text: U. S. blasts release of convicted bomber. WASHINGTON 1996-12-05 
   The United States Thursday blasted the release from a Greek prison of a Palestinian guerrilla convicted of bombing an airliner and killing a teenager in 1982, saying the move " does not make sense. " 
   " All of us who have been victimised by terrorists. . . need to stand together against terrorists. We can't let terrorists out of jail when they are a danger to civilians all around the world, " State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said. ' 
   Mohammed Rashid " is a terrorist who deserves to be behind bars. It is inexplicable to us why he would have been allowed to leave Greece before serving his just sentence. . . This is an incomprehensible move. It does not make sense, " Burns told a news briefing. He spoke after Rashid left Greece Thursday on being freed from prison early for good behaviour after serving 8-1/2 years. The Clinton administration's strong views on this subject have been conveyed to the Greek government, Burns said. Mahammad Rashid was whisked from Korydallos maximum security prison just outside Athens to the airport where he boarded a regular Olympic Airways flight to Cairo where he would transit to Tunis and the former Palestine Liberation Organisation headquarters. Rashid, 46, was sentenced to 18 years in prison by a Greek court in 1992 after being convicted of premeditated murder in the mid-air bombing of a Pan American airliner in 1982. His sentence had been reduced to 15 years in 1993. A parole court ruled recently that Rashid could be freed after serving 8-1/2 years, with time in pre-trial detention counted towards his term, but said he must be expelled immediately from Greece. The United States accuses Rashid of belonging to the May 15 Palestinian guerrilla group and being an accomplished student of master Palestinian bombmaker Abu Ibrahim. Three FBI agents who testified against Rashid during the trial, held at Korydallos prison, said they had ample evidence against Rashid for a bomb planted on a Pan American plane in Brazil in 1982 and a mid-air bomb blast on a TWA airliner approaching Athens in 1986 which killed four U. S. citizens.
competitors: Cox Communications Danaher