Posted on 12/28/2005 6:03:02 PM PST by Ligeia
Patrick and Katherine Stethem have forsaken their quiet life in a Loudoun [Virginia] suburb to call for justice.
They don't relish the spotlight. But they'll go there if it will get the job done.
The job is to get the U.S. government to use its influence to get Mohammed Ali Hamadi into a U.S. courtroom. To get the Lebanese government to turn Hamadi over. To get Hezbollah to assume the mantle of a legitimate political party.
It's been 20 years since Hezbollah terrorists – two on a hijacked plane and two on the ground -- murdered Patrick Stethem's older brother, Robert, and threw his body onto the tarmac of Beirut airport in Lebanon.
And this year, just a week before Christmas, German authorities released Hamadi from what should have been a life sentence – that's 25 years in Germany – and treated him to a free ride back to his native Lebanon.
“It's a question of justice,” said Patrick Stethem. “A U.S. plane was hijacked, a majority of the passengers were U.S. citizens, a U.S. service member was killed. It was a crime against our country, against our military service members. Hamadi needs to be given a trial here and needs to serve his time here.”
Then-President Ronald Reagan offered to take the death penalty off the table, back in 1987, but the Germans kept Hamadi in their court system, where there is no death penalty. There were rumors at the time that the German government wanted to protect two of its citizens who had been seized in Lebanon.
The family learned of Hamadi's release from an FBI agent who has tracked the other terrorists for the last 20 years. The Germans didn't comment on the release until after the Stethem family went public with their outrage.
The Stethems find it more than a coincidence that a day after Hamadi landed back in Beirut, Iraqi insurgents – Shiites, like Hezbollah in Lebanon -- released Susanne Osthoff, a German archaeologist they had held for three weeks.
Robert and Patricia Stethem, Robert's parents, got a call from White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card on Christmas Eve. Card, said Katherine Stethem, expressed the White House's concern and pledged support.
“It was a relief to be acknowledged by our government,” she said.
They have written to U.S. Sen. John Warner, their representative in Congress and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. They want his support in bringing pressure on Lebanon to send Hamadi here for trial and justice.
“We want to petition the president and the State Department to put pressure on Lebanon to cooperate and if they don't, to put Lebanon on the list of countries that sponsor terrorism,” said Patrick.
“This cannot go unnoticed,” said Katherine. “This is a family that has tried to keep its location and telephones numbers quiet, and all of a sudden we're standing on the rooftops screaming to the top of our lungs. It will not go unnoticed.”
A spokesman said yesterday that Sen. Warner “supports bringing terrorists to justice. He will look into the issue and consult with the State Department to see what help we can provide.”
Patricia Stethem, Robert's mother, christened the USS Stethem (DDG 63), a guided missile destroyer, on July 16, 1994, in her son;s name. The Stethem is one of only two destroyers named for a Navy Seabee.
Aircraft carriers carry the names of presidents, said Patrick. Battleships are named after states of the union.
Destroyers are named for heroes. “For the Navy to name a ship after Robert, it's a true recognition that they consider him a hero. The way he faced his fate,” said Patrick.
Hamadi spent 19 years in prison for brutalizing and then shooting Robert Dean Stethem, 23, a Navy diver who happened to be on TWA Flight 847 from Athens to Rome in June 1985, when Hezbollah terrorists hijacked the plane and forced it to land at Beirut. Robert was one of five Navy men on board. The terrorists singled him out.
Hamadi was arrested two years later at the Frankfurt airport, carrying three vials of liquid explosive. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1989.
Robert's mother Patricia attended every day of the trial, which took a year. Patrick remembers sitting within an arm's length of Hamadi.
The German government declared Hamadi safe, ready to return to society and start a new life.
But did the German government revoke Hamadi's German citizenship, Patrick Stethem wants to know. If they didn't, just how safe do they really think he is?
©Times Community Newspapers 2005
I wrote the DOJ about this. I hope the Bush administration doesn't sit still for this.
If this is true about Germany, I wish we would end diplomatic realtions with them. Screw 'em. Screw France, screw Germany and screw all these leftist nations.
wouldn't it be nice to get our hands on this thug after all these years
I was living in Virginia when this happened and one of my co-workers was a member and attended his funeral.
The article says Andrew Card called the family on Christmas Eve and 'pledged support.' I hope that means Special Forces are getting involved.
I wonder if I am thinking of a different person. I thought he was a frogman, but I notice it says "steelworker second class".
I've never read that about him. Says a lot about a young, Navy diver who also wants to serve in the Salvation Army.
I agree. However, I think that many Germans are actually pro-American, they are unfortunately overshadowed by the much more boisterous and vocal America-haters, who are pervasive in their government.
I wouldnt expect anything from the State Department unless they are pushed, and pushed hard.
Germany should be ashamed, but then Italy doesnt seem to be and they bought their hostage off too.
I wouldnt expect anything from the State Department unless they are pushed, and pushed hard.
Germany should be ashamed, but then Italy doesnt seem to be and they bought their hostage off too.
I am wondering if that was Stethem or not. A couple of things bother me. I think I left Virginia in 1984 but it could have been 1985 which is the year Stethem was murdered.
I still think it was him but am no longer as sure as I was. My friend was a U.S. Government agent and also a member of the Salvation Army. He attended the funeral in Norfolk, but I read somewhere that Stethem's funeral was in Northern Virginia.
The aircraft that the scumbag killer was being taken to Lebanon on, should have been intercepted by a couple of F-15s and "escorted" to an airbase in Poland or Iraq, the puke taken off roughed up a little bit and then sent to some hell hole to rot.
Hopefully, our CIA will end the terrorist's life. Maybe then a Hollywood Liberal will make a movie that portrays the CIA agent as the bad guy for doing so.
Thanks for the information, it definitely was Stethem then. I know the Salvation Army gave his funeral service in Norfolk. I guess they could have had another in Northern Virginia.
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