Miles To Go Before I Sleep (40 page)

To this day, whether I'm in the shower or relaxing in the living room, I remember to thank my brain. I hold on to it and hug it and tell it how much I love it. I'm amazed and very thankful that the brain can heal so quickly after suffering such trauma. The brain is remarkably resilient. My memory is much stronger than it was during the first few years after the hijacking. I've trained myself to compensate for my vision impairment by putting bits and pieces together to form whole objects.

When we're going through tough times, gratitude is often the last thing on our minds. When we're overwhelmed by painful thoughts and feelings, it's easy to lose perspective, to focus only on the hardships immediately in front of us. That's when I need to give thanks for the good things in my life—for the progress I've made, for friends, a warm bed, or a hot meal.

IN JANUARY 1993, THE FBI LEARNED that Malta planned to release Rezaq from prison for “good behavior” in February, after he'd served seven years. There was speculation that Malta felt pressure from Libya to release the hijacker. No notice of these plans was given to the U.S. government or other interested nations.

The U.S. State Department declared that it was “shocked and angered” by Malta's action. In 1986, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on international security had called Rezaq a suspected member of the Abu Nidal organization, a PLO terrorist group. The panel said that Malta had assured the United States that Rezaq would remain in prison for a long, long time.

I thought the case was closed too. In November 1988, the hijacker had pleaded guilty to killing Scarlett Rogencamp and Nitzan Mendelson, and attempting to kill Patrick Scott Baker, Tamar Artzi, and myself. A Maltese judge had sentenced him to twenty-five years in prison.

The U.S. Justice Department, along with the governments of the other countries whose citizens were killed, urged Malta to keep the hijacker in custody. At the same time, Washington also began proceedings to extradite the hijacker to face additional charges in the United States. On February 12, 1993, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a warrant for Rezaq's arrest, but Malta released him before an arrest could be made. On learning of Rezaq's release, U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos introduced a resolution strongly condemning Malta for the action and requesting international cooperation in prosecuting him in the United States.

On July 16, 1993, FBI Special Agent Cindy Carter, now assigned to national security, called to let me know that the FBI had captured Rezaq in Nigeria and, at that very moment, were flying him to Washington, D.C.

Details of the arrest were sketchy. After Malta granted Rezaq amnesty, he was permitted to fly under an assumed name to Accra, Ghana on February 25, 1993. Again, Malta reportedly did not inform the United States of Rezaq's departure or travel plans. After the FBI agents found Rezaq, they bundled him aboard a jet to Washington, D.C. where he appeared before U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth. Since he'd already been convicted of murder and attempted murder, he would now be indicted on a single charge of air piracy. At the arraignment, prosecuters agreed not to ask for the death penalty. News reports speculated that this was done in exchange for the cooperation of several nations who assisted the United States in Rezaq's capture. If convicted of air piracy, he faces a possible sentence of twenty years to life.

Sandra Sonenberg, Rezaq's court-appointed lawyer, refused to enter a plea. The defendant is “not acceding to the court's jurisdiction” because Rezaq was seized abroad, she told the
New York Times.
Judge Lamberth entered a not-guilty plea in his behalf.

Rezaq, wearing orange prison overalls, listened closely at the defense table as an interpreter whispered a translation of the bail proceedings into his right ear.

Prosecutors said a fingerprint lifted from the inside of the cockpit window matches Rezaq's.

The arrest of Rezaq marked only the second time in history that the U.S. government acted under the provisions of a law passed by Congress in April 1986. There was a definite need to change the law as it was written. Terrorists knew that most countries, even those friendly to the United States, did not regard attacks on U.S. citizens abroad as a major problem.

After several presidential and congressional proposals, Congress passed a series of measures to try to deal with the problem. Two of the measures in particular, the Act for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Hostage Taking (“Hostage Taking Act”) and the Act for Prosecution of Terrorist Acts Abroad against United States Nationals (“Terrorist Prosecution Act”), extended federal criminal jurisdiction to foreigners abroad who took hostage or killed a U.S. national.

Before the new laws were passed, the FBI had authority to seize individuals involved in terrorist acts against U.S. citizens only if the victims were high-ranking government officials. The new legislation expanded that power to protect all U. S. citizens living or traveling abroad.

On August 2, 1993, Rezaq appeared in Judge Lamberth's courtroom for another pretrial hearing. Sandra Sonenberg, Rezaq's lawyer, told the court that she planned to file a motion to have the government's case dismissed. She argued that U.S. courts had no jurisdiction to hear the case and that Rezaq was essentially being tried twice for the same crime. She asked for more time to do “legal research and documentary investigation” to support her motion for dismissal of all criminal charges against her client. The judge granted her five weeks to prepare her case.

