Jackasses
Germany paroles terrorist after 19-year term
Hamadi was jailed for hijacking TWA jet, killing a U.S. Navy diver
If he’d killed a couple gutterally languaged tourists named Hans and Frieda, it would have been a different story. And he’s left Germany ~ what a surprise. Any guesses where the bus ticket’s to? Danke schön, unsere Freunden.
UPDATE: Watching FoxNews at this moment and there’s speculation the Germans released this murderer as a quid-pro-quo to get Arab terrorists to release their own GERMAN hostages. I can’t find anything on it right now, but a Google search brings up a poignant, prescient Victoria Toensing column.
When I was in Bonn in June, 1987, negotiating Hamadi’s extradition, I warned the German delegation meeting with us that Hamadi would be a “hot potato.” If they convicted him, they would always have to deal with threats for his release. It would be far better to send him to the United States, I argued, where we had the resolve to keep him because he was charged with the murder of an American serviceman, the hostage-taking of U.S. citizens and the hijacking of a U.S. carrier. West Germany had no victims whatsoever involved in TWA Flight 847; the sole jurisdiction for the trial was finding Hamadi on its soil. Therefore, the German government might not have the strong support of its people to continue to imprison a convicted terrorist when fellow Germans’ lives are once again being threatened-as was the situation on the extradition decision.
So the case of Hamadi is not over and will not be until he actually serves life in prison. Since the terrorists succeeded in making Germany modify its behavior on the extradition, they will expect acquiescence again on lessening the life sentence. By caving in to the terrorists’ demands in 1987, the Germans merely delayed making the tough call. We can only wish them well. Now they must display a strong national will and refuse to reduce Hamadi’s sentence when the inevitable new demand from the terrorists arrives.
Well, they didn’t.
Military Thingies | Mr. Bingley | 
December 20, 2005 9:52 pm
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Don’t you dare use the “T” word! According to CNN, he’s a “militant”. You might hurt the poor guy’s feelings.
There are a lot of fine Germans. It’s just that they aren’t in charge. This will cost Germany down the road, more than they realize. Pity.
“Didn’t” is true, but “couldn’t” may be more precise. They’ve already got honor killings on the streets, and the fresh example of the French riots in their news.
It’s plain, after the examples of the past sixty years, that military victory is impossible for the Muslim world against the West, even in its decline. Not being fools, they’ve decided to prey instead on the misplaced kindness of post-Christian Europe. I forget who once said that faith was as practical as potatoes, but score one for them – we can’t muster the energy to do the right thing because we first lost the power to believe the right thing.
One more brick in the wall with our “ally” Germany I guess. You’re right Jeff, it is a pity.
When I got out of basic in 1983 the rule was that if you were traveling at the Army’s expense you had to wear Class A’s and carry your ID. If memory serves me right it was after Stethem’s murder they had us travel in civvies and told us to pack away our military ID and orders if we could. Civvies were more comfortable and it was probably a safer/smarter thing but it struck me as kind of craven and it pissed me off a bit at the time. Like we had conceded something to the barbarians.