You are butchers, liars and hypocrites. In fact, Senator, everything Yousef says here has some truth to it. Of course I still believe his life sentence is justified and I would not have any problem with a death penalty. Still, I believe his motivation in his terrorist act is exactly as he says it was, that it was a political act which he justified in his own mind on the grounds that something had to be done and no government was willing to act on the cause in which he believes. In the Oklahoma City bombing, Timothy McVeigh also justified his terrorist act as that of an avenging angel, choosing a federal building as his target, not the innocents who happened to be there at the time.
Terrorism is a political act.
It is a criminal political act, but it is important that those in a position to defend us against it understand its origins. My honest belief, Senator, is that our government has been derelict in studying the causes of terrorism, even in the most elementary way, and concentrates entirely on how to defend against it. It is a miracle that so little damage was done in the World Trade Center bombing. There is no reason to believe that if there is a next time, the mind of that terrorist will succeed in taking the twin towers down completely. I could be writing this communique to a great many people, but I chose you because you are primarily a communicator .