Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Germany cuts loose a terrorist...here's why the EU can't be trusted

As some of you know, a few days ago Germany cut loose a Hizbollah terrorist wanted in America and flew him to Lebanon. Here's why:

Mohammad Ali Hammadi was serving what was supposed to be 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.

That changed when German `peace activist' Susanne Osthoff was kidnapped in Iraq on Nov. 25. Overtures were made to Ernst Uhrlau, Angela Merkel’s new head of the BND, Germany’s foreign intelligence service. A few days after the terrorist was flown to Beirut, Osthoff was freed by her Iraqi captors.

This is the first time one of America's `allys' in the so-called war on terror has succumbed in this fashion. Washington is reportedly outraged, and the brief warming of relations between the new government of Merkel and the US are back again at sub zero temperatures.

Under the wire is the fact that Uhrlau reportedly has a number of ties with officials in Iran and Syria, and that this was apparently a goodwill gesture to them. It also points out the ties between Iran (Hizbollah is an Iranian proxy) and the Iraqi insurgents and al Qaeda.

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