From the Washington Post:
BEIRUT, Lebanon -- A Lebanese man serving a life sentence in Germany for the 1985 hijacking of a TWA jetliner and killing of a U.S. Navy diver has returned to Lebanon after being paroled in Germany, security and guerrilla officials said Tuesday.
Mohammed Ali Hamadi arrived in Beirut four days ago on a commercial flight from Germany, a Lebanese security official and a Hezbollah guerrilla group said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
....
TWA flight 847 from Athens, Greece, to Rome was hijacked in June 1985 to Beirut, where the hijackers beat and shot U.S. Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem, 23, of Waldorf, Md., and dumped his body on the tarmac.
American liberals are always telling us how we must align our values and laws with those of the "international community", or explaining how "they would never do things that way in Europe", or telling us we have to pass "the global test" when making policy in the United States.
We've heard a lot of this sort of thing in regards to the war on terrorism, our intervention in Iraq, and in another realm, we heard a lot about European outrage against the execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams for murdering four people in cold blood.
Well here's another example of European law and values in action. Are these the sort of values liberals in America would like us to emulate? A convicted terrorist - the highjacker of a commercial aircraft, the taker of 39 American hostages for 17 days, the murderer of a U.S. Navy diver - is set free and given safe passage to Lebanon by the German government.
So we have a choice. Do we want to emulate Europe, or do we want to maintain American values? Do we wish to execute murderers, or do we want to give them a free flight home to rejoin the jihad? To us, the choice is clear. Europeans do not represent the gold standard of morality or law.
We just wonder if he flew first class or coach. And how was a known terrorist allowed through airport screening? Did they check his carry-on bag for nail clippers and so forth? So many questions.
The NY Times also has an account.
Related: Michelle Malkin links a couple of reports from the Tookie Williams funeral and herb festival, and asks "How do you say 'weasel' in German?
This action sends a powerful message to potential terrorists that if convicted of terrorism in any country besides U.S. you can almost expect to be released in due time, as a life sentence does not really mean a lifetime in prison.
Even our justice system allows the release of convicted terrorists.
In 1954, four terrorists members of the FALN stormed the U.S. House of Representatives, wounding five congressmen. They were granted clemency by President Jimmy Carter in 1979.
In the days before he left office, former President Bill Clinton pardoned sixteen members of the FALN organization. These men belonged to a Puerto Rican freedom terrorist group, which was responsible for planting over 130 bombs in public places in the U.S. They killed six people and injured seventy.
Therefore, a potential terrorist need not fear of a real life sentence. But they may give second thoughts if the death sent ace would be passed. There is no release from death.
Comment by Walt D — December 21, 2005 @ 6:20 am December 21, 2005