Lebanon Refusing to Hand Over Navy Diver's Murderer

Reuters reports that Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora is "questioning" a US request to extradite Mohammad Ali Hammadi. Hammadi spent a "life" sentence (18 years) in Germany for his role in the cowardly 1985 murder of US Navy diver Robert Stethem, committed during an aircraft hijacking.

"Originally they (the U.S. government) could have requested that Germany hand him over. Why are they asking us?" Prime Minister Fouad Siniora told reporters.

That would be because the Germans, who are so piously against interfering in other countries' sovereign affairs when it suits their purposes, refused to extradite Hammadi because he might have faced the death penalty in the US. And, of course, if they had extradited him, he wouldn't have been available to use as ransom for the release of German hostage Susanne Osthoff.

At his trial, Hammadi confessed to helping stage the 17-day hijacking to help win the release of 700 Lebanese detainees held by Israel, but he denied any role in killing Stethem.

But according to witnesses, Hammadi and an accomplice took the 23-year-old to the cockpit and beat him. Then they shot him and threw his body out of the Boeing 727 plane.

I disagree with those in Washington who are seeking Hammadi's extradition. This POS should just be taken out, Mossad-style.