December 20, 2005
EVEN WORSE THAN THE ITALIANS, AGAIN:
Germany frees killer of U.S. diver (Chris Burns, 12/20/05, CNN)
A Hezbollah militant sentenced to life in Germany for murdering a U.S. Navy diver during the 1985 hijacking of a U.S. jetliner has been freed, officials said.The German government denied on Tuesday the release was related to the freeing of a German hostage in Iraq.
At least when the Italians bought their hostage there was a chance the money might not end up being successfully spent to kill Americans, the Germans traded a guy who already has. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 20, 2005 7:15 PM
What part of a life sentence does 19 years amount to? And the timing of this coupled with the release of the German hostage is also very suspect. Given the fact that the Germans released another prisoner without telling us and would not allow extradition to the US because of our death penalty legislation, I would not bet the farm on the credibility of the statement of the German government on this incident. I guess that alliances with Europe only work one direction. I think it is high time that they either worked both directions or they did not work at all.
Posted by: dick at December 20, 2005 7:34 PMWithdraw all our forces from Germany now!!!!
Posted by: obc at December 20, 2005 9:53 PMWe shouldn't be surprised - the Germans released the captured Olympic terrorists as well. And that was back in 1972.
obc - we shouldn't leave before settling this score. Does America have the stones for its own operation of retribution? Except in this case, we will need to take some Germans, too, it seems.
It reminds me that Richard Armitage has testified to Congress that we have a blood penalty still to extract from Hezbollah. Perhaps it is time to start collecting.
Posted by: jim hamlen at December 20, 2005 10:27 PMThe late news says the terrorist went to Lebanon and that the U.S. has asked Lebanon to grab him up for us. This could be fun to watch.
Posted by: Lou Gots at December 20, 2005 11:29 PMHunt him down, and then kill the son of a bitch.
Posted by: AllenS at December 21, 2005 4:26 AMAllenS:
Let's see if Condi can be as tough as Golda Meir.
Posted by: ratbert at December 21, 2005 8:21 AMSome good news this morning. h/t CQ. The Washington Times says the Lebanese have him in custody.
Would I be a victim of the season of good will to all if I give Merkel credit for secretly arranging that his capture by Lebanon would be part of the deal?
ratbert,
Bush's approval numbers would go through the roof, if he went on tv and said what I said.
Posted by: AllenS at December 21, 2005 8:36 AMerp:
You might be right, if the Lebanese want to keep poking at Syria. Assad is closer to the edge than we all know - and while Israel can (more or less) ignore the Palestinian pinpricks, Hezbollah is a different matter. For one thing, if the Israelis attack the Iranian nuclear facilities, they will probably have to defend against a Hezbollah assault from the north.
The biggest surprise in 2006 might just be the discovery of all those WMDs that somehow found their way to Syria. I would also be willing to bet that the not just Iraqis and Syrians were involved in the transfer, either.
Posted by: jim hamlen at December 21, 2005 9:48 AMYou're right about the WMD Jim and I think we'll find Russian fingerprints all over it too.
Posted by: erp at December 21, 2005 2:59 PMWe shouldn't be surprised - the Germans released the captured Olympic terrorists as well. And that was back in 1972.
And after they were released and returned to Dar al-Islam with a hero's welcome, Mossad sent assassins after them.
Posted by: Ken at December 21, 2005 3:59 PM