. Our tax dollars will be funding the existence of four men that had absolutely no regard for the two hundred and twenty four innocent people that they killed – and who associate with the man that organized and perpetrated the worst terrorist attack in the history of human existence.

I think that if we want to send a clear message to the terrorists that chose to uproot our lives on September 11th – and continue to do so by mailing Anthrax to over a dozen politicians and media outlets – we should start by putting the four terrorists we have in custody to death. Do you think that if the Taliban or the Al-Qaeda captured our soldiers, they would place them in a cell, feed them – and offer them the opportunity to work or pursue and education? – Absolutely not. So why should we offer Bin Laden’s soldiers these comforts?

As we now begin to send ground troops into Afghanistan with the ultimate goal of finding and killing members of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda – I wonder why we are making such an effort to destroy terrorism abroad – but not at home.