Hijacking: Bound to Encourage Others

"There is a real danger that a new cycle of hijacking will start up again," warned a French security expert. Said a British foreign relations scholar: "The surrender is bound to encourage other terrorist groups." Concluded the Paris daily Le Monde: "The hijacking and its 'happy' outcome are heavy with menace."

Such widespread outcries of dismay and indignation were provoked by Syria's and Pakistan's apparent violation of the cardinal rule of international antiterrorism procedure: do not surrender to blackmail.

The spirit of this rule has found its way, to one extent or another,...