Oh yes, there was no "quid pro quo"? or was there?

Posted by: faqi at December 20, 2005 2:13 PM

What do you really expect? Look how the Germans treated the terrorists at the Olympics(Munich) in 1972.

Posted by: D.T. at December 20, 2005 2:23 PM

The Merkle government is no different from the one before.

This just goes to show: Without the death-penalty against these Jihadis we're not getting anywhere. Remarkable that the US-government and especially GWB seems also very reluctant to apply it.

I can't think of even one Jihad-terrorist that has been executed.
Can you?

Posted by: sheik yer'mami at December 20, 2005 2:28 PM

A European government giving in to Islamic terror? What's next, allowing massive immigration from the Muslim world, until the continent is staring a demographic transformation full in the face!?

Seriously now, does anyone know if there is a peep of protest, investigation or discussion of this obvious charade, this clayfooted appeasement, from Germans? I cannot read the German press, but someone must be complaining. I know Europe has its share of Islamophobes who, incomprehensibly, might find this a dubious course of action. Do they have a voice?

Quijybo

Posted by: Quijybo at December 20, 2005 2:48 PM

I'll never forget film I saw of Stethem's body hitting the tarmac. I know I'm not alone. While Hezbollah has kept Hamadi in mind with posters and praise, most Americans couldn't remember Stethem's name with an offer to pay their Christmas bills on the line. Few will also remember that Hamadi was caught with liquid explosives trying to board another flight.

Posted by: teachingmyown at December 20, 2005 2:53 PM

Check out this lump a poo, mates

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?imaseerf&151

Posted by: Unbridled at December 20, 2005 2:54 PM

Perhaps it is time to send a few assassins out on Mohammed Ali Hamadi's trail and deal out instant justice. Any Islamist who murders innocent Westerners must become a target for liquidation. Likewise all terrorist leaders and hate-peddling mullahs, clerics and imams must loom large in the telescopic sights. Lets get away from the Sporting chance and Queensbury Rules mentality, accept the fact that we're at war and start doing what is necessary to win hands down, and the only way we can possibly win is by winning ugly - and that means doing decidedly unsporting things.

Posted by: Spirit Of 1683 at December 20, 2005 3:00 PM

Quijybo,

There is a great English language website that monitors the German press. I hope this link works:
http://medienkritik.typepad.com

He hasn't posted anything on the release of this terrorist yet, but I'm sure he will.

Posted by: Howard, Fine & Howard at December 20, 2005 3:05 PM

Unbridled~ sad to say, that petition is monitored. Any entries they don't like get clipped.

Posted by: Gary at December 20, 2005 3:33 PM

the petition to free sami al-arian is revolting. Of course they don't know or don't seem to know what the decision really was concerning the undecided charges, etc. But they are full of legalism. How come they aren't equally concerned with Jonathan Pollard, for example, who has already servied 20 years in jail on charges --spying for a friendly country-- that others [such as an Egyptian citizen, the Walker family, Boyce] only served 3 or 4 years for?
Civil liberties today is a cause like peace; it usually is a fake.

Posted by: Eliyahu at December 20, 2005 4:04 PM

A Washington Post article in 2002 indicated:

"He was sentenced to life in prison and will be eligible for parole next year."

Hardly a life sentence but I'm sure that without a gun or other ordinance, he was reduced to years of "good behavior" contributing to a successful parole board hearing.

http://www.iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news_en.pl?l=en&y=2002&m=4&d=22&a=8

The US government should place him back on the most wanted list and make sure Iran pays the money from the lawsuit out of the "Nuke Isreal" fund.

Posted by: XRDC at December 20, 2005 4:08 PM

Let's rename the EU from European Union to the Enervated Underlings.

Posted by: Alarmed Pig Farmer at December 20, 2005 5:00 PM

Can anyone find a link to that photo of Robert Stethem's body on the tarmac? I've read one too many posts which are sympathetic to Hamadi, and it would be nice to counter those crocodile tears for his violated "human rights" with a photo of Stethem's violated human rights.

Posted by: libbysmom at December 20, 2005 5:53 PM

Let's just say that the reaction of the German public to the assumed kidnapping was remarkably cold-hearted. It can be summed up with the statement "If you play with the fire, you end up burning your hands".

Needless to say, that kind of reaction came pretty unexpected for a news media that was getting in gear for a lot of teary-eyed 'reporting'. Scepticism and indifference are the primary feelings of much of the German public on the complete Osthoff case because of its dubious nature. I can't really blame them, and I wished the German government had employed a Schmidt-ian stance against terrorist this time.

