Execute all the terrorists who kill people

 

In 1985, I was invited by the United Nations to address the Seventh United Nations Congress for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders being held in Milan, Italy. One of the topics I was to speak on was my views on what should be done with terrorists once they are caught. As you can see from the title of this piece, I recommended that every one of them be executed once they are convicted of participating in the murder of anyone, no matter how remote their role in the murder was.

 

The media at first, when they heard what that speech was about, didn’t really seem that interested in interviewing me. But after I gave that particular speech, they were clambering all over me. Parts of my speech were quoted in newspapers around the world and the Italian government ordered that my speech in its entirety was to be broadcasted all over Italy that night.

 

What made my speech so interesting was this was the first time someone giving a speech on terrorism at a UN Congress actually insisted that all terrorists who kill people should be executed. Up to then, very few countries actually executed terrorists. Instead of executing them, they put them in prison and later, release many of them even though they had previously killed people in their terrorist activities.  

 

My concerns were and still are that some captured terrorists who are imprisoned and later freed, continue committing acts of terrorism.  I would rather see them all executed than risk one of the freed terrorists murdering another innocent person. If you think that is harsh, consider how you will feel if a freed terrorist murders one of your loved ones or plants a bomb and it blows your legs and arms off. You will wish that the terrorist had been executed.

 

In 1985, Palestinian Islamic terrorists allied with Abul Abbas hijacked the Achille Lauro cruise ship, on which Jewish American Leon Klinghoffer and his wife were celebrating their wedding anniversary. The helpless, wheelchair-bound, 69-year-old Klinghoffer was murdered by being shot in his head at the railing of the ship and then thrown overboard simply because he was an American and a Jew. U.S. authorities wanted to arrest and try the hijackers, but unfortunately, the Italian authorities did it instead. And as we all feared, most got lax sentences. On August 3, 2000, the Anti-Defamation League called on the Italian government to uphold the prison sentence of Abdelatif who was seeking a pardon on the remainder of his 25-year sentence for his role in the attack on the Italian cruise ship. On July 7, 2008, the Italian government announced that it had freed Achille Lauro hijacker Ibrahim Fatayer Abdelatif, who was 20 when he committed the crime and had served 23 years of his 25-year sentence.  Khalid Hussein one of the men convicted of hijacking the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro was found dead at age 73 in an Italian jail in June 2009 from of a heart attack.

 

The Lod Airport massacre was an incident largely deemed to be a terrorist attack that occurred on May 30, 1972, in which three members of the Japanese Red Army (JRA) recruited by the Palestinian group called the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, attacked Tel Aviv's Lod airport (now Ben Gurion International Airport), which killed 26 people and injured 80 others. Dressed conservatively and carrying slim violin cases, they attracted little attention. As they entered the waiting area, they opened up their violin cases and extracted Czech Vz 58 assault rifles with the butt stocks removed. Immediately afterwards, they began to fire indiscriminately at airport staff and visitors, tossing grenades as they changed magazines. Yasuda was shot dead, and Okudaira moved from the airport building into the landing area, firing at passengers disembarking from an El Al aircraft before killing himself with a grenade. Okamoto was shot by security personnel and arrested as he attempted to leave the terminal.

 Okamoto was tried by an Israeli military tribunal and sentenced to life imprisonment in June 1972 but he only served 13 years of his life sentence. He was released in 1985 with over a thousand other prisoners in an exchange for captured Israeli soldiers. He settled in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. He was arrested in 1997, but in 2000 was granted political refugee status in Lebanon. Four other JRA members arrested at the same time were extradited to Japan.                                                                                                 

 

The Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange followed an agreement between Israel and Hamas in 2011 to release Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for 1,027 prisoners who were mainly Palestinians and Arab-Israelis. As many as  280 of these terrorists were sentenced to life in prison for planning and perpetrating various terror attacks against Israeli targets Hamas military leader Ahmed Jabari was quoted in the Saudi Arabian newspaper Al-Hayat as confirming that the prisoners released as part of the deal were collectively responsible for the killing of 569 Israeli civilians. The agreement came five years and four months after Palestinian militants captured Shalit in southern Israel along the Gaza border.       

 

What follows is a brief summary of the kinds of terrorists who were released in exchange for one captured Israelis soldier. Consider these five terrorists who were freed despite their horrendous slaughter of innocent victims.

 

Walid Abd al-Aziz Abd al-Hadi Anajas was given 36 life sentences for killing 36 people.  He took part in the execution of the Café Moment bombing (2002), the Hebrew University bombing (2002) and the Rishon LeZion bombing (2002

 

Nasir Sami Abd al-Razzaq Ali al-Nasser Yataima was given 30 life sentences after being convicted of planning the Passover massacre (2002) in which 30 civilians were killed and 140 were wounded.

 

Maedh Waal Taleb Abu Sharakh was given 19 life sentences, Majdi Muhammad Ahmed Amr, 19 life sentences and Fadi Muhammad Ibrahim al-Jaaba,   18 life sentences) who was responsible for the attack on bus No. 37 in Haifa in 2002.

 

At least 46 convicted terrorists ‘posed a risk’ to the public on the streets of the UK in 2010 according to documents disclosed by the government.  They included the following two;

 

Abdul Muneem Patel who was dubbed the “terrorists’ tea boy” acted as a go-between for the 2006 liquid airline bomb plotters Mohammed Uddin - associate of the airline bombers jailed for possessing CD with bomb-making instructions.  

 

Zahoor Iqbal, Hamid Elasmar and Mohammed Irfan who were associates of terrorist, Parviz Khan who planned to kidnap and behead a British soldier in Birmingham in 2006.

 

Two terrorists released in the Gilad Schalit exchange pledged to continue their jihad against Israel. Ahlam Tamim expressed no regrets for her role in the suicide bombing of an Israeli restaurant. She was serving 16 life sentences before she was released. Muhammad Abu Ataya said on Al-Quds TV in Lebanon that he was not deterred by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's threat to hold accountable any released prisoner who returns to terrorism. He was a member of the Hamas military and killed 16 people and was sentenced to 16 life sentences in Israel.

 

In the past, 61 terrorists released from Gitmo had returned to committing acts of terrorism even through some went through the so-called ‘rehab’ program in Saudi Arabia. Other Gitmo detainees after being released from Gitmo showed up in Al Qaeda propaganda videos weeks later.

 

Binyam Mohamed became the first freed terrorist of the Obama administration. He was released to British authorities who promptly, as expected, released him back into the general population. He previously took part in Al Qaeda planning sessions where he proposed attacking subway stations in London. Such attacks actually took place later and many people were killed in those attacks.

 

In April 2013, Jordanian members of parliament called for the release of Ahmed Daqamseh, a terrorist who in 1997 murdered seven Israeli students from the same school during a school trip. As many as 110 out of 150 Jordanian MPs had already signed a petition, initiated by MP Ali Sinad, calling for the release of the terrorist.  Daqamseh was a soldier in the Jordanian army when he opened fire on a group of students who were visiting the ‘peace island of Naharayim’ on March 13, 1997.

 

The aforementioned is why I would rather see all the terrorists who murder innocent people executed rather than risk the life of one innocent victim at the hands of one of these released terrorists. Further, I would like to see terrorists who attempt to murder people sent to prison for the rest of their lives.

 

Retribution plays an important part in justice as does the protection of society. What does not play an important part in justice is forgiveness of serious wrongdoings such as acts of terrorism. I know that it has been said that Jesus told his followers to turn the other cheek. Nowadays when you turn the other cheek, a terrorist may slip in behind you and plant a bomb at your feet.