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| India-Pakistan |
| Terrorist who tortured Navy Seal to death in 1985 meets US drone |
| 2010-06-22 |
| Pakistani intelligence reported that a recent American UAV missile attack in North Waziristan had killed Mohammed Ali Hamadi, and fifteen other Islamic terrorists. Hamadi, who had been freed from a German prison five years ago (apparently to obtain the freedom of a German archeologist, who refused German and American government advice to get out of Iraq). Letting Hamadi go caused a big stink in the U.S. Special Operations community. That's because Hamadi was one of three Hezbollah terrorists who hijacked an American airliner in 1985. When they found a U.S. Navy SEAL was on board, they tortured and killed him. The hijacked aircraft, and the remaining 150 passengers and crew, were eventually freed, in return for the release of over 700 Lebanese prisoners held in Israel. Hamadi was arrested two years later, while trying to smuggle explosives into Germany. He was convicted, in 1987, of hijacking and the murder of the U.S. SEAL, and sentenced to life in prison. In Germany, "life" means you are eligible for parole after 15 years. But Hamadi's crime was considered so atrocious that the court recommended that he not be eligible for parole until he had been in prison for about twenty years. Ignoring U.S. extradition requests, Germany released Hamadi after 18 years. Hamadi then went back to Lebanon. The U.S. put pressure on the Lebanese government to extradite Hamadi. In 2007, the U.S. offered a $5 million reward for Hamadi. Apparently fearful that someone in Lebanon might be tempted to go after that reward, Hamadi went to Pakistan in 2009, and was reported in Waziristan, planning new terror attacks. When he died, he was in the presence of ten other foreign (non-Pakistani) Islamic terrorists, and four from Pakistan. It's not known if anyone collected a reward for Hamadi. The U.S. will pay informants these rewards if information provided leads to the death of wanted terrorists. Several Pakistanis and Afghans have become very rich because of these rewards (and some are living in a form of Witness Protection Program as a result). |
| Posted by:Frozen Al |
| #7 I think Knuckles is looking at it from the grunt's point of view, which is dead-on in my opinion. One of the biggest problems we've had so far in OEF/OIF is having to put up with political philosophy that our great-grandparents wouldn't even think about affording these Arab/Afghan savages. I'm with you Knuckles, don't listen to these dinosaurs. |
| Posted by: Attention on Deck 2010-06-22 23:13 |
| #6 I am a College Boy. I grew up to be a College Man. I agree with tw (you have such a way with enlightening people)you really need to read the article and know about the subjects you opine on. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2010-06-22 18:37 |
| #5 Do calm down, Knuckles dear. Even Wikipedia has an article on the Geneva Conventions, with links to the actual documents. However, the key bit you care about, is that the conventions only apply to 1. the uniformed troops of nations at war with one another, 2. civilians, and 3. spies. Spies are people who shoot at uniformed troops but don't wear the uniform of a warring nation's armed forces. (Spies also collect information and cause damage, but that's away from the battlefield, and therefore not of interest to this discussion.) The people you are concerned with are by definition spies, and we can do anything we want to them, according to the Geneva Conventions, whether summarily shooting them or... not. By the way, I am not a college boy, although I did go to college, where I met a nice college boy and married him. Subsequently I followed him halfway around the world, and eventually back home again. Just so that we understand one another. Because I am assigning you homework: go to the Wikipedia link above and read the Geneva Conventions. You really need to know what you are talking about when you are tempted to blither on, it will make your blithering so much more effective. They don't call this place Rantburg U for no reason, you see. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-06-22 17:42 |
| #4 WHY do you take prisoners in the first place? Because they say pretty please? You dont HAVE to take prisoners, do you? Do you need them for something? Like what? Some may be useful for "information", that's so cerebral and abstract. Ask yourself a question. Are there any Officers around? No? Now what is your next thought? Which is going to be harder...pulling the trigger on this clown and pushing him in a hole in the rubble...OR herding him around and guarding him and feeding him and seeing to his welfare, medical, etc. Offer him a cigarette( how many do you have?). You love him because he is a fellow human being , right? You feel "empathy" for him ? Tender feelings of empathy, right? Yeah? You will even share your dry socks with him and give him some of your food. You are just that kinda guy. Uh huh. One might debate, if one were a thinky college boy( are you a college boy?) that if WE take prisoners then They would take prisoners. OK? When is the last time you heard of them taking any of us prisoner? Think real hard. But...but..if we shoot this suckah in cold blood we would be "no better than they are". That kind of argument is way over my head. Sorry. And just between the two of us:"Bite me!" What does the Geneva Convention have to say about accepting a surrender...he was doing his best about a minute ago to blow your brains out...and "somebody", either him or his friends did kill Sgt. Kelly, didnt they? I havent got the slightest idea about what the Geneva Convention says. I never read it. I dont even know where to find a copy, do you? I never signed it. His people probably never signed it either. Shoot his ass. Get the next one. |
| Posted by: Knuckles 2010-06-22 17:25 |
| #3 Yay! The death of a bad man is a good thing. |
| Posted by: Scooter McGruder 2010-06-22 17:08 |
| #2 Justice is served albeit a little slowly. Strange how guys like Hamadi end up in the Afghanistan theater after being released from a prison in Germany five years ago. These guys are hardcore and aren't likely to change their stripes. It would almost make one think that it is a waste of time taking prisoners. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-06-22 16:14 |
| #1 The murdered sailor was Robert Dean Stethem. He was a Seabee diver rather than a SEAL. USS Stethem (DDG-63) is named for him. Another of the Flight 847 terrorists, Imad Mughniyeh, was killed in a "mysterious" explosion in Damascus on February 13, 2008. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2010-06-22 15:54 |