Best News So Far Today!

[Annie]

Lebanon undoes what Germany did. I doubt this would have happened if not for the ousting of Syria from Lebanon, which wouldn't have happened without Iraq. Something to think about the way that allies and times are changing:

http://insider.washingtontimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20051221-120025-9152r

Navy diver's killer held in Beirut

By Nicholas Kralev and Gary Emerling
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
December 21, 2005

The Lebanese killer of a U.S. Navy diver was in custody in Beirut yesterday, according to U.S. officials who decried his release from a German prison last week and pledged to bring him to the United States for trial.
Relatives of the victim -- Waldorf, Md., native Robert Dean Stethem -- said yesterday they were "devastated" to learn of the killer's release and urged the Bush administration to demand an explanation from Germany.
"Just to see him free slays us," said Richard Stethem, father of the seaman whose beaten body was thrown onto a Beirut runway in 1985.
Mohammad Ali Hamadi, a member of the Hezbollah guerrilla group, received a life sentence in Germany for hijacking a TWA plane to Beirut and fatally shooting Petty Officer 2nd Class Stethem, but was paroled after 18 years and freed on Thursday.
The United States, which has been seeking Hamadi's extradition since his 1987 capture in Frankfurt, privately expressed anger at his early release, but officials said they were determined to "get our hands on him."
"We are going to make every effort to see that he stands trial here in the United States," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. "We are disappointed now that he has been released before the end of his full sentence."
A life sentence in Germany ranges between 20 and 25 years, with the possibility of parole after 15 years. Hamadi, now 41, was convicted in 1989, and the two years served prior to that were deemed part of his sentence.
For the Stethem family, the news reopened old wounds.
Kenneth Stethem, the petty officer's older brother, called the release "absolute injustice," and called on the Bush administration to "bring to bear all of its resources to demand an explanation from the German government as to why he was released."
U.S. and German officials said Berlin notified Washington a couple of days before Hamadi was released. The United States, whose extradition request was turned down in 1987, did not ask that he be held longer because it saw no chance that Germany would turn him over now.
Instead, Washington approached the authorities in Beirut, where Petty Officer Stethem's murder occurred and where Hamadi arrived on Friday.
A senior State Department official said Hamadi was in "temporary custody" in Lebanon, although it was not clear where or when he was arrested.
Mr. McCormack said Washington was "talking to the Lebanese government" about bringing him to the United States, but that the issue was complicated by the lack of an extradition treaty with Lebanon.
Germany refused to extradite Hamadi to the United States because he could face the death penalty. It also argues that he has been punished for his crime, and that trying him in a U.S. court would constitute double jeopardy.
Mr. McCormack disagreed, saying "there is a difference in the interpretations between the legal systems" of the two countries.
The decision to free Hamadi came just before the reported release of a German hostage in Iraq, Susanne Osthoff, but Berlin rejected suggestions that the developments were related.
The Stethem family, however, was skeptical.
"We feel pretty strongly [the hostage-taking] made his release happen much faster," Richard Stethem said. "I think the new [German] government ... thought it was an easy out to give him back to Lebanon."
A U.S. official agreed privately that Hamadi "could have been held longer" and said Berlin's explanation was "not good enough."
"There was no reason for him to be tried in Germany in the first place," said Patrick Stethem, Petty Officer Stethem's other brother. "He should still be tried here for the crimes he committed against a U.S. service member."

 

[archangel]

Lebanon undoes what Germany did. I doubt this would have happened if not for the ousting of Syria from Lebanon, which wouldn't have happened without Iraq. Something to think about the way that allies and times are changing:

http://insider.washingtontimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20051221-120025-9152r

do you have more links on this subject...what are you trying to say?

 

[Said1]

do you have more links on this subject...what are you trying to say?

Figure it out, Ironsides.

 

[archangel]

Figure it out, Ironsides.

sorry hun I'm taken..so stop following me around the board...go play with clay or anyone else!

 

[Said1]

sorry hun I'm taken..so stop following me around the board...go play with clay or anyone else!

Taken.

 

[5stringJeff]

do you have more links on this subject...what are you trying to say?

She's saying that Lebanon would never had taken the step of arresting a terrorist before the US invasion of Iraq and the subsequent Cedar Revolution, in which the Syrian overlords were ousted from Lebanon.

