[minus_273]

man dont you guys just love this life in prison business. I guess we are going to be safe from this savage since he is safely behind bars.

[msnimje]

The German government denied on Tuesday the release was related to the freeing of a German hostage in Iraq.

Yeah, right. I bet part of the deal was he had to "pinky swear" not to kill anybody else (at least not any Germans).

[Southack]

The real news behind the news is that the German government is clearly admitting that they've known what we've known all along, that Lebanon's Hezbollah is behind the insurgency in Iraq.

It's not just that freeing Mohammed Ali Hamadi points the finger squarely at Old Europe's duplicity, but that Germany *knew* to offer up something (read: someone) whom the insurgents in Iraq would actually view as an enticing trade.

...And the only people who care about Mohammed Ali Hamadi being free (rather than a martyr) are in Hezbollah's top leadership ranks.

So yeah, Germany got their hostage in Iraq freed...and magically ("no relationship here, folks!") Mohammed Ali Hamadi gets his life sentence commuted to time served.

Now we can begin to see why President Bush's calls first for Syria to withdraw from Lebanon and second for Hezbollah in Lebanon to be disarmed (both approved simultaneously by the UN with full EU support) were so important to the War Against Terror and more specifically, the War in Iraq itself.

Because this prisoner exchange (the German was most likely German intel working in Iraq) incontrovertibly demonstrates that Hezbollah's leadership holds sway with the Iraqi Insurgents.

And it means that we may very well see a Lebanese Militia move into Southern Lebanon to "disarm" Hezbollah (with allied support en masse, no doubt), or we may see U.S. armor roll into and/or U.S. air power roll over Southern Lebanon, or we may see Israel re-occupy Southern Lebanon (depending upon geopolitical dynamics).

Because Hezbollah's leadership is based in Southern Lebanon in a nearly autonomous region over which the Christian government in Beirut has so far been unable to exert control.

Yet.

But I suspect that they will have plenty of help in the near future.

For all of the talk about Iran and North Korea and China and Russia and this, that, and the other thing...the next big battle could very well be much closer to the current War in Iraq...in southern Lebanon.

[flieger]

A very interesting article on (oh boy...) MSNBC

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8219264/

"One of the hijackers, Mohammed Hamadei, was caught in Germany, convicted, and sentenced to life. But he could be out on parole in six months. "
June 14, 2005

Not such a surprise, after all. Is it?

[Liberty Valance]

I remember this one very well. I'm glad the perp is now where he can be "found". Paybacks are a b*tch.

[hershey]

If he's rehabilitated to the point that they freed him, why didn't Germany let him remain in their country? Oh I guess he's not all that rehabilitated.

[jackieaxe]

Maybe we should do like Isreal and the '76 Munich murderers and hunt the bastard down and kill him!

[rawhide]

The German government denied on Tuesday the release was related to the freeing of a German hostage in Iraq.

Yeah, right!!! Sure looks like a tit for tat to me and many others. Why couldn't they wait a few months to release him, to avoid all appearances of complicity? Boy, these Euros make my blood boil.

[wardaddy]

damn...all that old noble Prussian heritage gone to seed

sad.

[wardaddy]

US should find and kill the bastard.

[thelastvirgil]

For the umpteenth time: It is time we pulled every U.S. military troop out of Europe, and let the surrender monkeys fend for themselves. There is simply NO excuse for our propping up of these socialist economies when we have no national interest in keeping troops in their miserable, pussified countries.

[snowsislander]

This is beneath contempt.

Realpolitik doesn't surprise me, but there are bright lines and this is way over any of them.

Even measuring this as mere pusillanimity, it is still unforgivable.

[I_Like_Spam]

Do we have an extradition treaty with Lebanon, so we can bring this guy to the United States to be tried and finally punished?

[manapua]

LOL. Life in prison means 15 years... what rubbish. The German justice system sounds about as threatening as Colonel Klink threatening Hogan with "zee cooler."

[safisoft]

Time heals all wounds... and helps us forget who the enemy is. Just in case no one remembers, Our own Dr. Rice frequently meets and warmly greets the head of the PA, who was (is) a terrorist, involved in the Munich massacre. So, if Condi can forgive and forget... why should we expect Germany to be different.

[Junior]

You sons of bitches. He killed a sailor; he should rot in jail til the day he dies.

[Cinnamon Girl]

The German government denied on Tuesday the release was related to the freeing of a German hostage in Iraq.

That's funny... didn't the Germans pull this same crap after the Munich olympics?

[sport]

Bump

[Blood of Tyrants]

He is not safe behind bars. He is now out in the great big cruel world where a CIA operative can slip a shiv between his ribs. All it takes is a bit of nerve by the president.

[Calpernia]

Did Germany release the murderer of US Navy Diver Robert Dean Stethem in order to gain the release of German Susanne Osthoff, who had been held hostage by terrorists in Iraq since November 25?



Credible sources in the Egyptian government, who were involved in the negotiations, have confirmed that this is the case.



Earlier today (Tuesday), it was announced that Mohamed Ali Hammadi had been released by the German government. Hammadi had been convicted and sentenced to life without parole by a German court for his role in the hijacking of TWA flight 847.



Robert Dean Stethem was a 23 year old steelworker and diver with the US Navy when he boarded a flight from Athens to Rome on June 14, 1985, at the conclusion of his assignment in the Middle East.



But ten minutes after takeoff, events took a fatal turn for Stethem. Two men, Hizbullah terrorists, stormed the cockpit with guns. One pulled a pin to a hand grenade, and forced the pilot to divert to Beirut.



The terrorists quickly learned that Stethem was in the US Navy, and was severely beaten. He was finally shot in the head, and his body dumped onto the tarmac in Beirut.



It would be 17 days before the remaining hostages were released.



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.



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 United States embassy in Beirut, which killed 63 people including 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, which killed 29
* July 1994 bombing of the AMIA cultural building in in Buenos Aires Argentina, killing 86 people
* Orchestrated the 2000 abductions of three Israeli soldiers in the southern part of Lebanon
* Abduction of Israeli Colonel Elchanan Tenenbaum.



There are striking similarities between terrorism of 20 years ago at the hands of Mugniyah, and the practices of the present-day terrorists in Iraq.



It is very likely that Mugniyah, who remains at large, is heavily involved in the leadership of the Iraqi “insurgency”.



It is not surprising, then, that attempts were made to force the release of Mugniyah’s compatriot and partner in crime Hammadi by kidnapping a German citizen in Iraq. 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.



The release of Hammadi shortly after the release of German hostage Susanne Osthoff is more than coincidence.



Mugniyah and his murdering thugs have finally brokered the release of Hammadi.



Robert Stethem was not the first person murdered by Hammadi and company. He almost certainly will not be the last.



The man who murdered a US Navy diver in cold blood is free - free to kill again.

---

For more translations and news on terrorism, visit http://www.lauramansfield.com

[Cinnamon Girl]

Medved is talking about this right now, and how the Germans did this after the Munich massacre.