9/11 Victims' Families to Get Government Files
I think it's right that the familes of the three thousand people killed on 9-11 should have the same level of access to government documents as the people who did the killing on that day.
The judge overseeing the death penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui yesterday ordered thousands of documents that Moussaoui used in compiling his defence to be turned over to the families of 9-11 victims.
The families had been trying to get many of these papers from the government for years, to no avail. Typically, the Bush administration puts secrecy even before the grief of the bereaved.
However, US District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema had other ideas.In granting the request, Brinkema criticized the government for what she said was excessive secrecy in the Moussaoui case and other matters. "I've always been troubled by the degree to which our government keeps things secret from the American people," she said.
The judge ordered the government to give the civil lawyers all the unclassified materials provided to Moussaoui's defense, but the document production would not start until after Moussaoui's trial. Moussaoui is the only person convicted in the United States in connection with the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.