Fingering the Hijackers

The news bulletin on Lebanese state radio late last week was cryptic and vague, perhaps intentionally so: Beirut judicial authorities would prosecute three of the most wanted men in America, the hijackers of TWA Flight 847. The Lebanese identified the two Shi'ite Muslims who seized Flight 847 and murdered U.S. Navy Diver Robert Stethem as Ahmed Gharbiyeh and Ali Youness. The third man, Ali Atwa, failed to board the plane in Greece, but joined the other two hijackers in Algiers after the Athens government released him in exchange for Greek hostages on board the Boeing 727.

The news report did not say whether the hijackers had been taken into custody or whether warrants had been issued for their arrest. In Washington, State Department officials said they were not convinced that it was politically possible for the shaky Lebanese government to bring the hijackers to trial. After a decade of civil war, the Lebanese judiciary is, like much of the government, barely functioning. Accused lawbreakers are still arrested, but they are rarely brought before the courts. The Justice Department said it might seek the indictment of the three men for violating American antihijacking laws. The U.S. does not have an extradition treaty with Lebanon, but under international law Lebanon is theoretically obliged to prosecute hijackers or turn them over for extradition. "The only fly in the ointment is catching them," said a White House aide.

Administration officials were considering the options of putting a bounty on the hijackers' heads or planning some kind of retaliation. Washington had attempted to "isolate" Beirut airport with an international boycott. But only British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher expressed any sympathy for the proposal, and even she said she would take no action unless other West European nations went along. So far, none have. The Lebanese government, however, last week promised to tighten security at the airport.

But President Reagan continues to press for an international consensus on how to deal with terrorists. Addressing a meeting of the American Bar Association in Washington last week, he challenged what he called "a confederation of terrorist states ... a new, international version of Murder, Inc." Said the President: "The American people are not--repeat, not--going to tolerate intimidation, terror and outright acts of war against this nation and its people. And we are especially not going to tolerate these attacks from outlaw states run by the strangest collection of misfits, Looney Tunes and squalid criminals since the advent of the Third Reich." The President singled out as assailants the governments of Iran, Libya, North Korea, Cuba and Nicaragua. Strikingly absent from the list was any mention of Syria, a frequent U.S. nemesis.

Syrian President Hafez Assad, said one senior Administration official, is the "one person" who has the power to obtain the release of the seven Americans kidnaped in Lebanon over the past 16 months and still held hostage. Assad, however, is well aware that only Washington's concern for the safety of the seven hostages is inhibiting the U.S. from attempting any type of retaliation for the hijacking of Flight 847.