Posted on 12/22/2005 6:41:54 PM PST by blam
US vows to track down hijacker freed early
By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor
(Filed: 23/12/2005)
The United States has vowed to track down and bring to trial a Lebanese hijacker who has been secretly released after serving 19 years in a German prison for seizing an airliner in 1985 and killing a US navy diver.
The Bush administration said it had asked Germany not to release Mohammed Ali Hamadi, who was jailed for life for his role in the hijacking of TWA's Flight 847 from Athens to Rome and the shooting of one of the passengers, Robert Stethem.
Despite American appeals, the German authorities freed Hamadi, a member of the Hizbollah movement, and allowed him to return to Lebanon.
The US State Department was careful to say yesterday that Washington had "respect" for German law.
It also said the release would not affect relations that are already strained over the war in Iraq and the controversy over the US policy of "extraordinary" rendition of terror suspects through European airspace.
But Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, said: "I think what I can assure anybody who's listening, including Mr Hamadi, is that we will track him down.
"We will find him and we will bring him to justice in the United States for what he's done."
A US official said Washington believes Hamadi was released from temporary custody in Lebanon and had since disappeared.
Mr McCormack said the US would "make every effort, working with the Lebanese authorities or whomever else, to see that he faces trial for the murder of Mr Stethem".
But the Lebanese government, immersed in the crisis over the murder of the former prime minister, Rafik Hariri, appeared bewildered by the US demand.
"The United States could have initially asked Germany to hand him over. Why are they asking us?" said the Lebanese prime minister, Fouad Siniora.
The US request came at a time when Mr Siniora is struggling to convince Shia ministers, including one from Hizbollah, to end their boycott of the Beirut government.
America has no extradition treaty with Lebanon. US officials said the terms of its extradition agreement with Germany did not allow it to obtain custody of someone who had already served a sentence.
Payback ich bin a bitch.
Great!
Time to send Mitch Rapp in after him.
The timing of the German release, coinciding with the release of the German hostage in Iraq, is poor.
Had Germany been willing to release him into US custody, there are ways that they could have done that without breaking their own laws. Just let us know on which flight you put him. We'll handle the rest.
Didn't happen.
Some people say that this is just a money-like deal, that releasing this monster was the quid pro quo to get a German hostage free.
My guess: the Germans let him go when he promised to just go kill Jews. "Ach ja, ve haff ze final zolution zo unfiniched, ja. Go out zere and vin vun for ze Fuehrer."
Why is our Ambassador still in Berlin, and not back in Washington for consultations?
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
A 100 percent tariff on BMW and Benz (aka "Nazi Staff Cars") might get their attention.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
You shouldn't be so hard on yourself! (Ich bin is 'I am' -- perhaps you meant 'ist')
Something more like "Paybach ist ein Bitsch, nein?"
Alas, I guess Merkel isn't anxious to patch up relations with the US.
When was he actually released. It could have been awhile ago.
Yeah, we have such a great track record going after these bastards. We caught bin laden in no time and Z too. We'll never see him again. And they all look the same there anyway.
Merkel wants to have stability in Germany so that her government can try to restore the economy. This is her way of appeasing Iran in hopes that Iran doesn't cause any trouble for Germany. She also forced Mehlis to resign from the Harriri investigation so that Germany could improve its relations with Syria.
(Same policy followed by other countries, like Saudi Arabia, France, UK - appease the Islamists in hopes they'll do their dirty work somewhere else.)
Paroled in Germany and arrived in Lebanon late last week, I believe.
Remember the Lusitania.
I can't think of a better way of killing someone.
The US says please don't release him. Germany says we are going to release him. Man disappears. Man still missing. US says we are going to find him. Perhaps all along they released him to US and we killed him.
As much as I'd like to think this happened. I'm skeptical.
One things for sure. If you are right we'll never know it will we ;-)
I believe they just made their own bed. What is there to prevent a rash of German hostage taking; afterall it pays.
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