Getting Away With Murder

The 31 surviving passengers and crew members of a hijacked Kuwaiti airliner have regained their freedom after 16 days of terror even as their captors, literally getting away with murder, have been awarded their own freedom in exchange. No one concerned about the claims of justice can be happy with this trade-off, but probably no one either can doubt the pragmatic inevitability of the deal that was struck. Algeria, the final stop on the seized plane’s journey, clearly had no taste for using force to end the ordeal or any interest in the political woe that arresting the hijackers could have invited. In the circumstances, the arrangement it negotiated was the best to be expected.

If Algeria deserves polite thanks for its efforts, Kuwait has earned a round of international applause. As it has before, the small Persian Gulf state showed estimable moral courage and political steadfastness in refusing to give in to the hijackers’ demand. The terrorists wanted the release of 17 persons jailed in Kuwait since 1983 for attacks on American and French diplomatic offices. To put pressure on Kuwait the terrorists cold-bloodedly murdered two passengers while the plane was on the ground in Cyprus. As a further pressure tactic they claimed they were ready to martyr themselves by blowing up the plane with everyone aboard. When Kuwait stood firm, the terrorists decided that martyrdom could be postponed.

The hijacking thus failed in its objective, but that doesn’t mitigate the fact that it ought never to have come off in the first place. A lot remains to be explained about the security failure at Bangkok airport that permitted the hijackers to board the airliner either carrying weapons or--more likely--knowing that arms had been hidden for them aboard the plane. More immediately clearer is Iran’s complicity in the affair, with testimony from released passengers that at least one additional terrorist joined the others when the plane was on the ground at the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad, bringing with him more weapons. Iran has, of course, been identified with air terrorism before, though without suffering any consequences. Perhaps those countries that still maintain air links with Tehran will now think seriously about severing their connections with a sponsor of international air piracy.