Updated Below 

The breath holding is over, Moussaoui got spared the death penalty.  While there will be debates about why for years to come, it’s a done deal and we need to move on.

But we need to do so here, not in France, and by that I mean that he needs to do his time here, in the Country where he committed the crimes.

France could seek Moussaoui transfer

France could at some stage ask the United States to allow Zacarias Moussaoui to serve his life prison sentence in a French jail, the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

Moussaoui, a 37-year old French citizen of Moroccan origin, was jailed for life by a U.S. jury on Wednesday for his role in the September 11 2001 attacks on the United States.

France and the United States signed two agreements in the 1980s about the transfer of convicts and Moussaoui’s mother Aisha el Wafi and his lawyer have asked that the Frenchman be allowed to serve his sentence in his home country.

…

Moussaoui’s mother, Aisha el Wafi, said her son would be living like a "rat in a hole" and accused France of siding with the United States during the trial.

"I feel there is a part of me that is dead, buried with my son who will be buried for the rest of his life at the age of 37 for things he hasn’t done," she said at a news conference in Paris.

By his own admissions, he is not blameless and while I sympathize with a mother’s pain and loss, I also feel that we must not let his sentance be transferred to France.

Let him serve his sentance in exile here, in the country he hates.

France has taken a hard line on Muslim’s in its own country, but at the same time their other choices in the war on terror inspire a bit of doubt that they will take his sentance as seriously as we do.  What is to stop them from rehabilitating him and sending him home to momma?

Captain Ed notes:

The French show the minimum respect for American sensibilities by announcing they will wait until after the formal sentencing today to request this extradition. Moussaoui’s mother has publicly pressed the Chirac government to allow the erstwhile terrorist to serve his sentence nearby, and to do so as soon as possible.

This is a small taste of what would have occurred if the jury had given Moussaoui the death penalty. The French government would have given this much more visibility even today had that occurred, and it would have continued for years until we executed the supposedly mentally ill terrorist. As it is, if the French want to confirm American opinion of their nation, then they should by all means pursue this diplomatic effort. It will give us plenty of opportunity to remind the Chirac government of its lack of fidelity in its pledge to support us if we went back to the Security Council just once more on Iraq. We can also talk about all of the bilateral efforts between Paris and Baghdad that undermined the sanctions regime, sent military arms to Saddam Hussein, and paid bribes and kickbacks to the Ba’athist regime that Oil-For-Food specifically sought to sideline.

If the French get their hands on Moussaoui, we will only wake up a few years later to French pronouncements of miracle cures and rehabilitation, and watch the video of the AQ terrorist gleefully leaving the French prison over the protests of the American government. We do not wish to rely on French tenacity in the war on terror; we learned that lesson a long time ago. Let the French try to invoke whatever treaties they want to request Moussaoui’s extradition, and let them stomp their feet when we tell them to pound sand.

I can’t say I disagree.  His ass is our’s now.  He stays.  There is no value to anyone in sending him to France.

Other discussing this:  Michelle Malkin

Update:

It is now being reported that France has offered him Consular protection:

Moussaoui could demand consular protection

The French government is offering Zacarias Moussaoui the consular protection he deserves as a French national, but so far the al-Qaida conspirator has not asked for it, the French Embassy said Wednesday.

In a press communique, the embassy said it had dispatched the consul general from Washington and an embassy official to every session of the trial in US District Court at Alexandria, Virginia, south of Washington.

What is next?  Diplomatic Immunity?

What is next?  Diplomatic Immunity?