Germany Frees Hijacker Who Killed U.S. Sailor
 

America should treat all terrorists with kid gloves. See how the Germans reform them?


Germany Frees Hijacker Who Killed U.S. Sailor

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/inte...rtner=homepage

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 8:51 a.m. ET

BERLIN (AP) -- A Lebanese man serving a life sentence for the 1985 hijacking of a TWA jetliner and killing of a U.S. Navy diver has been paroled after 19 years, a law enforcement official said Tuesday.

Mohammed Ali Hamadi was released from prison and has left Germany, said Doris Moeller-Scheu, spokeswoman for the Frankfurt prosecutor's office. She said she did not know his destination.

TWA flight 847 from Athens, Greece, to Rome was hijacked to Beirut, Lebanon, where the hijackers shot U.S. Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem, 23, of Waldorf, Md., and dumped his body on the tarmac.

German federal officials declined to comment extensively and said the case was a matter for state authorities. A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Martin Jaeger, said there was no connection between Hamadi's release and the recent freeing of former hostage Susanne Osthoff, a German woman released over the weekend after spending more than three weeks as a captive in Iraq.

Stethem, 23, was beaten and shot on June 15, 1985, while the plane was in Beirut. He was the only casualty during the hijacking ordeal, in which 39 Americans were held hostage for 17 days. He received the Bronze Star and Purple Heart decorations, and a U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer is named in his honor.

Hamadi was arrested at the Frankfurt airport on Jan. 13, 1987, when customs officials discovered liquid explosives in his luggage.

U.S. authorities had requested his extradition so he could stand trial in the United States, but the Germans, who have no death penalty, insisted on prosecuting Hamadi.

-Rudey

I remember that; it was horrifying. I'm sure whats-his-name has been reformed, though, and learned his lesson.

Justice has not been done.

Dirka Dirka Mohammed Jihad went back to Hizbollah offices in Lebanon. That same Hizbollah blew up American Marine barracks in that same Lebanon.

Let's not interfere in his human rights though and allow him the justice that the courts have provided (not ours even though he killed an American). I mean heck if we were to swoop in and take him back to the US that would violate his rights.

-Rudey

Agreed - hopefully, also, his friends and associates are able to get ahold of him from here in the US . . . no need to monitor those calls, amirite?

I heard there will be a bipartisan effort by Senators Levine and Specter to provide him with an untraceable phone card.

-Rudey

Germany, eh? Perhaps he'll be asked to take a side trip...to uh, MUNICH.
Just to see a movie, of course...:mad:

US: We will hunt down released Lebanese hijacker
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON

Unless a deal can be worked out with Lebanon, the United States promises to hunt down and put on trial a Lebanese hijacker released from a German jail 19 years into a life term for hijacking a U.S. airliner and murdering a US serviceman passenger.

Sean McCormack, spokesman at the State Department, also said Tuesday that President George W. Bush's administration was disappointed by Germany's decision to free Mohammed Ali Hamadi, convicted in the 1985 hijacking of a Trans World Airlines jetliner. Hamadi was convicted in Germany of air piracy for the takeover of the airplane and murder for the beating and shooting death of US Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem, whose body was dumped onto the tarmac of Beirut International Airport in Lebanon.

The United States filed federal murder charges against Hamadi in 1985 and asked Germany to extradite him after his capture. He was arrested at the Frankfurt airport on Jan. 13, 1987, when customs officials discovered liquid explosives in his luggage. The Germans denied the extradition request.

Hamadi apparently has returned to Lebanon. His whereabouts are unclear.

So he is free to do whatever. Good for him, since the business of international terrorism is more fashionable now than it was in the mid 80's. I don't believe it will be long untill he gets smoked out of hiding by U.S. Agents, then he will get his.

I thought Team America made him up

I remember when that hijacking happened, and I'm glad to hear that the U.S. isn't letting him go without a fight. But I sure hope we have more luck finding this piece of garbage than we've had finding other terrorists.

Two thumbs down to Germany for letting the bast*rd go in the first place. :mad:

CNN is reporting that the German government claims that the US DID NOT file a request for extradition.

I hope thats not the case.

And this whole "we will find him and bring him to justice" from the state department is BS. If the US cant find Osama, a 6'6" arab who walks with a limp and is on dyalasis, they aint no way they gonna find this dude.

That's complete bullshit. They rejected our request for extradition to save the asses of 2 businessmen. Then they gave the guy the option of parole after 15 years. Give me a fucking break. And when we were trying to bring him over to the US, they rejected because we support the death penalty.

We even asked Lebanon to extradite him even though there isn't a treaty with that government.

"The American officials said they were aware that Mr. Hamadi would be granted a parole hearing at some point this year and had sought discussions with German security officials over the possibility of turning him over to the United States in the event he was released. But Mr. Hamadi flew to Lebanon before any agreement was reached, the officials said, adding that German officials had long expressed reservations about handing Mr. Hamadi over to the United States, where he might face the death penalty.

After Mr. Hamadi was arrested in Germany in 1987, the United States requested his extradition but Germany, worried about the fate of two German businessmen who had been kidnapped in Lebanon, rejected the request.

Instead, Mr. Hamadi was put on trial in Frankfurt in 1989, found guilty of Mr. Stethem's murder, and sentenced to the maximum under the law of what was then West Germany, life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years"

-Rudey