Despite some encouraging signs, the situation in Germany is troubling in other regards. Reuters reports

Germany has secretly released a Hezbollah member serving a life sentence in prison for killing a U.S. Navy diver.

He was returned to Lebanon despite an extradition request from the United States, Lebanese political sources said on Tuesday.

The sources said Mohammad Ali Hammadi, convicted of killing Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem during the 1985 hijacking of a TWA flight to Beirut and sentenced to life without parole, was flown back to Beirut last week.

Germany, readers will remember, arranged the release of the captured terrorists from the Munich massacre, too.

Ed Lasky  12 20 05