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December 20, 2005
Remembering the fallen as killers go free
Germany today demonstrated the value our European "allies" place on dead Americans, announcing the release of the terrorist convicted in the murder of U.S. sailor Robert Dean Stethem.
Stethem was a Navy diver on a TWA flight hijacked by terrorists in 1985. He was executed during the hostage seige, his body unceremoniously dumped on the runway by his killers. Four years later, his killer was sentenced by a German court to life in prison for the murder. Flash forward to December 20, 2005.
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany has quietly released a Hizbollah member jailed for life for the murder of a U.S. Navy diver, apparently disregarding Washington's wish to extradite him, diplomats and German officials said on Tuesday.
"He served his term," Eva Schmierer, a spokeswoman for Germany's justice ministry, told a news conference.
Sources in Berlin and Beirut said earlier that Mohammad Ali Hammadi, convicted of killing Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem in Beirut during the 1985 hijacking of a TWA flight and sentenced to life in prison, was flown back to Lebanon last week.
German legal sources said he had been released on Thursday and travelled to the Lebanese capital on Friday. Hizbollah sources confirmed that Hammadi had returned.
Of course, it's only a coincidence that the release of Stethem's killer happened close in time to the release of a German citizen being held hostage by terrorists.
Hammadi's release occurred shortly before German hostage Susanne Osthoff was freed in Iraq. The archaeologist had disappeared on November 25. Germany said on Sunday she was in safe custody. She has made no public statement since.
The German Foreign Ministry denied any link between the Hammadi and Osthoff releases.
"There is no connection between these two cases," Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger said.
I find Jaeger's denial . . . problematic. The release of the killer of an American military man; the release of the German hostage. It defies all logic that the events are unrelated.
So, the Germans have decided that the best way to deal with terrorism is to appease the terrorists, a remarkable turn of events, given that Germany -- better than most nations -- ought to know that appeasement leads to Gotterdamerrung.
Take a minute to learn more about Robert Stethem, and the ship that bears his name. One can only hope that the missile that one day vaporizes Hammadi (and large numbers of his fellow terrorists) will be launched by the crew of the USS Stethem.
Posted by Mike Lief at December 20, 2005 07:20 AM