POST SCRIPTS

Hezbollah hijackers (including Hamadi who was 21 at the time) hijacked a TWA flight from Athens to Rome and forced it to land in Beirut. During the siege the hijackers beat and stomped Stethem for over 3 hours, repeatedly trying to get him to speak into a tape recorder.

According to witnesses, the Islamic hijackers were trying to force him to denounce his country and to make a plea for fuel. Stethem refused these demands and remained stoically silent during his beatings. This frustrated the plans of the hijackers and kept the plane grounded saving the passengers and crew. After 17 hours a deal was struck and the hijackers left the plane escorted by Hamas terrorists to a safe location somewhere in Lebanon where they disappeared into the population.

About 3 years later hijacker Mohammed Ali Hamadi was captured while attempting to smuggle a liquid explosive into Germany. The explosive liquid was of the same type used in several European bombings previously, but for reasons never disclosed, Germany nearly released him without filing charges, that is until the United States intervened and demanded his extradition on hijacking and murder charges.

Germany refused extradition citing Hamadi could be sentenced to death in the U.S., and German law forbade extradition to countries with a death penalty unless assurances were made it would not be imposed. According to a Harvard study investigating this incident a top US official did just that and gave the assurance, but Germany still refused to extradite Hamadi.

Hamadi was tried in a German court and sentenced to life without parole. Since his conviction Hamadi has had 3 parole hearings to moderate his sentence, although in each hearing there was strong opposition from the U.S. government. In his 3rd and last parole hearing Hamadi's sentence was commuted to life with the possibility of parole, despite U.S. objections.

Hamadi was secretly released from custody on Nov. 25th, 2005, without notifying U.S. officials, as is customary in such international criminal cases. His release comes amid a disturbing speculation that the German government exchanged him for a Susanne Osthoff, a German archaeologist taken hostage in Iraq. She was released just 3 days after Hamadi's release.

German officials said they offered no ransom for her release, but they did admit they made a "diplomatic gesture". The nature or terms of that gesture was not revealed, but it was almost certainly related to Susanne Osthoff release.

Upon his release, Hamadi flew immediately back to his home in Lebanon. Lebanon does not have an extradition treaty with the U.S., and Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora has denied formal requests that Hamadi be handed over to U.S. Officials.

Saniora said to reporters, "They could have asked Germany to hand him over to the United States, why are they asking us?"

10 answers for Saniora: 1. The hijacking happened on Lebanese soil. 2. Hamadi was a Lebanese citizen (#1 and #2 makes it their problem). 3. Aside from the hijacking and murder conviction, Hamadi was linked to other acts of terror across Europe. 4. Hamadi was caught transporting explosives for a known terrorist group in violation of international law. 5. The United States had made numerous requests for his extradition from German officials and now it was making another request from Saniora. 6. Saniora currently receives over $20,000,000 per year from the United States in foreign aide. 7. By harboring this fugitive from justice the new Lebanese government risks not only the loss of aide, but direct military action from the U.S. #8. Because it can now be viewed as a rogue nation supportive of terrorists groups, number 9. This is in violation of international law and makes it eligible for UN sanctions and or military action, and that would be #10!

U.S. authorities say fanatical Islamic Lebanese group's contributions to international terrorism are hardly new. “We've never retaliated for the Beirut barracks bombing done by Hezbollah. More recently we have traced the manufacturing of improvised explosives used in Iraq to kill and maim hundreds of U.S. soldiers back to Lebanon and Hezbollah sites.� Said one U.S. Army source.