05-May-20: From Congress, concern about how Jordanians deal with the fugitive terrorist in their midst

A meme we have used on Twitter to focus attention on how the world's
most wanted woman (as Fox News recently called her) is a celebrity
and hero in Jordan

A group of Republican members of the US Congress has despatched a letter to Her Excellency Dina Kawar, Jordan's ambassdor to Washington. It's reported by JNS in a May 4, 2020 syndicated article headlined "Congress members push for extradition of wanted terrorist Ahlam Tamimi from Jordan".

The law-makers who co-signed it are Reps. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) who took the lead; Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.); Ted Yoho (R-Fla.); Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.); Brian Mast (R-Fla.); Scott Perry (R-Penn.); and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas).

Ahlam Tamimi, whose obscene freedom in Jordan is at the heart of the letter, is the Hamas terrorist who repeatedly confesses proudly to her central role in the massacre at Jerusalem's Sbarro pizzera on August 9, 2001. Our daughter Malki, 15, was one of Tamimi's victims.

US Federal charges against Tamimi were announced in Washington by the Department of Justice on March 14, 2017.

Some extracts from the letter:

• [Tamimi] has been showered with acclaim by the students of the Arab world’s most important graduate school of journalism, the Amman-based Jordan Media Institute, who declared her to be their "success model"... For five years, she traveled widely and often to deliver public speeches throughout Jordan and in numerous Arab countries beyond Jordan’s borders. Her theme has always centered on promoting terror and terrorists.
• Today, appallingly, Tamimi is a media celebrity, the subject of wide popular admiration. She has appeared publicly side-by-side with prominent political figures and received extraordinary recognition in Jordan’s mainstream press and television media as a respected commentator and as an object of Jordanian national pride...

Referring to Jordan's blunt refusal to extradite Tamimi as required by the 1995 Jordan/US Extradition Treaty, the letter says

• This is a matter of grave and growing concern to the Congress and to all Americans. The American view concerning the treaty is that it is certainly valid. It continues to be listed in the U.S. government’s authoritative Treaties in Force document... 
• Up until the Tamimi case and its Israeli victims, Jordan had extradited terrorists to the United States multiple times.

It goes on to refer to sanctions legislated by Congress and signed into law in December 2019 which, in the words of the JNS article

• subject to certain conditions, will apply to ‘a country which has notified the Department of State of its refusal to extradite to the United States any individual indicted for a criminal offense’ [certain details follow], and is ‘a country with which the United States maintains diplomatic relations and with which the United States has an extradition treaty,’ and ‘that country is in violation of the terms and conditions of the treaty.’
• The potential seriousness of these sanctions provisions reflect the deep concern of the Congress, the administration and the American people...

The Washington-based Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET) was one of the prime movers behind the letter. EMET and its founder and president Sarah N. Stern have for years been raising awareness about the Tamimi case and were instrumental in Arnold Roth, one of this blog's writers, giving testimony to the House Oversight Committee of the US Congress four years ago. See
"08-Feb-16: Terror is now a legitimate career option in Pal Arab society but its enablers barely notice".

Mrs Stern has a statement in the JNS piece that we think bears emhasizing - that "as long as the United States turns a blind eye to the murderers of American citizens, we will be reinforcing their resolve against the United States".

She's certainly right.

03-Feb-16: In Washington DC, victims of terror and the search for justice

Participants in the hearing

Responding to a perceived lack of adequate assistance for U.S. victims of terrorism outside the United States, the US Congress heard evidence yesterday (Tuesday) from the family members of several victims as well as from a Deputy Assistant Attorney General.

From a report headed "Obama Admin Has Not Prosecuted a Single Palestinian Terrorist Who Killed Americans" [Washington Free Beacon, February 2, 2016]:

The Obama administration has not prosecuted a single Palestinian terrorist responsible for killing Americans abroad, despite a congressional mandate ordering the Justice Department to take action against these individuals, according to disclosures made by lawmakers on Tuesday.
Palestinian terrorists have murdered at least 64 Americans, including two unborn children, since 1993. Yet the U.S. government has failed to take legal action against those who committed the crimes, lawmakers disclosed during a Tuesday hearing on the Justice Department’s failure to live up to its mandate to bring these terrorists to justice.
Many of the terrorists continue to roam free across the Middle East, with one hosting a Hamas-affiliated television show in Jordan.
With criticism mounting from Congress and U.S. victims of terrorism, Justice Department officials say they are working to initiate cases, but warn that this could take “many years” to play out.

