(New York, N.Y.) — Counter Extremism Project (CEP) CEO Ambassador Mark D. Wallace released the following statement regarding the U.S. Department of Justice indictment of six Hamas leaders—Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif (al Masri), Marwan Issa, Khaled Meshaal, and Ali Baraka—that was unsealed Tuesday September 3:
Not so long ago, the clearly understood policy of the United States was that we did not negotiate with terrorists—especially not the architects of the worst massacres against innocents including Americans. It was moreover a policy with strong bipartisan buy-in: President Obama took the just decision to eliminate Al-Qaeda’s propagandist-in-chief and U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki with a drone strike; few shed a tear when 9/11 orchestrator Osama bin Laden met his end at the hands of Navy SEALs in Pakistan under the same Administration; and President Trump was likewise correct in approving a strike targeting IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis of Kata’ib Hezbollah almost a decade later.
To be clear: the men and women of the U.S. Department of Justice and its agencies in law enforcement and litigation work tirelessly in what are often thankless and under-the-radar labors. But it is unclear what the unsealing of Tuesday’s indictment is trying to achieve in a concrete manner—and suggests a continuation of an unhelpful shift from earlier long-standing principles. There is only the remote possibility that one of the six, or others as yet unnamed, will be extradited to the United States from any of the countries in which they reside or may travel to, including NATO or major non-NATO (MNNA) allies, Turkey or Qatar. Recalling that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a 9/11 terrorist attack mastermind, has still yet to be tried more than 20 years after his capture, the notion that Yahya Sinwar et al will face trial is similarly far-fetched.
The timing of the unsealing, just weeks after the deaths of three of the six named defendants, including former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, also appears more political than of operational value. Israel bore the brunt of a great deal of criticism when Haniyeh was found dead in an IRGC-protected guesthouse in Tehran at the end of July. Unsealing charges against recently deceased terrorist leaders does not appear sufficiently sincere in the pursuit of justice.
The U.S. should revert to the bipartisan consensus in which the sworn enemies of America are pursued by all available means, such as was bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011.