Victory Through Apathy

Every so often a moment in time sets off my conspiracy alarm. The one that got me going this time was the announcement that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is going to plead guilty to eight charges he faced, including conspiracy to commit terrorism and attempted murder. You might remember when Umar was caught "red handed" a couple of Christmases ago, trying to blow up a plane with his underwear. Now, almost two years later, the trial of this accused terrorist is going to go quietly into the night, or prison for-what-amounts-to-ever.
Why just send yourself off to jail without a chance to shout loudly from the defense table? Why give up the opportunity to keep the face of al Qaeda's most notorious living martyr out of the twenty-four hour news cycle?
Well, there was some evidence: Abdulmutallab was badly burned in a plane full of witnesses. The government said he told FBI agents he was working for al-Qaeda and directed by Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical, American-born Muslim cleric recently killed by the U.S. in Yemen.There are also photos of his scorched shorts as well as video of Abdulmutallab explaining his suicide mission before departing for the U.S. Okay. So maybe "not guilty" would have been a stretch, but since when has that been an issue for al Qaeda?
The conspiracy twitch tells me it has something to do with Anwar al-Awlaki. He was the one the U.S. killed with a drone. Not underwear. A model plane. Maybe the reason this whole thing is just going away is sheer embarrassment.