Abstract:
On January 13, 1987, Mohammed Hamadei, a 22-year-old Lebanese man wanted in the US for his alleged role in the brutal 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847, was arrested in Frankfurt by West German police. Within hours, the US formally requested that West Germany extradite Hamadei to the US for trial. Within days, however, two Germans were kidnapped in Beirut and word reached Bonn to release Hamadei or the hostages would die. Washington continued to press for extradition. The six months Bonn took to decide what to do tested the limits of international cooperation against terrorism. This case sketches the attempts of the Reagan administration to promote international counter-terrorism policies, explores the legal structures around which such policies take form, and traces the complex reactions of the German and American governments to the legal and political problems posed by Hamadei's arrest and the subsequent hostage-takings. It focuses particularly on the different interests of law enforcement and foreign relations bureaucracies, and the effect those differences had on policymaking in the Hamadei case. Extensive quotes from top German and American officials give the case unusual authority. It is designed to convey a basic picture of the interagency conduct of international legal affairs, and to highlight the chief legal and political factors that influence international cooperation against terrorism.