Posted by: WiredDragoon at December 20, 2005 6:00 PM

How long will it be before Mohammed Ali Hamadi joins in with terrorists and heads to Syria for insertion to Iraq???????

Posted by: chuck at December 20, 2005 6:02 PM

Considering that

1. Islamic terrorists almost never release any hostages.
2. Zarchawi loves be-heading infidels.

3. Other islamic terrorist groups trade hostages for money / weapons...

then Majically...

He is suddendly released..
Just like that dingbat communist whom the italians freed after paying off the islamic terrorists what 3 million dollars...

Terrorism does pay..

Pays very well indeed..

I hope we find this PIG the germans released
and KILL HIM...

Posted by: jingoist at December 20, 2005 6:08 PM

@jingoist

Giulia Sgrena's ransom was not USD 3 million...it was 15 million!

And the German ex-hostage is a she. However, the really interesting question is, was she even an hostage in the first place?

Posted by: WiredDragoon at December 20, 2005 6:13 PM

The link above, posted by Howard,Fine & Howard, is quite amazing!

(Davids Mediencritic)

When you scroll down you'll find an article about Shredder, the former Chancellor working for Gazprom, which is probably the largest Russian conglomerate.

Shredder, the smarmy, slimy commie-rat has come full circle!
This cretin who, in the seventies went to Cuba to suck up to Fidel and who since regularly received his Havana's, is no different from the quisling Galloway.

For the Germans to vote for such a swine is disgraceful enough. But to let him get away with it is mindboggling!

Posted by: sheik yer'mami at December 20, 2005 6:34 PM

Schroeder was no worse than most other politicians are. He told the people what they wanted to hear, and subsequently got re-elected. And really, I'd actually been more surprised *hadn't* he used his time as Chancellor to gain access to some good post-politics positions. I fail to emulate the German media's outrage on that one...

Posted by: WiredDragoon at December 20, 2005 6:48 PM

December 20, 2005, 7:09 PM (GMT+02:00)
Debka
"Ernst Uhrlau, Angela Merkel’s new head of the BND, Germany’s foreign intelligence service, is revealed by DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources as the man behind Berlin’s secret decision to trade German archeologist Susanne Osthoff kidnapped in Iraq on Nov. 25 for the jailed Hizballah terrorist wanted in America, Mohammad Ali Hammadi.

Uhrlau attained international prominence as broker in the Hizballah-Israel prisoner swap and the failed effort to track down the missing Israeli navigator Ron Arad.

Hammadi was serving a life sentence without parole for hijacking a TWA airliner to Beirut in 1985 and killing a Navy SEAL diver, Robert Dean Stethem, whom he threw out of the window. A US extradition warrant was on file in Berlin with a promise it would take effect if the hijacker were ever released. A few days after the terrorist was flown to Beirut, Osthoff was freed by her Iraqi insurgent captors.

This hostage-for-terrorist swap will no doubt raise storms of protest in Washington and Jerusalem and cast a shadow on relations with the Bush administration which Schroeder was at pains to mend.

1. It is the first time since al Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks in America that a senior European ally in America’s global war on terror has succumbed to enemy pressure and bought a hostage’s release by freeing a convicted terrorist."
more...
http://debka.com/article.php?aid=1123

Posted by: otterfisher at December 20, 2005 6:49 PM

Great link Otterfisher. This really complicates things. Does it mean that al Quaida in Iraq is working with Hezbollah? Do I see a little Sunni and Shia cooperation here? How truly multicultural.

In the book "Nuclear Iran" the author has vast references of Iranian defectors that indicate extensive coordination between Iran and al Quaida. The author even states that the pre Ahmad-jihad regime hosted clandestine meetings with OBL and Al Zawahiri in Iran to plan the 911 attacks!!! This hasn't gotten any play in the MSM. He did go on O'Reilly for one interview.

His contention is that the state department greatly overstates the Sunni/Shia rivalry. When it comes to fighting the infidel, they cooperate much more than we sould like to believe.