Arnold Roth was in Washington yesterday (Tuesday) to take part in the hearing. Click below to view his oral testimony:

Video: Arnold Roth's comments start at the 25m 00s mark and then again, responding to a question
from the chairman, at 01h 02m 15s. 

His twelve-page written testimony document is here.

The hearing, under the title “Seeking Justice for Victims of Palestinian Terrorism in Israel”, took place in the Subcommittee on National Security of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. It sought to examine the Office of Justice for Victims of Overseas Terrorism (OVT), an office that began operations inside the Department of Justice in May 2005. Its mission has included ensuring that when Americans are injured or killed in terrorist attacks overseas, investigation and prosecution remains a high priority within the Department of Justice (DOJ). 

From the Washington Free Beacon:

Justice Department officials who testified maintain that they are aggressively working behind the scenes to make cases against foreign terrorists who have killed and injured Americans. Brad Wiegmann, the deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s national security division, maintained that there are a number of “open investigations,” though he declined to provide further information.
“While I cannot discuss these investigations today or the facts of specific cases, it’s important to note the absence of public charges associated with a particular overseas attack does not mean that there are no charges, or that no such charges will be brought,” Weigmann said, noting that a prosecution could take place “many years” after an attack.
“I can certainly understand the frustration of some of the families that the Department of Justice has not prosecuted more cases involving terrorist attacks against Americans in Israel,” Wiegmann said...

And from Hamodia:

Amid emotional testimony from the families of victims and several organizations, the members of a House committee probed Brad Wiegmann, deputy assistant attorney general, National Security Division, U.S. Department of Justice, as to why none of the killers of the 64 Americans murdered in terror attacks in Israel had been prosecuted by the department.
At the center of the hearing was the role of the Office of Justice for Victims of Overseas Terrorism (OVT), created in 2005 “to ensure that the investigation and prosecution of deaths of American citizens overseas [as a result of terrorism] are a high priority within DOJ.” Reflecting on the announced purpose of the office and its track record regarding those hurt or killed in Israel, Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), the chairman of the National Security Subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in the hearing, “This is not what Congress intended [by creating the special department], nor is it what the American people want.”
Rep. DeSantis told Hamodia that the committee called the investigative hearing after it “received information from victims’ families about the inadequacy of OVT and the lack of prosecutions.”
Mr. Wiegmann said that while he “understands the frustration” over the lack of prosecutions, the chief purpose of the OVT is to “assist in foreign prosecutions,” implying that if the government of the country in which the act was perpetrated was acting appropriately, the department would not act directly. He also pointed to 12 instances where the DOJ prosecuted Palestinians for financing terror and added that a lack of “public charges does not mean that there are no charges or that none will be brought.”
Committee members seemed less than convinced, with Rep. DeSantis saying, “When it’s 0 to 64, people wonder what the department is doing.” Mr. Wiegmann confirmed that the DOJ had indicted many perpetrators of terror against Americans in countries other than Israel. He could not provide a number.
One of those giving testimony was Arnold Roth, father of Malka Roth, HY”D, who was killed in the bombing of the Sbarro pizza shop in 2001.
“Since justice is the heart of our concerns, and years have gone by without update or result, it has to be said that justice has not been achieved here,” he said. “If some larger truth lies behind the lack of momentum, that truth ought to be disclosed. If diplomatic considerations override the law enforcement imperatives, we wish that were made known, too.”
Mr. Wiegmann flatly denied this motivation under questioning, saying it is “absolutely not the case.” ["Congress Grills DOJ on Inaction Over U.S. Victims of Palestinian Terror", Rafael Hoffman in Hamodia, February 3, 2016]

Naturally we're hoping for some concrete outcomes. Updates if and when they come.