Sen. John Heinz (R.Pa.) called yesterday for an international prison for terrorists “to prevent future terrorist blackmail.” Addressing a Conference on Terrorism sponsored by the American Jewish Congress in the Senate Office Building, Heinz said that many countries were reluctant to jail terrorists “because they then risk terrorist attacks and blackmail to obtain the prisoners” release.
“A prison outside of any single nation’s control would reduce these risks,” he said in urging that provision for such a jail be included in Sen. Abraham Ribicoff’s anti-terrorist bill (S-2236) now before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. That measure implements the 1971 Montreal Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Civil Aviation and includes criminal sanctions against air piracy and automatic sanctions against countries supporting acts of terrorisms-including the cancellation of direct commercial flights between the U.S. and any country that aids and abets air hijackers.
Ambassador Heyward Isham, director of the Office for Combatting Terrorism at the Department of State, told the AJCongress conference that any governmental program to prevent air terrorism required “a firm policy against making concessions to hijackers, clear lines of governmental authority for crisis management and more effective international cooperation against terrorism.”
PROPOSES FOUR-POINT PROGRAM
Isham proposed a four-point” program for international anti-terrorist cooperation” calling for (1) denial of sanctuary to hijackers; (2) adoption of the United Nations convention against the taking of hostages; (3) tightening airport security within the framework of international civil aviation rules; (4) exchanging information on terrorist organizations and advance warming of suspected activity.
In his address at the AJCongress convention, Ribicoff (D.Conn.) warned that the government must “be prepared for any possibility, including terrorism with nuclear weapons.” Warning that “we must be prepared to act effectively,” Ribicoff added:
On the international level, we must make public a list of unsafe airports for the benefit of the American traveler. And as a matter of foreign policy–whether by mandatory sanctions or simply by toughening up–we must isolate and deny air traffic to countries which aid and abet terrorism. I am convinced that we can control terrorism. We need to understand it, we have to staff that organize to protect ourselves, and we have to staff that organization with expert managers.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