 

[nbdysfu]

The times they are a-changin'

I wonder if we're missing something and there was German-Leb-US coordination to pull one over on the terrorists? Was the hostage released?

U.S. and German officials said Berlin notified Washington a couple of days before Hamadi was released. The United States, whose extradition request was turned down in 1987, did not ask that he be held longer because it saw no chance that Germany would turn him over now.
Instead, Washington approached the authorities in Beirut, where Petty Officer Stethem's murder occurred and where Hamadi arrived on Friday.
A senior State Department official said Hamadi was in "temporary custody" in Lebanon, although it was not clear where or when he was arrested.
Mr. McCormack said Washington was "talking to the Lebanese government" about bringing him to the United States, but that the issue was complicated by the lack of an extradition treaty with Lebanon.

 

[Annie]

The times they are a-changin'

I wonder if we're missing something and there was German-Leb-US coordination to pull one over on the terrorists? Was the hostage released?

Yes. The hostage was release. Quid pro quo. As for the Lebanon angle, I'll be surprised if they do extradite him, as Hizbollah is encamped in Lebanon.

 

[Lefty Wilbury]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20051222-121538-4330r.htm

Diver's killer set free in Lebanon
By Nicholas Kralev
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
December 22, 2005


U.S. officials yesterday said the killer of a U.S. Navy diver had been released from "temporary custody" in Lebanon but refused to rule out bringing him to the United States by force.

The Lebanese government criticized Washington's request to hand over Mohammad Ali Hamadi, saying the militant already had served a prison sentence for the 1985 murder of Robert Dean Stethem of Waldorf, Md.

Hamadi, a member of the Hezbollah guerrilla group, was taken into custody upon returning to Lebanon after his release from a German prison Thursday. He had served 18 years for hijacking a TWA plane to Beirut and fatally shooting Petty Officer 2nd Class Stethem, who was 23 when he was killed.

"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," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

"We will make every effort, working with the Lebanese authorities or whomever else, to see that he faces trial for the murder of Mr. Stethem," he said.

Attempts to bring Hamadi to the United States are complicated because the United States and Lebanon do not have an extradition treaty.

Mr. McCormack and other U.S. officials would not rule out using force to achieve their goal if diplomacy fails. They cited past cases of foreigners who were forcefully brought to the United States to stand trial.

"We saw that with the person responsible for the murder of an American citizen, Mr. Klinghoffer," Mr. McCormack said on Tuesday in reference to Leon Klinghoffer, a disabled New Yorker who was shot in his wheelchair on a cruise ship in 1985 and thrown overboard while still alive.

"We tracked that person down and we brought them to justice in the United States," he said. "It doesn't matter how long it takes, but we will track them down and they will face justice in the United States."

The mastermind of Mr. Klinghoffer's murder, Mohammed Abbas, was captured in 2003 near Baghdad and died in custody 11 months later of what the Pentagon called "natural causes."

In a case cited by another U.S. official, Aimal Khan Kasi, a Pakistani citizen who in 1993 shot five persons in their cars as they entered the CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., was snatched in an FBI raid in Pakistan four years later and was executed in 2002.

Richard Stethem, the diver's father, said yesterday that the United States should use force to apprehend Hamadi if necessary.

"We would like to see that strong of a measure to go get him," he said. "That would be the right thing to do because of what he did to our son."

Hamadi and three accomplices dumped Petty Officer Stethem's beaten and lifeless body on the runway from the plane at the Beirut airport. Those three should be brought to the United States, too, said Patrick Stethem, the slain diver's brother.

On Tuesday, U.S. officials said Hamadi was in "temporary custody" in Lebanon, but yesterday they said he was no longer being held.

Lebanese officials would not confirm Hamadi's detention but made clear they had no reason to detain him.

"He served his sentence in Germany and there are measures that will be completed in Lebanon. Why are they asking us now?" Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said of the Americans.

"Originally, they could have requested that Germany hand him over," he said.

U.S. and German officials said Tuesday that Berlin had notified Washington a couple of days before Hamadi was released. The United States, whose extradition request was turned down in 1987, asked again at the level of the attorney general, Mr. McCormack said.

A life sentence in Germany ranges between 20 and 25 years, with the possibility of parole after 15 years. Hamadi, now 41, was convicted in 1989, and the two years served prior to that were deemed part of his sentence.
• Gary Emerling contributed to this report.