Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — Congress has demanded that the administration of
President Barack Obama order the prosecution of scores of Hamas operatives
released by Israel in October 2011.

In a letter, 52 members of the House called on Attorney General Eric
Holder to launch the prosecution of freed Hamas operatives who had been
convicted of attacks on Americans. The letter, sponsored by Reps. Howard
Berman and Joseph Walsh, said more than a dozen Palestinians freed in the
Israeli prisoner exchange were involved in suicide and other attacks on
Americans.

“Because of the circumstances of this forced release, their prosecution under American law is not precluded by principles of double jeopardy, and they should, if prosecuted, suffer the full consequences of having violated American law,” the letter, released on March 1, said.

The congressional appeal came after families of Americans killed in
Palestinian suicide bombings protested the Israeli decision to release 1,027 Palestinians, including the operational heads of Hamas, in exchange for an Israeli soldier held captive in the Gaza Strip since 2006. The State Department was said to have complained of the release of those who killed Americans in Jerusalem and other locations in 2001 through 2004. In February, the Zionist Organization of America called on the Obama administration to prosecute the convicted Palestinians.

The congressional letter, initiated by the Washington-based Endowment for Middle East Truth, cited a U.S. law that allowed Washington to prosecute foreign nationals involved in attacks on Americans regardless of
the whereabouts of the suspects. But the 1991 law requires the attorney
general to certify that the foreign attacks were meant to “coerce,
intimidate or retaliate against a government or civilian population.”

Several of the congressional members said they were demanding the
extradition of Ahlam Tamimi, a Palestinian woman sentenced to 16 life terms
for driving the suicide bomber who demolished a Jerusalem restaurant in
2001. Two Americans were among the 15 people killed in the explosion.

So far, the Justice Department has refused to prosecute Palestinians
convicted of attacking Americans in Israel, the West Bank or Gaza Strip.
This despite legislation that established a department office to track
suspected killers of Americans abroad.

“The Koby Mandell Act of 2005 established the Office of Justice for
Victims of Overseas Terrorism at the Department of Justice for this very
purpose,” Walsh, the sponsor of the congressional letter, said. “Yet, in the
six years since this office was established, not one Palestinian terrorist
has been indicted, extradited, or prosecuted, despite 71 instances of
Palestinian terrorism that have killed 54 Americans and wounded 83 others.”

  Ahlam Tamimi, Barack Obama, Congress calls for prosecution of Hamas terrorists freed by Israel, Eric Holder, Koby Mandell Act of 2005, Rep. Howard Berman, Rep. Joseph Walsh, Zionist Organization of America