sunlight soldier

COVER STORY: 9/11 terrorists exploited our open society, started a war, and retreated to the shadows. Now these shadow warriors want to take advantage of another of our open institutions: the criminal court system. Will the system work for us—or for them? The lead prosecutor in the case of terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui last week asked an appeals court to make the system protect Americans | Mindy Belz

U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty last week asked the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for a speedy review of the government's case against Zacarias Moussaoui. Defying speculation that the Bush administration might move the case to a military tribunal—or drop it altogether—Mr. McNulty instead petitioned a three-judge panel of the appeals court for something that may be riskier: to rule by early December on the case's current merits.

In an interview with WORLD, Mr. McNulty, the government's lead prosecutor of terrorism cases, said he and his team of lawyers reached the decision to appeal despite a federal district judge's throwing out most of the government's case, the first proceedings to arise from Sept. 11 attacks.