Posted by: GFB at December 20, 2005 8:06 PM

For those who are concerned about how Bush has alienated the European allies of the US, as well as the UN membership, they should read the following editorial in the Welt, a German daily:
EUROPE - THY NAME IS COWARDICE

Matthias Döpfner, Chief Executive of German publisher Axel Springer AG, has written a blistering attack in the daily WELT against the cowardice of Europe in the face of the Islamic threat. Hartmut Lau translated the article.
(Commentary by Mathias Döpfner)

A few days ago Henryk M. Broder wrote in Welt am Sonntag, "Europe - your family name is appeasement." It's a phrase you can't get out of your head because it's so terribly true. Appeasement cost millions of Jews and non-Jews their lives as England and France, allies at the time, negotiated and hesitated too long before they noticed that Hitler had to be fought, not bound to agreements. Appeasement stabilized communism in the Soviet Union and East Germany in that part of Europe where inhuman, suppressive governments were glorified as the ideologically correct alternative to all other possibilities. Appeasement crippled Europe when genocide ran rampant in Kosovo and we Europeans debated and debated until the Americans came in and did our work for us.

Rather than protecting democracy in the Middle East, European appeasement, camouflaged behind the fuzzy word "equidistance," now countenances suicide bombings in Israel by fundamentalist Palestinians. Appeasement generates a mentality that allows Europe to ignore 300,000 victims of Saddam's torture and murder machinery and, motivated by the self-righteousness of the peace-movement, to issue bad grades to George Bush A particularly grotesque form of appeasement is reacting to the escalating violence by Islamic fundamentalists in Holland and elsewhere by suggesting that we should really have a Muslim holiday in Germany.

What else has to happen before the European public and its political leadership get it? There is a sort of crusade underway, an especially perfidious crusade consisting of systematic attacks by fanatic Muslims, focused on civilians and directed against our free, open Western societies.

It is a conflict that will most likely last longer than the great military conflicts of the last century-a conflict conducted by an enemy that cannot be tamed by tolerance and accommodation but only spurred on by such gestures, which will be mistaken for signs of weakness.

Two recent American presidents had the courage needed for anti-appeasement: Reagan and Bush. Reagan ended the Cold War and Bush, supported only by the social democrat Blair acting on moral conviction, recognized the danger in the Islamic fight against democracy His place in history will have to be evaluated after a number of years have passed.

In the meantime, Europe sits back with charismatic self-confidence in the multicultural corner instead of defending liberal society's values and being an attractive center of power on the same playing field as the true great powers, America and China. On the contrary-we Europeans present ourselves, in contrast to the intolerant, as world champions in tolerance, which even (Germany's Interior Minister) Otto Schily justifiably criticizes. Why? Because we're so moral? I fear it's more because we're so materialistic.

For his policies, Bush risks the fall of the dollar, huge amounts of additional national debt and a massive and persistent burden on the American economy-because everything is at stake. While the alleged capitalistic robber barons in American know their priorities, we timidly defend our social welfare systems. Stay out of it! It could get expensive. We'd rather discuss the 35-hour workweek or our dental health plan coverage. Or listen to Bleeding Hearts preach about "reaching out to murderers."

These days, Europe reminds me of an elderly aunt who hides her last pieces of jewelry with shaking hands when she notices a robber has broken into a neighbor's house.

Europe, thy name is cowardice.

Submitted by our Ohio Pal KH

Posted by: SirSeth at December 20, 2005 8:56 PM

Hopefully the US plans to find Mohammed Ali Hamadi and ensure that justice is applied fairly.

I extend the sole of my flip flop in the general direction of Ali Hamadi.

Posted by: Jim at December 20, 2005 11:46 PM

Caught Deutsche Velle's English broadcast via CBC Radio I early this morning. Turns out that, unlike the Christian Peacemakers Team quartet of useless idiots (hence probably slain by their captors), Frau Osthoff converted to Islam and could not be accused of being a Crusader.

Posted by: waterdragon52 at December 21, 2005 8:28 AM

Hammadi, the brother of Hizbullah leader Abdul Hadi Hammadi, was arrested two years after the event by German authorities. Three others implicated in the hijacking remain on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorist list: Imad Mugniyah, Ali Atwa, and Hassan Izz-Al-Din.