U.S. Justice Department prosecutors described Rezaq in court papers as “a terrorist and a cold-blooded killer who attempted to systematically execute five persons simply because” they were Americans and Israelis, noting that he “hummed and sang” as he pulled the trigger. “He had previously demonstrated his hatred for Americans and attempted to murder every American he came into contact with on EgyptAir Flight 648.” During the siege, court papers continued, Rezaq “made various demands, and, to emphasize them, attempted systematically to murder all of the Israeli and American passengers on board the airplane by shooting them in the head at pointblank range.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Valder said Rezaq should be denied bail because he has confessed to committing a violent crime and is likely to flee the country if freed. Lamberth granted the motion.

In October 1993, Rezaq appeared in court again to enter a plea of not guilty to a charge of air piracy. The proceeding was held in a special courtroom equipped with bulletproof glass in front of the spectators' section, and people entering had to pass through metal detectors. Pending a criminal trial, Rezaq is being held under heavy guard at an undisclosed location by the U.S. Marshals Service in Washington, D.C.

I had mixed feelings on hearing the news of the hijacker's release and capture. I was shocked that he could be released so soon. He personally murdered two women in cold blood, and his actions indirectly led to the deaths of fifty-eight additional men, women, and children. The hijacking really shook my basic trust in life. It forced me to confront the darkest side of human nature. For many years, I feared being attacked again.

Yet I also felt a strange detachment from his fate. Strange as it may sound, I don't hate him anymore. Though I feel he should be held legally responsible for his actions, I don't even wish him harm.

After years of bouncing back and forth between holding on to my pain and anger and letting it go, I've managed to truly forgive the hijackers. It took a lot of work for me to grieve the many losses I suffered from the hijacking. But I've let go of my bitterness and pain and moved on with my life. I've chosen to focus on the good things that came from the hijacking. God gave me many wonderful gifts as I became willing to walk through the pain of rebuilding my life.

I don't see myself as a victim anymore.

Reaching out to help others by sharing my story helped me a lot. At the beginning of all my speeches, I show a videotape that includes footage from the hijacking. I've seen it so many times over the past ten years, that I sometimes forget the terror of those grim hours on the tarmac.

Rezaq's trial in the United States was originally scheduled for January 1994. The month before, I remember feeling especially fearful. It was during a period when local television and newspaper reporters were devoting a lot of coverage to a string of rapes, muggings, and murders in the Minneapolis area. I had a gnawing fear of being raped or hurt.

The trial and crime wave reopened many of my feelings and wounds all over again. One day, in the process of writing this book, I went back and looked at some of the newspaper stories published right after the hijacking in
The Times
, a newspaper published in Valletta, Malta.

The stark black and white photos: a Greek man with bandages over both eyes; the grieving young man whose mother and sister—the Mexican actresses Guadelupe Palla de Ortiz De Pinedo, junior and senior—both died in the storming of the plane; a thin, gaunt Patrick Baker, shaken, but glad to be alive; and a truck loaded with coffins bound for St. Luke's Hospital. The photos were grim reminders of the tragedy.

The trial was delayed. In November 1994, I got another call from the prosecutors on the case. They wanted to fly Patrick Baker, Tony Lyons (an Australian businessman who survived the storming of the plane), and myself to Washington to identify the hijacker in a lineup. Prosecutors also wanted to talk to me more about the statements I had given when I was in Malta and since then.

I was nervous and a little scared. Over the years, I had identified the hijacker two or three times with pictures. But it had been about five years since I had last seen his picture. In the past, I had identified him from the FBI pictures by his eyes. So I thought, maybe I could still identify him by his eyes.

Days before leaving for Washington, I was really nervous.
Would I be able to pick Rezaq out? If I didn't pick him out, how would that damage the case?
The FBI kept saying that it doesn't matter if I picked him out. They reassured me that it was all going to be okay, but I knew that they wanted me to identify him.

The Sunday morning before flying to Washington, I met with my women's group. I told them about my upcoming trip and how nervous I was. They all agreed to pray for me during the time period when I was to be identifying the hijacker.

I flew to Washington the following Tuesday. An FBI agent picked me up at Washington National Airport and drove me to my hotel for an exciting reunion with Patrick Baker. I was most looking forward to this part of my trip. Though Patrick and I had talked on the phone several times over the years, I hadn't seen him since the hijacking—since sitting next to him on the plane, waiting to be shot.

That evening, I had dinner with Patrick. We shared what had taken place in our lives since the hijacking. Patrick said he came back from the hijacking and was able to get on with his life. I don't think it affected him like it affected me. However, he did say that he couldn't talk right and was shaking a lot for three months.