My @Newsweek#TheDiplomat podcast interview with @GreenblattJD went to air this week. If you haven't listened yet, I hope you will. This was a rare opportunity for me to speak of the cold shoulder my wife and I get from Washington in our quest for justice art19.com/shows/the-dipl…
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Given what we've endured these past few years, it's not excessive sensitivity that brings us to share that the US @StateDept has treated us since March 2017 with incredible disdain. That month, @TheJusticeDept charged the woman in the poster below. She's our daughter's killer.
There's a reason Americans don't know about this stunning case. The same reason @CNN, @NYTimes, @60Minutes and the rest of the mainstream US media don't expose it. @TheJusticeDept want this admitted bomber tried in Washington on US federal terror charges. Jordan prevents it.
It's 2017. The US invokes 1995 Jordan/US extradition treaty, requiring Jordan to hand @Sbarro bomber #AhlamTamimi over to face terror charges in DC. Jordan refuses and keeps her safe and free. @StateDept whispers that the treaty is valid. @POTUS insists Jordan's a dear friend.
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It's 2022. As parents of an American child murdered by the fugitive Jordanian's bomb, we keep trying to engage with @StateDept leaders/diplomats/clerks who for years serve up insulting mantras. Their games sicken us. Washington pretends not to notice US justice being trashed.
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To our friends in the @TheDemocrats:
The extradition of @Sbarro monster, @FBIMostWanted fugitive #AhlamTamimi, has been blocked for years by Jordan. It obscenely opposes US efforts to prosecute her and says the 1995 extradition treaty obliging them to hand her over is invalid.
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But it is valid. #Tamimi doesn't deny her key role in the murder of our daughter Malki, 15. Since 2012, my wife and I have pressed the relevant parties to end this charade and get the fugitive into @FBI custody. That we haven't succeeded isn't for lack of trying.
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To our dismay, the @StateDept keeps wanting what we want - #Tamimi in US court facing US justice as US law requires - but says it via what we view as pointless mantras... while routinely praising and rewarding Jordan at every opportunity. Clearly something's wrong.
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Five years ago today, a Jordanian court rejected a US request for the extradition to Washington of confessed bomber #AhlamTamimi, whose victims included US nationals. The 1995 extradition treaty was invalid, it ruled, since Jordan had not complied with its own laws in signing it.
2/ In reality, Jordan has extradition treaties with multiple countries that it respects. As for the US treaty, it respected that too between 1995 and 2017. The legal "flaw" could have been easily fixed and still can. Jordan's leaders clearly prefer it to be thought of as broken.
3/ Documents we obtained from the @StateDept via a FOIA suit in 2021 show that (unmentioned by the Jordanian court) the 1995 treaty was ratified by King Hussein, father of today's king.
Two US nationals were murdered in the bombing orchestrated by Jordan's #AhlamTamimi; a third is still unconscious. Tamimi calls the massacre "my operation". She's lionized for it.
Why has no US official ever demanded publicly that Jordan extradite Tamimi as the treaty requires?
Thanks to years of cynical protection by Jordan, confessed bomber #AhlamTamimi is a pan-Arab media celebrity. Clever interviewers and ethically-challenged hosts 'forget' to ask Jordan's king, a frequent visitor to Washington, how Jordan justifies disavowing the 1995 treaty.
@CNN's celebrity interviewer @FareedZakaria stands out for repeatedly hosting Jordan's king without once allowing Jordan's shameless harboring of @FBIMostWanted terrorist #Tamimi to spoil the fun. What would you say to him if it were your child who was one of #Tamimi's victims?
Days of remembrance and tribute are fine and commendable except when they come in place of action and become camouflage. Terrorism isn't a disease but a challenge to governments. My wife and I ask you, @StateDeptSpox@NedPrice, to engage with us. Enough with the mantras.
Since no one at your level in seniority in today's @StateDepartment or those of the Trump and Obama administrations has ever acknowledged our existence, Mr @StateDeptSpox, I want to take this opportunity to introduce you to our child's killer, a Jordanian celebrity.
And since your tweet states your position on the pursuit of justice, Frimet and I assure you we're as passionate about this as you. It's why I met with senior officials in Washington in March 2012. And why we have devoted ourselves since then to seeing Tamimi in a US court.