Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume XXIV, North Africa

175. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in Algeria¹

116517.

Washington, April 13, 1988, 1814Z

SUBJECT

• The Hijackers and US Law.

Ref:

• A: State 114823;² Ref B: Algiers 2130.³

1. Secret entire text.

2. The issues you raised in reftel are important and not to be treated lightly. Ref A did not mean to suggest that there are not real moral issues involved in situations such as we are facing now. To the contrary it is precisely on that point that our concerns turn, namely our moral obligations to the present and the future and how best to balance both obligations. As you point out ridding the world of the menace of hijackings implies that we cannot give absolute priority to the safety of hostages. How we meet obligations in both directions is not a question for which there are easy and pat answers. In laying out a public position, we would do it in such a manner that is thoughtful yet makes clear our thinking. On balance, we believe our counterterrorism policy is the right one: Concessions to terrorists today lead inevitably to more acts of terrorism against equally innocent people tommorrow.

3. The issue in this hijacking is the immorality of permitting murders to go unpunished. Two murders have been committed. By taking an American citizen hostage, the hijackers have violated US law. Moreover we have just learned that at least one of the hijackers is already wanted by the USG for aircraft piracy and conspiracy to commit murder in the case of the hijacking of TWA 847.

4. [less than 3 lines not declassified] has positively identified one of the hijackers as Hasan Izz-al-Din. On July 3, 1985, the U. S. District Court in Washington D.C. issued an arrest warrant for Izz-al-Din charging him with hostage taking and conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy, resulting in the murder of Robert Stetham, a U.S. citizen.⁴ (Izz-al-Din is charged with violations of Title 49, USC, Section 1472 (I) and (K))

5. Action requested: Please inform Interior Minister Khediri urgently that since an American citizen was among the hostages on KU–422, the hijackers have violated American law. Moreover, one of the hijackers has been positively identified as Izz-al-Din for whom the U.S. already has an arrest warrant for his role in TWA 847. We want the GOA to detain this individual and turn him over to the US authorities to stand trial in the U.S. for crimes committed against U.S. citizens. Our government issued a red notice through Interpol for his arrest two years ago. We are formally asking your government today through appropriate Interpol channels to execute that red notice. (FYI: Provisional arrest request for Izz-al-Din will follow.)

6. While we realize that Algeria is not a signatory to the Montreal or Hague Conventions⁵ and that we do not have an extradition treaty with the GOA, nonetheless the US Government understands that under Algerian domestic law Algeria may have the authority to extradite and we would expect the GOA to understand our interest in this individual and our desire to see that he be tried for his crimes in a U.S. court of law. You may inform the GOA that the US would be prepared to provide appropriate assistance to the GOA to help identify and apprehend Izz-al-Din and the other hijackers.

7. You may draw on the facts given in paragraph 4 [less than 2 lines not declassified]. Also during your presentation please allude to the fact that given the intense interest in the 847 incident within the USG including the Congress, Izz-al-Din’s presence could become public in just a matter of time.⁶

Shultz

1. Source: Department of State, Bureau of Counter-Terrorism Records, Papers of L. Paul Bremer II as Ambassador to The Hague and Director of the Office of Counter-Terrorism: Lot 89D283, Kuwait 422 Hijacking 1988. Secret; Flash; Nodis. Drafted by Stephen Grummon (S/CT); cleared in substance by Djerejian (NEA); cleared by Bremer, Mary Mochary (L), Levitsky, Gregory Delawie (S/S–O), and Arena (DOJ/OIA); approved by Armacost.
2. See Document 174.
3. See footnote 3, See Document 174.
4. Stethem, a U.S. Navy diver, was shot and killed by the hijackers of TWA Flight 847 in June 1985. Documentation on this incident is scheduled for publication in Foreign Relations, 1981–1988, vol. XLVII, Part 2, Terrorism, June 1985–January 1989.
5. Reference is to, respectively, the 1971 Hague Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft, under which a party to the treaty must prosecute an aircraft hijacker if another state does not request the hijacker’s extradition for prosecution of the same crime, and the 1971 International Conference on Air Law at Montreal, a multilateral treaty whereby signatories agreed to prohibit and punish behavior such as sabotaging or destroying aircraft.
6. The Embassy reported in telegram 2161 from Algiers, April 13, that Khediri “took note of our démarche. I drew him out and he confided that in his view our démarche was not useful and only served to complicate an already complicated situation.” Khediri also “politely but flatly rejected any U.S. assistance in the hijacking case. He said this was a matter that would be handled without violence and through negotiations and that GOA has all the capability it needs.” (Department of State, Bureau of Counter-Terrorism Records, Papers of L. Paul Bremer II as Ambassador to The Hague and Director of the Office of Counter-Terrorism: Lot 89D283, Kuwait 422 Hijacking 1988)