Dec. 28, 2005
 
THUMBS LIV: Germans Break Extradition Promise in Releasing Navy Diver’s Murderer; Wonder of Wonders: Grey Lady Writes about Liberal Bias, Harassment of Students on Campus; Kudos to Pulitzer for Allowing Online Entries;
 
By David M. Kinchen
Editor, Huntington News Network
 
Hinton, WV (HNN) –This is the 54th installment of a column expressing approval or disapproval of recent news events, commentaries, etc. Thumbs Up for approval; Thumbs Down for disapproval. This is your column as much as mine; I welcome contributions, which will be credited in the item. The contributions can come from within the HNN family or from our readers – I welcome them all. Contact me at davidkinchen@hotmail.com.
 

Robert Dean Stethem

THUMBS DOWN – To the German government, for releasing in mid December from prison the Arab terrorist who murdered U.S. Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem 20 years ago this past June during the hijacking of TWA Flight 847. Writing in FrontPageMagazine.com, Debbie Schlussel says Stethem was “tortured, beaten and trampled to death by the Hezbollah terrorists for the crimes of being an American, a U.S. serviceman, and refusing--to his last breath--to denounce America.” Last summer, Schlussel predicted that Mohammad Ali Hamadi, one of the terrorists who murdered the 23-year-old Stethem, would be released by the Germans. This came true in December 2005, when Hamadi was released by the Germans to freedom in Lebanon, where it’s highly unlikely he’ll be subject to extradition to face justice in the U.S.
 
Schlussel writes that the German government captured Hamadi in 1987 (It was West Germany then). “Stethem's other three murderers--Imad Fayez Mugniyeh, Hasan Izz-Al-Din, Ali Atwa--remain free,” Schlussel says, “and are believed to be in Lebanon, Iran, or Syria.) Hamadi was carrying explosives that were the same kind use in previous terrorist attacks. Unfortunately, Hamadi--who remains under indictment in the U.S.--was tried by the German government, not ours. He was given life in prison without the possibility of parole. But there was always an understanding that Hamadi would be extradited to the U.S. to face justice, if the Germans ever released him.”
 
Schlussel: “Germany kept none of its promises and showed the world that it really has no resolve in fighting terrorism. The Stethem family learned Friday [Dec.16] that Hamadi was released to freedom. Despite life without parole, Hamadi was up for parole twice and served only 16 years in prison. And unlike all other extraditions sought by the U.S. under an extradition treaty with Germany, Germany violated the extradition treaty and Hamadi's extradition was not granted. Reportedly, Germany did this for two reasons 1) to gain the release of a female German hostage, Susanne Osthoff (a German convert to Islam), from terrorists in Iraq (apparently, the Germans do negotiate with terrorists, and they trade terrorists for hostages); and Hezbollah has a strong connection with the ones in Iraq); and 2) in retribution for reported CIA terrorist camps in Europe. This is an outrage.” I agree, both as a reporter and as a person who served his country in uniform. The French are not the only perfidious Europeans. Thank God for Tony Blair and our real allies, the Brits!
 
THUMBS UP – To New York Times reporter Michael Janofsky for writing recently about a Pennsylvania college professor – of physics, no less – who used class time to belittle President Bush and the war in Iraq. Janofsy writes that “while attending a Pennsylvania Republican Party picnic, Jennie Mae Brown bumped into her state representative and started venting” about a professor at the York campus of Pennsylvania State University for “routinely” using class time for political attacks. “How could this happen?” Ms. Brown asked Rep. Gibson C. Armstrong two summers ago.”
 
Janofsy writes: “As an Air Force veteran, Ms. Brown said she felt the teacher's comments were inappropriate for the classroom. The encounter has blossomed into an official legislative inquiry, putting Pennsylvania in the middle of a national debate spurred by conservatives over whether public universities are promoting largely liberal positions and discriminating against students who disagree with them. A committee held two hearings last month in Pittsburgh and has scheduled another for Jan. 9, 2006 in Philadelphia. A final report with any recommendations for legislative remedy is due in June.”
 
I couldn’t believe it when I caught the story, but Janofsky even mentions California radical turned conservative David Horowitz, president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, who “has been lobbying more than a dozen state legislatures to pass an ‘Academic Bill of Rights’ that he says would encourage free debate and protect students against discrimination for expressing their political beliefs.”
 
Janofsky writes: “While Mr. Horowitz insists his campaign for intellectual diversity is nonpartisan, it is fueled, in large measure, by studies that show the number of Democratic professors is generally much larger than the number of Republicans. A survey in 2003 by researchers at Santa Clara University found the ratio of Democrats to Republicans on college faculties ranged from 3 to 1 in economics to 30 to 1 in anthropology.’
 
Good for Janofsky, Times editor Bill Keller and the Grey Lady -- still an important guiding light in American journalism -- for pointing out that “Horowitz said he was pushing for legislation only because schools across the country were ignoring their own academic freedom regulations and a founding principle of the American Association of University Professors, which says schools are better equipped to regulate themselves without government intervention.”
 
Liberals in academia are forming their wagons into a circle as conservatives and libertarians begin their attack. Typical is Joan Wallach Scott, a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., and former chairwoman of the professors association committee on academic freedom, in testimony at the Pennsylvania Legislature's first hearing. “There is no need for interference from outside legislative or judicial agencies,” she told Janofsky.
 
Another one who opposes Horowitz’s efforts is Russell Jacoby, a history professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who, according to Timesman Janofsky: “portrayed Mr. Horowitz's approach as heavy-handed. ‘It calls for committees or prosecutors to monitor the lectures and assignments of teachers,’ he said. ‘This is a sure-fire way to kill free inquiry and whatever abuses come with it.’"
 
I’m in agreement with Horowitz's efforts in behalf of free inquiry in the classroom, at a time that I perceive this is difficult, if not impossible because of all the neo-marxist professors like Ward Churchill of the University of Colorado.
 
Horowitz, editor of FrontPageMagazine.com, and the guy who fired Robert Scheer decades before his recent sacking by the Los Angeles Times, has organized Students for Academic Freedom that uses its Web site to collect stories from students who say they have been affected by political bias in the classroom. The group says it has chapters on more than 150 campuses. Janofsky’s story includes many examples of students of a conservative or libertarian persuasion being harassed or intimidated by college teachers. We need a return to civility and a free and open exchange of ideas – something that is not forthcoming on most college campuses these days. I’m glad my college years were 1957-1961, when indoctrination was not part of the curriculum. My only concern with a law mandating free speech is that it could be manipulated and evaded. We have enough laws: Let’s go for common (uncommon these days) civility!
 
THUMBS UP – To the Pulitzer Prizes, administered by the Columbia University School of Journalism, for finally allowing online submissions in all categories, “after only tolerating them in the Public Service award,” according to Joe Strupp, senior editor of Editor & Publisher, the trade journal of journalism. This is a milestone in the 90-year history of the Pulitzer Prizes and, speaking as a veteran print man (five daily newspapers beginning in January 1966) who now is an online news service editor, IT’S ABOUT TIME!