Israel Matzav

Holder claims US urged Israel not to release terrorists who murdered Americans

US Attorney General Eric Holder said on Wednesday that the United States urged Israel not to release terrorists who had murdered American citizens as part of the terrorists for Gilad trade. Holder told a group of US citizens who had family members who were killed or wounded by terrorists in Israel, or who were wounded by terrorists themselves in Israel, that the US will pursue those terrorists.

US Attorney-General Eric Holder has told American victims of Palestinian terror that Washington is committed to bringing those responsible for killing and wounding Americans to justice, The Jerusalem Post learned on Wednesday.

Holder made his remarks in a letter sent to members of the Parents Forum for Justice, a group of US citizens and parents whose children were murdered or maimed by Palestinian terrorists in Israel over the past decade. The letter came after the forum called on Holder in January to commence legal proceedings against terrorists freed in Israel’s deal with Hamas to release kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Schalit.

According to Parents Forum leader and Jerusalem resident Dr. Alan Bauer, 54 American citizens have been murdered and 83 wounded by Palestinian terrorists between 1993 and 2006.

In Holder’s letter, a copy of which has been given to the Post, he said the US Justice Department, State Department and embassy in Tel Aviv had “urged the government of Israel prior to both of the releases in question not to release prisoners responsible for murdering or injuring US citizens before serving their full sentences.”

Among the terrorists released in the Schalit deal were Sana’a Shehadeh and Qahara al-Saadi, two women who helped perpetrate the March 21, 2002, King George Street suicide bombing in Jerusalem, which claimed the lives of three people and wounded 86 others. Bauer and his son Yehonathon, both American citizens, were among those severely injured.

Also released were Ahlam Tamimi, sentenced to 16 life terms for her role in the Sbarro terror bombing that claimed the lives of eight adults and seven children and wounded 130 in Jerusalem on August 2001; Walid al-Hadi Anjas, who received 36 life terms for the July 2002 cafeteria bombing at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which claimed the lives of nine people; and Fadi Muhammad al-Jaaba, Maedh Abu Sharakh and Majdi Muhammad Amr, sentenced to multiple life terms for planning the March 2003 Haifa bus 37 bombing that killed 17 people and wounded 53.

I'll believe it when I see it. The US has had a law on its books for 20 years that was tailor made for this purpose. That law enables the US government to arrest and prosecute terrorists involved in the murder of US citizens anywhere. Not one terrorist from Israel has been arrested, let alone tried and convicted.

Jordan is a US ally, and Ahlam Tamimi lives in Jordan. How about extraditing her first Mr. Holder? How about asking King Abdullah to send her to the US to stand trial?

Holder is a big talker, but I don't believe he'll do anything about this.

Labels: Eric Holder, Palestinian terrorism

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:33 AM