In addition to the hijacking of TWA flight 897, Mugniyah has been tied to kidnappings and bombings throughout the world over the past two decades, including the following:

-April 18, 1983 bombing of the US embassy in Beirut, killing 63 (17 Americans)
-October 23, 1983 simultaneous truck bombings against the French paratroopers and US Marine killing 58 French soldiers and 241 Marines.
-September 20, 1984, he attacked the US embassy annex building.
-Linked to the numerous kidnappings of Westerners in Beirut through the 1980s – some were killed, some by beheading, and a few were eventually released
-March 17, 1992 bombings of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires Argentina, 29 killed
-July 1994 bombing of AMIA cultural building in in Buenos Aires Argentina, 86 killed
-Orchestrated the 2000 abductions of three Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon
-Abduction of Israeli Colonel Elchanan Tenenbaum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imad_Mugniyah

Since Hammadi’s apprehension in 1987, there have been numerous attempts by Hizbullah and their allied groups to free Hammadi by exchanging him for German hostages in Lebanon in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.

http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/terror_92/europe.html

Until 9/11, Mugniyah had killed more Americans than OBL. One more victory for the Jihadists, thanks Germany, we’ll remember this one and credit you with the blood Hammadi spills.

Posted by: XRDC at December 21, 2005 1:03 PM

Germany should have been wiped out after WWII.
They're all a bunch of Nazis. I read somewhere
that polls show that more than half claimed that
their ancestors were in "the resistance". What a
joke, they were all Nazis, and proud of it.

Posted by: American at December 21, 2005 1:04 PM

"Until 9/11 Mugniyah had killed more Americans than OBL." from posting above.

Because Hizbullah is a front organization for Iran, one has to conclude that Iran has killed more Americans than OBL. The Argentine government expelled the Iranian ambassador after the bombings.

Don't forget the bombing of Kobar Towers in Suadia Arabia. This was a complete Iranian operation. The Clinton administration downplayed it because of their pipedream to improve relations with the Iranian "moderates".

Posted by: GFB at December 21, 2005 1:24 PM

I was under the impression that Merkel was going to try to improve relations with the US. Shes off to a very bad start.

Posted by: Mr Ape Pig at December 21, 2005 3:23 PM

Looks like the Germans are practicing a little kitman and taqiyya also. The Germans are still Nazis and Jew haters at heart and are entirely too sympathetic to other anti-semites. This also exposes all their Euro crap about the death penalty. Hamadi got life without parole. What did he do, die and rise from the dead? When a society/government gets into the business of social welfare and redistribution of wealth for so called "social justice" reasons you can kiss real justice good-bye as well as the value of human life. I am beginning to wonder if Germany in particular and Europe in general was ever really Christian because they sure have managed to undo over 1500 years of Christianity in a New York minute.

Posted by: Theseus at December 21, 2005 3:29 PM

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.

http://www.washtimes.com/world/20051221-120025-9152r.htm

Posted by: otterfisher at December 21, 2005 3:34 PM

I have been in despair ever since the "Beirut Bombing" in Lebanon in 1983 which murdered 241 US Marines... I could never understand Reagan's refusal to retaliate overwhelmingly against Hamas AND Hezbollah... Even now, it's not too late to send them to Allah... These vermin deserve to be exterminated as soon as possible -- American pest control in the ME...

Posted by: jsla at December 21, 2005 4:29 PM

Worse part of it is the joke, Susanna Osthoff was a German only by birth, she long ago stopped being a German, when she had sex with an Arab, (probably many since.. call it Arab by injection, mothered a child and became Muslim.. she lived in Iraq for over ll years, and yet the German government was concerned? Why not be concerned about all Germans all over the world who haven't renounced their culture and nation.

Posted by: Nariz at December 21, 2005 7:51 PM

Its a matter of time, eventually the US will get their men and they will be tried in a US court for murdering an American Navy diver.
Mohamed Ali Hamadi & the three accomplices Hassan Izz-Al-Din, Ali Atwa and Imad Mughniyeh -
Will be brought to Justice. They will be found how ever long it takes.

Posted by: faqi at December 22, 2005 1:58 AM

Hamadi needs to be taken out, asap.

The Germans are not nazis and antisemites, some, sure, but overall, not.
Germans seem desperate to be seen as on a higher moral ground than the U.S., as if, somehow, to show that they are not connected to 'those other people' who committed such appalling atrocities in WW2.
In attempting to demonstrate their moral superiority to the U.S., they are endangering themselves, europe and the whole western world.

Merkel is the best thing to happen to Germany in some time. She is new to the job, and this exchange, for surely that is exactly what it was, was a mistake, both with regard to Germany's relationship with America, and internally, where i think this exchange, because of the islamization of Ostoff, will be scorned.

America must either get Hamadi to the U.S., or finish him in Lebanon.

Posted by: dby at December 22, 2005 2:48 AM